I was entering Mumbai city one afternoon on a torturous sunny day. The scorching heat was testing my patience. The vehicle I was traveling was air conditioned. However; it somehow could not beat the heat. All I could do was watch hoardings, signboards, and vehicles passing by or cruising ahead of us.
As I was trying to keep myself busy, a truck just ahead of our vehicle caught my gaze. I asked my friend to keep the pace such that we are just behind the truck, taking care that we don’t overtake it or lose it sight at any time. The truck carried a lot of cattle in it and it supposedly was heading to some slaughterhouse. I could guess that after taking a close look (as close as I could take) at the animals in the truck. Had been they taken for some constructive purpose they would not have been kept in such merciless conditions.
To my luck the truck driver decided to take a halt at one of the dhaba (roadside restaurant) on the highway and I asked my friend to take rest at the same dhaba. While my friend relaxed and the driver was having his snacks, I took a close look at the truck and the animals inside. It was a disastrous scene. Trust me; you need to see it, if you got to believe it. I saw cattle and livestock that included cows (among my favorite animal), buffaloes, bulls, and goats (in comparatively lesser quantity) that were kept in most cruel manner. The truck must surely have felt like hell for those animals. Tails chopped off, eyes sewed, and enclosure that was stinking with urine and dung – such was the condition of those poor dumb animals. My speculation was confirmed when the driver replied that the truck was headed to some slaughterhouse. I felt a pinch in my heart when I saw at those animals and the state that they were kept in. If only they could know that after spending hours in such ailing conditions, the next thing that would happen to them was getting chopped off so that their meat, skin, horns, bones are sold off.
I have enjoyed eating beef and mutton, especially the sheeg kababs with my friends and their relatives. However, the recent sight depressed and pained me a lot. I thought if these are the same animals that come to my plate to delight my appetite then I better don’t have them. I can’t be so inhuman that after seeing all that animal agony I can still rejoice the delicacies.
I don’t know about chicken and fish but after witnessing what I had seen, I instantly decided no matter how delicious or healthy the meat may be I will never in my life eat mutton, beef or any livestock meat. Also a thought very promptly flashed my mind - I can never take pleasure in eating flesh of cattle, whom my Lord Krishna entertained with his flute melody. Nothing emotional about it but what I had seen matters to me the most.
As I was trying to keep myself busy, a truck just ahead of our vehicle caught my gaze. I asked my friend to keep the pace such that we are just behind the truck, taking care that we don’t overtake it or lose it sight at any time. The truck carried a lot of cattle in it and it supposedly was heading to some slaughterhouse. I could guess that after taking a close look (as close as I could take) at the animals in the truck. Had been they taken for some constructive purpose they would not have been kept in such merciless conditions.
To my luck the truck driver decided to take a halt at one of the dhaba (roadside restaurant) on the highway and I asked my friend to take rest at the same dhaba. While my friend relaxed and the driver was having his snacks, I took a close look at the truck and the animals inside. It was a disastrous scene. Trust me; you need to see it, if you got to believe it. I saw cattle and livestock that included cows (among my favorite animal), buffaloes, bulls, and goats (in comparatively lesser quantity) that were kept in most cruel manner. The truck must surely have felt like hell for those animals. Tails chopped off, eyes sewed, and enclosure that was stinking with urine and dung – such was the condition of those poor dumb animals. My speculation was confirmed when the driver replied that the truck was headed to some slaughterhouse. I felt a pinch in my heart when I saw at those animals and the state that they were kept in. If only they could know that after spending hours in such ailing conditions, the next thing that would happen to them was getting chopped off so that their meat, skin, horns, bones are sold off.
I have enjoyed eating beef and mutton, especially the sheeg kababs with my friends and their relatives. However, the recent sight depressed and pained me a lot. I thought if these are the same animals that come to my plate to delight my appetite then I better don’t have them. I can’t be so inhuman that after seeing all that animal agony I can still rejoice the delicacies.
I don’t know about chicken and fish but after witnessing what I had seen, I instantly decided no matter how delicious or healthy the meat may be I will never in my life eat mutton, beef or any livestock meat. Also a thought very promptly flashed my mind - I can never take pleasure in eating flesh of cattle, whom my Lord Krishna entertained with his flute melody. Nothing emotional about it but what I had seen matters to me the most.
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Anitha.