I’m writing this with much pain in my heart!
FRANCIS XAVIER OFM
About a year ago, I was living in Mysore. I noticed a dead Jersey cow lying on the side of the road about 100 meters away from our campus. It was a fully-grown cow. the cow must have been about 8 or 10 years old. The stomach was fully bloated – un-proportional to its body size. The owner must have just dumped it on the roadside and driven off.
By next morning, I noticed that much of its flesh had been devoured by scavenging dogs and foxes. Many street dogs with full-stomach were lying nearby - resting after a huge meal. Two days later its body was full of maggots eating the remaining flesh. This feast went on for a few days. After a week I noticed the scavengers had even torn its skeleton and pieces of it were lying here and there.
What remained of that innocent cow was a huge pile of plastic waste! It would weigh not less than 10 kgs. Only then I understood that the cause of its death! The cow had eaten plastic while eating left-over food from bags. Cows and bulls do not know how to break open a plastic cover and to eat what is inside. They just swallow these left-over food packets. It occurred to me just then what would happen to several other cows and bulls that were always found near the city garbage-bins along the road rummaging through city’s garbage bin. Will not this be the end of all those cattle we see in the vicinity of markets, restaurants, roadside eateries? Certainly! Only that we do not know how their carcasses are disposed.
Whom to blame? Of course, the dairy farmer is guilty of throwing his dead cow on a public road. But he hasn’t killed it. He is guilty of using the cow only for obtaining its milk and when it is dead, he shoves it away with no gratitude or respect. But I’m guiltier than him for having played a part in killing that innocent animal. I too have disposed food waste or food materials plastic bags.
The first creation story in the Bible (Genesis 1:1-2:3) names human beings as masters of creation to rule over it while the second creation story (Genesis 2:4-10) assigns them as care-takers. Thus, we are to be accountable and responsible masters over creation. “Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another,” says Pope Francis in his encyclical ‘Laudato Si’” #42.
India is a spiritual country that worships cows; addresses them as Lakshmis (goddesses) or at least treats them as mothers. Let’s not dispose of food wastes in plastic bags and the slay innocent animals. An anonymous author has once said, “I respect animals more than people - we’re the ones messing up this world, not them.”
∎
