Some
pets, especially the cats and dogs, alike in the western households eat better
than homeless people driven out of the world’s trouble-spots, claimed earlier
by the scientists sometime back in one of issues of a medical journal, the
Lancet. The pet food is more nutritious in vitamins and minerals than typical
rations given by relief workers to refugees as claimed by these researchers to
the journal.
These
scientists, further claimed that the experiments carried out by them have shown
that the pet food eaten by cats and dogs contain more Riboflavin, Niacin,
Vitamin A and Iron than the same quality of a typical refugee ration. In fact,
this is not the situation in the Western countries only but it is a global
phenomena that pets get nice treatment besides love and sympathy even from
those who do not keep them.
History
Man
always feels concerned about animals probably due to their old association. This
is rather an outcome of some animal’s role which has been immensely
instrumental and helpful in building up the human civilization. Man’s
association and close contact with animals has developed a personal
relationship between them. The human behavior to-wards animals remind us about
their association which nobody knows how old it is. However, the archaeologists
say that the dog had already been tamed by man about eight thousand years back
in the city of Jericho, Jordan. Some claim, it dates back to about eleven
thousand years. 
As
a matter of fact, the dog helped man in hunting with his keen sense of smell to
locate the prey which man used to kill with the spears. Dogs later on helped
man to herd goats which hints that the goats were also tamed then. Thus, the
man and dog had enough time to live together which ultimately developed into a
strong friendship or partnership possibly for mutual interests. A long time ago
man herded the reindeer that lived in northern Europe and Asia when the climate
was colder there than it is now. This
association made available the meat for food and skin for clothing. Man did not
tame pigs unless he became a settled farmer because pigs are very independent
animals, therefore, quite difficult to drive. However, man kept rearing sheep,
goats and dogs. 
This
broadly explains that the man and animals have been very cordial and friendly
to each other from centuries together. Man has always provided food, wear and
shelter to the animals and all the time taken proper care of them. Whenever an
animal is in trouble the human beings have come to its rescue. There have been
thousands of incidents but the widely
witness two historical incidents, which occurred somewhere in during 1993-94, explain
to us how sincere man is to animals leaving aside certain exceptions.
Major Incidents
Doffel,
the Dachshund pet of Ms Maggie Zaget after chasing a rabbit between the rocks
got trapped into its barrow in early 1994 in the eastern natal province of
Johannesburg, South Africa. The workers at the Ms Maggie Zaget’s farm heard
whines and whimpering sounds coming from a hole. The workers continuously dug
for several hours an eighteen feet tunnel to reach the Doffel.
Eventually,
on getting close to Doffel a worker succeeded to tie a wire around the pet’s
foot and pulled him out of the rocky burrow which relieved Doffel luckily in a
good health to see the light again after eight days.
Similarly,
once in 1993 everybody was desperately trying to remove those trapped or buried
in the rubble caused by the explosion in Naya Bazar, Delhi when someone heard a
dog’s whine. The rescuers immediately looked around to locate the animal. The
dog was trapped under the debris with one huge slab on his neck and another on
his hip thus making the pet immobile. The slabs were removed by the rescuers
and the pet was taken out successfully.
One
of the rescuers noticed that the pet had a gash in the neck and writhing in
pain. The others could not tolerate the pet’s agony, when one among them
offered his services to take the pet to the hospital for necessary first-aid and
treatment. Another offered to foot the bill. The pet was taken to the hospital
where he was given treatment for his injuries.
The
Gulf War in 1990 brought enormous amount of devastation all around the involved
states and it did a tremendous damage to the environment killing hundreds of
millions birds and species. But the environmentalists, volunteers and those who
care for environment came forward and rescued about 200 birds besides turtles
and other animals from various shores, the death trap of oil slick without
caring for their own lives.
Everlasting Relationship
These
incidents widely demonstrate that human beings have lots of feelings, love,
pain and sympathy for dumb and helpless animals. Such situations have come in
the past and will continue to happen in the days to come. The man and animal
relationship will continue to flourish because man understands that from the
day he started to domesticate animals this association brought tremendous
transformation in his living style. 
Today,
some keep these animals for domestic use, a companion for old age, children’s
liking for puppies, as safeguard against insecurity and commercialization in
the pet trade or for the craze in competitive society which has further
developed the relationship of canaries, cats, dogs, finches, monkeys,
parakeets, skunks, turtles and other cage birds. In fact, we are indebted to
animals from centuries and even toady they live for us and keep on offering
themselves for the benefit of man predominantly in medical research.
Thought of the day
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated"
Mahatma Gandhi
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