HOW IT BEGINS:
It started when I read a headline. It makes me overwhelmed and upset up until now. It keeps playing in my head even when I read the headline only. I am quite shocked about the news which a soldier shooting a cat. I felt utterly disturbing and disgusting.
WHAT’S ON MY MIND:
Have you as a pet parent in Indonesia wonder why animal abuse keep happening in this country?
REASONING:
I have come to two reasons why it happens as:
1. Some Indonesian don't see animals as living creatures just some product to fill up our needs. So that, we can harm the as we want, basically anything to them.
2. In the case where the soldier killed the cats, it may be related to the unexistence of particular law regarding animals or animal-right law.
WHAT I FOUND:
I have found that Indonesia does not have a policy related to stray animals at all. Compare to South Korea, the country does have a policy regarding stray animals as follows:
"Local governments are also responsible for the rescue and care of animals in their jurisdiction and as such have the same duty of care towards those animals, i.e. lost or abandoned animals, as animal owners. They are also responsible for building care centres for the care of animals."
As in Turkiye, the country has more progressive laws as follows
"It is prohibited to kill these animals except where permitted by the Animal Health Police Law. They are required to be taken to animal shelters established or permitted by the local authorities."Â
In addition, Turkiye has passed the bill in 2021 regarding animal rights as one of the progressive legislations nowadays. According to the bill :
1. The sale of cats and dogs by pet shops will be banned, as such shops are "not suitable for animal health and ethology."
2. Animal circuses, water circuses and dolphin parks will also be prohibited.
3. Cat and dog owners will be required to have digital IDs or registration and will face fines if they abandon their pets.
MY EXPECTION OR MAYBE YOURS TOO:
I hope that our government and legislative starts to show some care to animals especially for ownerless animal. I hope it will be like the two countries mentioned before that the law see animal as living creature that we must protect. They do have rights to be protected.
I expect that our government will have programs such as establishing animal shelters, creating animal IDs, and bundling our healthcare system with our pet companions. It sounds extreme and unthinkable at first but just like the concept of the Overton windows, if you want to change what people think of as acceptable, you must starting with proposing unthinkable idea and forcing those who resist think that less-radical ideas seem more acceptable by comparison. So if we want to stop reading a headline or a news about animal cruelty, we have to start to think unimaginable.
If you are interested in animal protection law, you can visit this website : https://api.worldanimalprotection.org
