'Miracles don't happen'

Writing in the Animal Rights Blog, Kenneth Cassar discusses recent events and says 'animals are unique individuals':

Kenneth Zammit Tabona writes an article in today's The Times which deals on the recent spate of illegal hunting (and shooting in the face of a ranger), and the recent abduction of non-human animals from Razzett tal-Hbiberija. I have already given my opinion on most of the article's contents in my previous blog entries, so I will limit myself on commenting on things that were not mentioned previously by other correspondents.

Mr Zammit Tabona writes: "Let me once again make myself clear. I am against illegal and not legal hunting, however if abuse is allowed to happen unchecked I am afraid that it will be inevitable that the entire hunting community will be tarred with the same brush". Unfortunately, Mr Zammit Tabona fails to recognize that all hunting is abuse, irrespective of whether it is legal or not, for the simple fact that hunting unnecessarily deprives life to sentient animals who have a right to live. I doubt that Mr Zammit Tabona would condone the shooting of stray dogs if the practice was made legal. Most probably he would feel outraged. Now, what makes the shooting of a stray dog cruel and the shooting of an equally sentient bird not?

In this case, both animals do not form part of what some environmentalists call "endangered species". What makes the shooting of dogs clearly wrong is that, apart from bringing upon the dog unnecessary suffering, it deprives the dog of his life. What makes it any different in the case of a "common" bird? And what makes it any different in the case of a cow, pig, chicken, etc, for that matter? All unnecessary killing is abuse..

First of all, to say that "man must respect them (non-human animals) and use them in a sustainable way" is self-contradictory. To use any individual without consent, especially if one kills someone else simply because there are several others of the victim's kind, is to treat that someone as a replaceable object. Every animal is a unique individual. To treat someone as an object, and treat that someone according to the arbitrary value you place on him or her, is to treat that someone disrespectfully. Each animal values his or her life, and that's all that should matter. If "man" must respect non-human animals, then "man" should not use non-human animals as if they were replaceable objects...