Be a voice for the voiceless

Youth Movement  is a fan of

BETA - Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit. I’m only going to clip a can to your tail, throw you in benzene, put you on fire and laugh. Better yet, I’m going to throw chemicals on you until your skin burns and you become blind. I wouldn’t care if you scream, if you cry or if you beg for mercy. You don’t even know how to speak. You are only an underdog. You mean nothing to me. I see you, I kick you. But if you kick me first I would kill you with the help of many of my friends.

Slower death? I could starve you. No water, no food, in a cage day in and day out. You depend on me. I could be your friend one day and stab you in the back the other. Or I could be your friend by stabbing you in the back, but what can you do? You are not as strong as I am. I could attach you to my car and drag you miles away. I could beat you and never look back; you’d be all alone shedding blood, with broken bones, and in case I walk by again I’m sure you’d recognize me.
 

If so, what would be your reaction?

Do you think I’m a sadist?

If you don't want to be beaten, imprisoned, mutilated, killed or tortured, then you shouldn't condone such behavior towards any animal.

Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account?

I really wonder how people could look through an animal’s eyes and see a “what” not a “who”.

True they can’t speak, but they can manifest their pain through voices! Can’t you hear what they are telling you? If you can’t, look deep into the animal’s eyes and listen.

Animals have the purest spirits in the world. They don’t think about doing something barbaric to you. They just defend themselves when they are threatened.

You see a dog. Your kid wants to play with the dog. Of course you send your kid with your ‘maid’ and keep on drinking your coffee. Your kid throws rocks at the dog. The dog bites the kid. Your kid comes crying to you. Your husband and the whole neighborhood kill the dog.

Whose fault was it?

Somehow, we numb ourselves in order to get rich or to feel good about ourselves.

It could be recommended by some books that it is not a sin to kill defenseless animals, but it is carved in our hearts to have mercy on animals the same way we pity humans.

People in Lebanon are being very careless towards the nature that surrounds them. Animals and trees were here before us. YOU should give them respect, they don’t owe you anything, and in order to give respect you should respect yourself before us all.
  

I see dead animals everywhere on the highways and on the streets. I see 3 legged innocent creatures near the garbage with their little puppies thrown away! How could you throw the only loyal creature out on the streets?

If you pick up a starving dog and give him a home he will not bite you and that is the principal difference between a dog and a man -Mark Twain. Think about it and you’ll see he is right.

The faithfulness of a dog is a precious gift asking for no less necessary tasks than the friendship of a human. Animals don’t fake or hide their feelings. They just express it in an adorable way like jumping all over us and giving us little kisses over and over again to let us know how thankful they are.

I wake up to the sound of guns and birds falling. How could you call hunting a sport? It is not. The bird doesn’t know he’s in a game. When are you, especially Lebanese people, going to learn that it is not a question of strength, it is not a matter of submission, it is a matter of respect and compassion.

Cows and pigs are to farmers what dogs and cats are to you. So why look at some as friends, others as food?

I understand you think that meat is delicious, I thought that too. But there’s a story behind each steak you eat and it’s a bloody story. If only slaughterhouses had glass walls you would see a little white sheep looking at her sisters, brothers, mother dying, waiting to get killed as well. People kill without feelings, and worst of all, they kill childlike animals to celebrate a happy event such as a birth or a wedding because they consider it tradition. As for me, I don’t eat my friends. Would you eat yours?

Why do you think scientists experiment on animals? They say it’s because animals are like us. Why is it okay for scientists to test on animals? They say it’s because animals are not like us.

Are they? Or are they not?

They have blood vessels, veins, arteries, a brain, a central nervous system. They feel hunger, thirst, the need to urinate, the need to sleep. They suffer, they feel pain, and they show it through their screaming and crying. So don’t you think that a rat is a pig is a dog is a horse is an elephant is a boy?

Don’t you have respect for an ant that carries ten times her weight? Can you carry a car and walk a very long distance in order to eat in the winter?

Animals stand by each other. They know what true love is. They’re determined and defend each other. We humans have put up against our brothers through wars, genocides, holocausts…

Who is the one who should be respected here? Us or them? Be objective and try analyzing this question.
  

Arriving to the very important point of having ILLEGAL animals in Lebanon? I’m glad BETA and animals of Lebanon are improving some really horrifying situations with their great job or else Lebanon would have had many more babies out on the streets begging for homes.
  

But seriously? Lions, tigers and cubs for a circus? Do you know how they have been transported? I guess not because you only see the good side of it which is the perfect show and the children would see paradise and would love touching a cub.

But do you know what they did to the cub for your children to touch him? They pulled his nails off because they didn’t want him to harm your kids.

The lions and tigers that have been moved from Egypt through Jordan arriving to Lebanon were locked in cages in a truck and haven’t moved in 10 days! Felines do not belong behind bars. We ask ourselves how criminals could live in prison their whole lives. Why don’t we ask ourselves about the animals that are locked behind bars neglected and forgotten for years?

No one fed these poor creatures the last 3 days, and they had a show only 24 hours after arriving. Further than not being fed, it turns out the animals had been living in small cages for six months. Some of the lions were still bleeding and had infections.

The shame of the story is that Lebanon’s Agriculture Minister told Animals Lebanon representatives that the animals were healthy, for Lebanon does not have strong animal protection laws so he did not have the legal agenda to operate against the Monte Carlo Circus which had brought the animals to perform in Beirut for six months.

Why the word illegal in capital letters? Because the animals had no valid microchip paperwork. They had no health paperwork. The animal’s transport didn’t meet even basic standards. Every single step of the way what they did was illegal.

Now, if you had a gymnastics show in front of hundreds of people and you had your nails pulled off with lots of blood, didn’t eat for 3 days, locked in a cage for 10 days and beaten over and over again in order to ace the show, would you ace it?

That’s what I thought.
 

Lebanon should be ashamed. Only one law protects animals in Lebanon. If someone is caught mistreating an animal, she or he has to pay a fine of LL10,000 which is the equivalent of $6.

I believe that we not only shouldn’t underestimate animals, but we should overestimate them because they teach us more than we can ever teach them and they understand us more than we could ever imagine.

Respect, respect and respect those around you. They are the essence of life they are the pure ones not us. They are the innocent ones not us. They are the ones who show us love when we repulse them. They are the ones who show us affection when we let go of them. They are the ones who never stab us in the back. They are the ones who never tell.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. All things are connected.

The life spark in my eyes is in no way different than the life spark in the eyes of my dog.

Please, speak up for the ones who can’t.

Tatiana Saadé- March 5, 2010

       http://www.betalebanon.org/n_donate.asp