IT'S ALL ABOUT LAXMI........

While browsing through the newspaper today….with all the assorted news like…….*a loony mother sacrificing her son for a pot of gold* and *a loonier person slaughtering an entire family of relatives…all seven of them*……there was this news about an aging paralytic leopard in a Bombay zoo……(link)…..

This female leopard has lived a full life of 19 years and has multiple problems……..and the veterinarians at the zoo had decided to put the leopard to sleep…..but the municipal corporation of the city…being such a spineless organization….as it is……decided to stall the process of mercy-killing to prevent all the flak from all the animal activists and the public…….

Now I do not have any particular comment on the mercy-killing and the role lame-ass role of the BMC (the municipal corporation of Mumbai)……though I do opine that if carefully thought by experts mercy-killing in animals should be allowed….and it cannot be equated with euthanasia……..what came in the news today was not something I approve of……

One of the leading Indian industrialist and philanthropist, Mr. Ratan Tata……apparently read the plight of the poor leopard and decided to save the feline…….

And the paper says that he is going to sponsor a consultation from a few top-notch South- African vets…and for that they will be flown in all the way from South-Africa…..

So this is going to be an expensive affair to save this ailing cat……

Now it is not only the cat that is ailing….the entire Zoo has been ailing for quite a while…..the zoo does not have adequate facilities for housing the animals and there is a complete lack of trained personnel to take care of whatever few animals and birds that are left there……

The cages the animals and the birds are housed in are eons old and the zoo does not have adequate funds to repair the cages and make them animal-friendly….. the animals and the birds not only have multiple diseases but quite a few of them recently died prematurely……(due to some kind of dog attacks)……..

So in this kind of scenario…..where funds are inadequate and can be utilized for some other activities……which will benefit young and healthy animals and birds….is it fair to spend an absurd amount of money on an ailing, old, leopard who with the best medical treatment will live maximum for a few more years???

Of course, it is Mr. Tata’s money and he can use it as he wishes and even burn it if he wants to……but shouldn’t he help the young live stronger than the dying slightly longer????