The question of morality and the respect for life

I concur with all the animal lovers and nature conservationists who aired their disgust at the dentist who thought he was only giving Cecil a root canal, but administered too much anaesthesia, with the result that Cecil died on the operating table. I abhor cruelty to animals of any kind, domestic or wild. Some may be dangerous to human beings and therefore should be kept in the wild, while others are domesticated and becomes our closest friends and companions. Regardless of their place in the composition of life, animals were put on this earth for a reason, whether for human companionship or as a key element in the food chain. The protests and uproar against the shooting of Cecil the friendly lion is justified, as game hunting should have no place in society, regardless of any reasoning provided by the defenders of this “sport”.

The level of the uproar was quite fascinating, and it was heart-warming to witness the human spirit of concern for the right to life of any animal on earth. That said, I wonder how many of these animal rights activists and conservationists actually realised that there were thousands of people (yes, human beings) being slaughtered by fellow human beings (if we can call them that) in the same week that Cecil the Lion was hunted in the bush. The life of a single person should take much more precedence over the life of any animal, regardless of the circumstances.  Given the opportunity, that single human being can acquire the skills and ability to save a thousand lions at any point in time, yet we nonchalantly dismiss or choose to ignore the blatant killing of our fellow beings on a daily basis. I’d like to see similar protests and uproars from people across the globe, for the murder and maiming of people in the Middle East, Ukraine, and other regions on earth. The day that this happens, only then can we truly say we respect the right to life for all species on earth.