Humans’ Enduring Love and Compassion for Domestic Animals

“Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angle from your doors”
--- William Blake, English Poet

Legend has it, after a long-way freefall from the doors of heaven, with fig-leaf woven mundane sartorial, Eve landed in the Arab land and Adam in the Adam's peak in Sri Lanka where his footprint on a huge stone tablet still attracts thousands of tourists who venture to ascend to the height of the peak. After a hundred years of desolation with excruciating pains of separation from each other, the parents of the human race were at last forgiven by the Lord and were made to reunite in the earth. Legend further says that by divine order, Adam and Eve were gifted with a pair of bullocks for ploughing the virgin land of this world for growing grains and other necessities of life. Having not yet tamed and domesticated for the purpose, the defiant bullocks who were believed to have had then the power of speech like humans, as myths and fables tell, inwardly felt their deep humiliation and consequently became argumentative with sarcasm and unkind words for Adam & Eve for their (Adam &. Eve) being punished and thrown out from the eternal comfort of the Eden to the earth of dust. The Lord watched the humiliation in impished smiles of His 'crown of creation' by a pair of defiant bullocks in such abominable manner. By His Will, the Lord ceased the power of speech of the recalcitrant bullocks and reduced them to sound only 'hamba' generation wise till the dooms day as the myths further say. Cessation of the power of speech like human by divine order, transformed the bullocks into 'go bechara' (poor &. innocent cow) drew empathy to Adam & Eve for the bullocks who gradually over the time became dear and useful members of the house-hold of the human race. Relationship between cows and humans based on love and compassion for each other became inseparable and since then has been carrying till today.

With rural people engaged in agriculture, cows are no less than the members of the village household for all intents and purposes. Humans are seen to share their joy and sorrow with the cows that by their natural instinct understand the languages of their owners and respond like humans. They seldom forget the locations of their owner's homestead and return in the twilight after grazing daylong in the pasture lands even at the distant places. After a blissful sleep at night, domestic cows rise at the break of dawn and proceed to the field for work with their masters. Love and affection between humans and the cows develops in such a scale that sometimes it avidly reflects in human conduct while rearing the cows with hugs and tender-touches with cleaning the cow with utmost care like humans. To contain the cruel reality of life, poverty stricken rural people sometime sell their house-hold livestock for money and when the occasion comes to hand over his dear cows to a new owner, it gives rise to a heartrending scenario with the owner shedding tears profusely with hugs and kisses to his dear cow saying goodbye to him when he slowly walks away with moist eye's for the new destination permanently from his owner's homestead where he was reared and nurtured with enduring love and compassion. Similar scenario depicting outburst of emotion at the time of handing over the ownership, are often observed in the Qurbani cattle-market where the domestic animals are brought for sale with garlands and bells around their necks. The buyers in the Qurbani cattle market boasts with their purchase of a healthy and beautiful cow and go back to their home trailing behind the cow in galloping speed with cow's tail strongly gripped in hand demonstrating a funny and comical scenario in the street to the pleasure of onlookers with giggles and laughter. The buyers feed the newly purchased cows of Qurbani by their own hands displaying all out ephemeral love and affection before sacrifice.

In my days of youth, I was equally touched with emotion when I saw a house-hold big-sized goat with long dangling ears used to follow my every steps of movement in our green lawn with tender bleating call. The goat used to seat close to me in the green lawn with tender look at me which created profound love and affection for him in my mind. He used to seat at my foot and would munch and ruminate over his consumed fodder for digestion like a man blissfully munching a betel leaf (Paan) in his leisure. Alas! In one social occasion of gastronomical feat, along with other purchased goats, he was also put in row for slaughtering. Sensing the impending danger, the favorite goat bleated and gave a tender look at me possibly for help. Before I could make an attempt to come forward to his help, he was slaughtered by a butcher's knife thus silencing his last call of bleating for help. His last call of bleating still resonates in my ears. His tender and innocent look at me etched in my eyes that still resurface again and again in my fast fading out memory.

Great literary genius Sharat Chandra Chottopadhay's classic short-story Mohesh reveals a captivating episode of love for Mohesh - the cow in the family of Gofur - the farmer of Kashipur village in rural Bengal living with his ten years old daughter Amina. The story carries the reader to such a height of imagination through every sequence of the episode with high emotion how a farmer named Gofur gripped in extreme poverty was deeply engrossed with love and affection of Mohesh - the cow, in the day to day life. Sharat Babu articulately portrayed the emotion, thrills and fear reeling in the mind of Gofur for Mohesh starving without a morsel of grass. Like a skilled skipper, Sharat Babu navigated the story to the climax of high emotion with making a tragic end. In one fateful mid- day sweltering summer heat, out of unbearable hunger and thirst, Mohesh trespassed the garden of Jamindar Shibcharan Babu thus consequently putting Gofur into deep humiliation and subjected to physical assault and torture of Jamindar. Having failed to control his outrage and fury, on return home, Gofur struck the head of ill health and rickety Mohesh by the handle of the plough when Mohesh was soaking in, a little leftover water rolling down from the broken clay-made pitcher of Amina like the water thirsty desert-sands soak water for quenching thirst. The poor Mohesh could not bear the brunt of the strike and instantly fell to the ground and breathed his last after extending and thrashing his hind legs to the astonishment and unbearable grief of Gofur and Amina. Totally shattered and heartbroken, with his daughter Amina in hand, Gofur left the homestead in the silence of night with shedding a stream of tears and requiem for Mohesh for unknown destination living behind the last remnant of belongings----a bronze rice-plate and a water-pot for his expiation of sin of Mohesh's death. The story etched a deep mark of emotion in the minds of the discerning readers to investigate into the depth of emotion, love and compassion for Mohesh----a domestic animal by a human.

Story of Mohesh rightly manifests an account of pristine love and affection for a domestic animal by a human whose imagination aptly placed a domestic animal in the position of his loving son and inseparable family members with shared joy and sorrow of life. Despite his inexplicable never ending poverty and hunger, Gofur did not sell the cow for money that he was offered at time by the butchers of the neighborhood.

Paradoxically, at this point, I am asking myself a million dollar question how long this love and affection for domestic animals last in the ever flickering human mindset of the changed world? Necessities of life know no bound. A new phrase named doctrine of necessity is now adapted and widely spoken in the vocabulary of the contemporary world. When inborn cruelty in human trait is surfaced like a sleeping monster, men go wild in slaughtering their fellow humans in the false pretext of so called doctrine of necessities and pre-emptive attacks. Domestic animals so long nurtured and nourished with tender care and feeling sometimes go under the edge of a sharp knife in the noble cause (!!) of preserving the 'Crown of creation'- the humans. At times dear domestic animals are hauled up cruelly, tied-roped and grounded with brutal force for slaughtering by the butchers in full view of the owner. The poor gullible animal does not realize that his life is coming to an end soon and still keeps looking at his owner with appealing pale eyes for compassion till such time a butcher's sharp knife runs over back and forth slitting his throat with spilling all life bloods. On death, when bloods run out from his body, the animal exposes and holds his tongue under the strong grip of his teeth to express, in growling sound, perhaps his wonders how terribly he is betrayed by human who had once loved him with all emotions and tender feelings.

In spite of the fact that cruelty to domestic animals takes place on certain occasions with the pretext of doctrine of necessity, yet the lasting love for domestic animals never exhaust in human psyche because of the fact that humans are endowed with rare combination of animality and rationality where rationality must triumph over animality in order to secure strongly the divine attribute 'Ashraful Mokhlukat'- crown of the creation that men wear as the gifted feather in the crown under a divine providence.Domestic animals like sacrificed-cows serve human in every walk of life in this world, nevertheless, diligently serve the faithful human in the afterworld by letting human ride on their back toward crossing ‘Pool Seraat’-- a divine bridge connecting heaven in the after world, as legend has it further.


Mahbubar Rahman is a freedom
fighter and a former civil servant
of Bangladesh government.