I write this piece
as I lay irritatingly awake, third time on a row, at 2am in the night. This
sorry state is solely caused by the buzzing mosquitoes which are duty bound in
disturbing my sleep. One of my friends who suffers similar fate gave up and
remarked “if all they want is blood, why can’t they be content at sucking it
out and leaving? Why do they want to create a buzz around our ears?” I shared similar
complaints and many more.
They seem to be almost
non existent while I go to sleep. I make sure to close my doors in the evening,
turn out mosquito repellent one hour before I hit the bed and scan the room/bed
using a “mosquito-badminton” racquet (a speciality weapon/equipment used to massacre
mosquitoes, used in the Indian subcontinent).
But here I am
lying awake at 2 am with lots of bites on my head, wrist, cheeks, and
hands. You got to be kidding me, man. I play another round of badminton only to
kill 10 odd mosquitoes. I do not feel even an ounce of mercy while killing them.
In fact, several times, I observed that I would have killed a mosquito (evident
from the electrifying sound the mosquito racquet makes upon trapping its prey),
but I would still press the button to watch the trapped mosquito die a hundred deaths.
This would all
seem very normal (maybe funny) and routine to almost all of us. We are shaped
by the society to consider the murder of mosquitoes as trivial. But what if it
had been a little larger animal. Let us exclude animals we eat, because
they would open another line of discussion (reserved for some other
day). For instance, if I killed a cat, how would the world react? You can get a
fair idea of emotions that people encounter, by watching Netflix series on “Don’t
f**k with cats.” People were shocked and retaliate they did.
But why this empathy
only towards cats and not mosquitoes? Is it because cats do not irritate people
like mosquitoes? Not true. I have seen several instances of people being fed up
of stray cats as they pooped in their houses, scratched their bikes’ seats etc.
Is it because it is prohibited by law? I do not think so too, unless there is
any law which specifically punishes this (and if the enforcement authorities act
upon it). The most all-encompassing reason I could think was – cats provide
value to humans.
How? They are cute.
Humans watch cat videos and cuddle them. This provides people a sense of relief
and helps in reducing some mental agony. They are also big is size. The human
mind somehow attaches more unpleasantness with killing of animals with increase
in size. For instance, killing mosquitoes and ants (the smallest beings) could be a daily chore.
Killing cockroaches and lizard (little bigger beings) becomes little troublesome. Killing small birds (even more bigger beings) is a challenge. But if you kill cats (biggest animals in our discussion), you are considered lunatic.
So, size of the
animal matters to “decide” if killing animal is excusable or not. Exceptions
are of course for things we consume. Ignoring the animals we consume, why is
size such an important factor? Simply because, of the goriness attached to it? Gory
details perceived towards death of an animal increase in proportion to their size.
And the gorier something can get, the less value it generates for humans.
Take for instance,
people who eat meat. I know scores of people who could swear by different
meats. However, if they saw the animal they would consume being butchered live
in front of their eyes, the number of people interested to eat it would reduce
a little. If they were asked to butcher the animal themselves, this number would
drastically reduce. If they were asked to butcher, cut the animal into parts
and skin it, then the number of people choosing to eat meat would fall significantly. The reduction in wanting to consume reduces in various stages of increasing goriness because it reduces the perceived value obtained by consuming the animal.
Humans are really messed up.
