If Animals Could Talk
Have you ever seen a pig eat its child, I mean its piglets? Let me tell you something about piglets. When delivered newly, they are so fresh and cute you wonder why many people don’t use piglets as pets. But hey, some people do. The sow gets very aggressive when hungry. A pig doesn’t remember who fed it for decades when it gets hungry. It could even leap at when you are sluggish in depositing its food.
When you see the body of a piglet half stuck in its mother’s mouth as she chews the head, your mouth is bound to drop. Shortly after, the whole body of the tiny cute piglets disappears. The shrieks from the remaining litter are frightening because they know they are next. This can happen a day or two after delivery? Ah, what happened to the bond? Piglets are normally separated from the pens of the sows after suckling and if the pig farmers. notice the sow is getting aggressive.
Horses are elegant animals. They are intelligent and strong. When you study the profile of a horse from behind, slightly to the right or the left, with the long frame of the neck in full view, you will notice the beauty of this animal. If you have ever seen a wounded horse, you are bound to feel pity for this animal. Ranchers who operate horse races know the value of a healthy horse. Remember the opening scene in the Peaky Blinders?
There must be a reason why horses were used for transportation in the past before the advent of cars. They weren’t just used by soldiers in the old frontier, but outlaws, lawmen, and cowboys. Royalties also used horses with carriages attached behind, because this animal moves with grace. Does it surprise you that some women make love to horses? This animal serves humans but understands humans possess lots of manipulative traits. Equus. At a point, you will notice that although you can take a horse to a river, you can never force it to drink.
A dog has been a companion to man for ages. A dog is loyal. A dog can perceive smells and sounds faster than human beings. They can also run. A dog cherishes the care and attention of the owner. It wiggles its tail when it is happy. A dog can perceive death some slight seconds before it kills the owner. Because dogs cannot talk, human beings must learn to master their behaviors. The experiment for conditioning and reinforcement by Pavlov’s dog opened the floodlights into the understanding of human psychology.
Time and time again, gorillas and chimpanzees have proved that they understand the similarities between their species and ours. They understand how closely related we are. Remember, the story of that gorilla who saved a child? A human being can easily live with these primates. A popular doctor who even worked with Louis Pasteur recorded how he fed a gorilla from the palm of his hands before treating an injury on its legs. The episode reminded me of our ties with other mammals before our unique brains set us apart.
A shark can smell blood miles away. It speeds to the location and sometimes races past the place. Only if animals can talk. It turns back when it notices it doesn’t perceive the smell again and tacitly locates the exact point. In the novel Naked and The Dead by Norman Mailer, one particular soldier refused to wear a life jacket. He disobeyed his superior. His reason was that during a routine patrol they came across a sunken boat belonging to the enemy. The occupants floated as you would expect from people wearing life jackets. When they pulled the first person they noticed half of his body was gone. This was the case for all of them. A shark or sharks have eaten from their midsections down. Only their torso remained and floated as they waited for rescue. This soldier decided never to wear a life jacket again. If anything happens to their ship he said, he rather a shark swallow him full than eat him halfway. Only if animals can talk.
The bull is an aggressive animal sometimes it has to be castrated to curtail its behavior. I am not talking about these common cows. There are large breeds. When you see how blocky they are, you wonder what combination of matter in the universe formed to give it such a large shape and power. The Spanish engage in bullfights. Most of them do survive.
Tigers are ever patient. They can run, but they rather prowl. A tiger moves solo, it has not much interest in the pride of Lions. A tiger doesn’t fear a lion who may or may not be the king of the jungle. A single blow from a tiger…Jim Corbett recorded his experience hunting tigers in India in the book Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Tigers wreaked havoc in an area. He was recruited as part of a task force that hunted and killed these animals. Of course, some didn’t survive. A girl was going home one day and saw a tiger. She ran all the way home, on arrival, she lost the power of speech due to sheer terror. She recovered, but it took time.
Then there are human beings. The worst of them all. Herbivorous in greed, carnivorous in character, and unfortunately, omnivorous in intelligence when compared to other animals. Only if animals can talk.
