[su_spoiler title=”HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.” open=”yes” style=”fancy” icon=”arrow-circle-1″]
Thank you for visiting our animal defence section. Before reading our main essay, please join us in a moment of compassion and reflection.
The wheels of business and human food compulsions are implacable and totally lacking in compassion. This is a downed cow, badly hurt, but still being dragged to slaughter. Click on this image to fully appreciate this horror repeated millions of times every day around the world. With plentiful non-animal meat substitutes that fool the palate, there is no longer reason for this senseless suffering. Meat consumption is a serious ecoanimal crime. The tyranny of the palate must be broken. Please consider changing your habits in this regard.
A DISPATCH FROM WILDLIFE SOS
[su_dropcap style=”light” size=”5″]O[/su_dropcap]ur journey with Mohan started long before he arrived at the Elephant Conservation and Care Center. For more than a year, his hunched figure, weak and emaciated, had been in the middle of our most complicated and controversial rescue operations — and the fierce legal battle that accompanied them. After a volatile mob thwarted our first rescue attempt, repeated delays pushed back a second one even as the informants we’d deployed to keep an eye on him sent images of a gradually deteriorating elephant that left us all increasingly alarmed with every passing day. The newspapers began to call Mohan “the world’s unluckiest elephant,” and as hard as we were willing to fight for his freedom, it really did feel like fate had dealt him the cruelest of hands. Five decades of loneliness and abuse after being snatched from his herd and a life of freedom, Mohan’s life of horror seemed like the cruelest of jokes.
By the time we had the legal paperwork to undertake another rescue attempt, we were afraid he wouldn’t survive the rescue and the journey home — this magnificent being reduced to a defeated shell of an elephant. But we proceeded, fearing the alternative was worse. It was the stroke of midnight on the 22nd of September 2016, when Mohan gingerly boarded the Wildlife SOS elephant ambulance. The entire rescue team, hearts racing and absolutely silent, could suddenly breathe again, smiles impossible to control. It seemed as if things were finally looking up for the world’s unluckiest elephant.
[su_pullquote]The sad fact is that all of Mohan’s life, it truly hasn’t been “luck” that failed him. It’s been people. Captivity and cruelty and the sort of abuse that Mohan endured his entire life had more to do with human greed and selfishness than anything else.[/su_pullquote]
These are the moments from Mohan’s life we’d like to look back on and remember him by: Bewildered but relaxed in the ambulance by moonlight, surrounded by a smiling rescue team, on his way to a better place. His first steps into the rescue center, the entire team waiting for him — in fact, beaming up at him as he tentatively made his way into his new home. His first walk at the center, fascinated by the sensation of grass and mud under his feet, and his utter joy in being able to scratch himself on a tree or toss cool mud all over himself. When Mohan was introduced to our young bull elephant Wally while out on a walk, he seemed reserved, almost wary, at first. But Wally’s exuberance and excitement at meeting a new friend put Mohan at ease, and he walked beside the young elephant, occasionally linking trunks with him and rumbling at him.
Mohan’s interaction with everyone around him, his pleasant surprise at the sensation of his curious outstretched trunk being met with reassuring hands and cajoling voices, left us all in awe of this massive bull elephant’s gentleness. For everything that human beings had done to him, Mohan was not vengeful. The bonds he developed with the staff were always defined by their calmness: Mohan listening patiently as his keeper talked to him while out on a walk, Mohan calm and cooperative as the veterinarians carried out the treatment routines that we hoped would heal the hurt humans had caused him thus far. He was a wonderful elephant to be around, his aura of gentle strength pervading anyone who had the absolute honor of being in his presence. We want to remember Mohan as he stood enjoying the drizzle of the rain on his body, and as he strolled carefree on his walks.
We want to remember Mohan resting his large head against the small human frame of his keeper during quieter moments of introspection and bonding, alongside memories of him lying perfectly still in his pool with the cool calm water engulfing his massive frame. We want to remember moments where he was at peace with the world.
This last month, luck dealt Mohan its final blow. As the abuse he faced his entire life caught up with him, a hairline fracture in his limb escalated into something more serious, his bones and his entire body too weak to combat the injuries.
We were determined to fight on for him, knowing in our hearts that he deserved a chance at a better life, and hoping against all odds that we could help him recover. But today, Mohan let us know that he couldn’t fight any longer, passing away quietly amidst all the concerned and loving faces of the Wildlife SOS staff that has stood by his side unwavering through his ordeal.
The sad fact is that all of Mohan’s life, it truly hasn’t been “luck” that failed him. It’s been people. Captivity and cruelty and the sort of abuse that Mohan endured his entire life had more to do with human greed and selfishness than anything else. Even as we look back on our happier times with Mohan and remember him for the kind, resilient spirit he was, we must also remember what he represented, and the lessons we need to take from his life — that it is up to us as human beings to fight on for him even though he is gone, to never give up on him, and to honor the memory of this majestic bull by doing everything we can to undo the wrongs our race has inflicted upon his magnificent brothers and sisters, until we live in a world free of the cruelty that enslaved him.
It’s the least we can do. Rest in peace, dear friend. [/su_spoiler]
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2 comments
What a magnificent tribute to Mohan, who endured a life of suffering and pain, and to WildLifeSOS India, who refused to give up on him and made the last year of his life worth living: filled with care for his body & soul, so that he died knowing the touch of kindness.
WildlifeSOS INDIA is based in India, where the ethic of ahimsa (non-violence to any living being) guides the view of animals. Despite the existence of cruelty in India, as there is any nation, the potential to rescue and protect animals far exceeds that of the west, where judeo.christian dominion mandate the divine right to slaughter and exploit animals:
Genesis 9:1-3 “The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
When elephants were presumably retired from The Ringling Bros Circus in the US, this gesture was celebrated as a victory. Far from it. Due to the genesis mandate, the elephants were recycled as vivisection subjects in pediatric cancer studies. So now rather than being brutally beaten into submission, they are being administered carcinogens, to determine which will result in cancer. The rescues in dominion nations are for the most part a sham, a token to create an illusion of compassion, where there is none, in order to prevent a mass exodus from cruel religions that sanction violence to animals.
Thank you GP, for this beautiful posting about the life of Mohan and the people who have dedicated their lives to rescuing and protecting each and every animal: with integrity, dignity and respect.
With regard to the editorial on the killing of billions of food animals, there is one pocket of hope in Palatina, Gujarat, India. In the greater Palatina are, more than 250 slaughter houses have been shut down, for the slaughter of any animal is prohibited… Palatina is an important center for the Jain Community, which has lived a cruelty free lifestyle for millennia, based on the cardinal principle of Jainism: AHIMSA – non-violence to any living being.
In the west, and all nations other than India, there is no force strong enough to teach empathy for animals slaughtered for their flesh and other body parts… In the west it is the judeo.christian ethic of dominion that lurks beneath all the horrific violence that animals face in a dominion nation.
There is an assumption that if shock photos & videos of slaughter gone awry will lead to greater awareness and an end to slaughter… It is not possible to shock into empathy , so long as the dominion mandate:
Genesis 9:1-3 “The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.”
remains sacred, these attempts lead right back to slaughter, made more palatable with the illusion of humane meat: animals raised lovingly in idyllic surroundings, who have their throats slit with one deft cut. In reality this final act of betrayal destroys a life and causes pain and fear, as the animal struggles to keep his precious life.
If AHIMSA, rather than dominion, were the prevailing ethic, there would be no such deception, for in the Jain-AHIMSA tradition, every life has inherent value all slaughter is rightly viewed as murder:
“For there is nothing inaccessible for death.
All beings are fond of life, hate pain, like pleasure,
shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life
is dear.” Jain Acharanga Sutra.
“Those who eat the meat of other living beings in order to satisfy their own flesh, they are definitely murderers themselves, since without a consumer there can be no killer. Hemchandra, Jain monk
Where dominion is the prevailing ethic it becomes necessary to coax meat eaters to abstain with all kinds of concoctions that resemble meat, are expensive, highly processed, with little or no nutritional value… At a local vegetarian fast food restaurant it is possible to get a meat ball ‘Impossible Burger’ sandwich for $12.83. This leaves out those who can only afford a ‘big mac’.
Impossible burger was created in a lab… derived from meat protein, it contains egg & cheese, which is hardly ethical.
At my local Jain Center we do not need ‘impossible meat’, instead the healthy Jain diet consists of lentils, dal, vegetables, beans, grains, spices and fruit in their unprocessed state. It is understood that no substitute is needed for meat. In fact many Jains avoid food items that resemble meat, because it is a reminder of the violence of slaughter.
The bottomline, then is if slaughter must be preserved at all costs, as it is by the judeo.christian tradition, it is necessary to coax with processed substitutes, that are neither as healthy or tasty as meat. It was easy for me to give up meat once I understood the suffering it causes, even if meat was tasty I did not need high priced alternatives. With AHIMSA, a simple bowl of well season dal with some chapati and rice is cause for celebration.