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Purushartha Siddhyupaya
83
A very cruel slaughter and on a very extensive scale, is committed in the name of municipal and national economy, for the preservation of health and property from pests. The wholesale destruction of stray dogs and of rats is horribly cruel. Widespread campaigns for the extermination of locusts were organised by Provincial Governments and Indian States, in which high salaried officers with high-sounding academic degrees obtained from Foreign Universities were engaged, and heavy allowances and retinues and expensive corps of subordinate officials were placed at their disposal, with costly appliances and apparatus. A local cess was imposed by Provincial Governments for this special purpose, and thus indirectly every person was made to contribute to and share in the commission of this horrible Himsâ. And it is not certain whether the value of the crops saved was less or greater than the amount of expenditure incurred in these big schemes. Again it is possible that statistics carefully made may prove to demonstration, that taking into consideration the vast extent of India as a whole, a flight of locusts which is an occasional visitation, is not such a dire distress as it is imagined to be. The locusts are ephemeral insects, they do not live long, the period during which they cause damage of crops is limited, and the extent of damage occasioned would not produce a famine of grain, or some such calamity in the country; and it inay also be possible that the excrement and dead bodies of locusts dying may prove fertilising agents and the next crops may more than compensate the damage. If man is careful and industrious enough, no pests will cause any such damage as is insufferable or very significant.
Himsâ, again, is committed on an extensive scale in the name of science for the avowed benefit of mankind. Vivisection is extolled as a virtue because it is pursued by eminent scientists and under the patronage of the Government of many countries. But if truth had its way, it should be declared to be a crime. The preparation of vaccination lymphs causes such amount of pain and agony to a young and healthy calf that a person, whose heart retains its natural tenderness and has not been hardened by the continued callous practice, can hardly endure its sight.
The Abolitionist of London says: "Let us leave no stone unturned during 1932 to abolish this horrible practice of torturing sentient creatures for our supposed benefit. In Austria, vivisection institutions have been permitted only in Vienna, Graz, Styrea, Innsbruck and Tyrol. And even there, vivisection merely for the purpose of illustrating physiological processes is absolutely forbidden. And in cases where it is allowed, the lowest species of animals must be used, and only under anæsthetics. In a Vivisection Laboratory is a book which gives 30 instances of the horrible experiments done in the name of science, by persons held in high esteem, who have received honours and rewards. Dr. Carrel and Dr. Banting, Nobel Prize recipients, cut out the organs of the body and kept the animals alive as long as possible. Sir John Rose Bradford cut out the kidney of fox terriers piece
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