August 19 is commemorated as World Humanitarian Day. But the question is: Is humanity confined to humans only? Shouldn't we go beyond humans and extend our humane behaviour to our mute and vulnerable friends, animals, as well? Dignity is not just a prerogative of humans. It's also an unalienable right of all creatures, big or small, created by nature. Here the issue is not getting into the eternal ethical conundrum of whether one should eat meat or not. It deals with the dignity of animals, nonchalantly devoured and destroyed by humans. Showing a humanitarian attitude and approach to all and sundry is the cardinal objective of World Humanitarian Day.

An American biologist wrote for The Reader's Digest, Canada edition, in 1973 that when poultry birds, cows, pigs, lambs, etc., are herded into one place and led to the abattoir, they sense that they're being taken to be slaughtered. They cry and beg in their language to be left unharmed. But to no avail.

Nowadays, in relatively civilised countries, poultry birds are not herded together like crammed sardines, and when a bird is killed for its flesh, other birds don't get to see the gory spectacle. The same is the case with bigger animals reared for their flesh. This is what one can call ‘the minimum vestige of dignity assigned to a helpless animal’.

But in India and Southeast Asian countries, birds are cut, dressed and devoured in the presence of other........

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