Editorial | Pets are not Petty!

The humans have always taken interest in making the animals pets or domesticating them for specific uses since times immemorial. Be it the first domesticated animal dog or for that matter the horse, the donkey, the monkey the humans have a shared legacy with animals –a fact that has been solidified over the time solidified more by the discoveries and findings by the historians all across the world. As the humans advanced, its need to take benefits from the animals grew manifolds and it somehow discovered ways to get the most of these (human friendly) animals. While the domesticated animals fulfill its different needs which mainly include milk and meat there still are several animals which the man has purely adopted to spend its leisure time with – and among these animals is a jovial and playful, agile and frantic innocent yet curious animal – The Cat. The cats, like several other animals are highly human-friendly and thus easily mingle with the humans and this possibly is because of the fact that cats are found in almost all habitable places on earth. The humans are evenly comfy with these playful creatures and over the time the trend to adopt cats has seen a steep surge more particularly in Kashmir. This particular animal viewed as holy in Islam is admired for its cleanliness. So much so that they are thought to be ritually clean which is why they’re allowed to enter homes and even mosques. According to authentic narrations, one may make ablution for prayer with the same water that a cat has drunk from. However the authorities are yet to acknowledge this fact and they treat these animals as unimportant – at least in this part of the world. There are least facilities available to treat these animals not on Panchayat level but on district level also. The employees concerned which otherwise need to be well breast with the complications of these pets have very little knowledge about things. There should at least be a dedicated medical facility for the pets at district level and the staffers be such who know the behaviors’ of these pets. The world is changing so are the needs and priorities of people and authorities as such need to wake up to the reality and make things easy for pet lovers – after all pets are not petty!