A sad thought

This morning I saw something that made me very sad: a baby donkey being loaded with sand at a construction site. Where we live, close to the country side, it is common to see horses and donkeys heavily loaded with bricks or sand. But this was the first time I saw a proper baby donkey being used. I thought of how the heavy load would deform his back and that he would suffer for the rest of his life. I wanted to go and talk to the men but a) I was too much of a coward and b) it would not have made any difference in a country where children are also used for heavy labour. 

Manjeev has not even properly started his natural horsemanship work that he is already receiving calls from people asking him to do something about neglected horses being used to drive carts, another common sight in India. 

It is very painful to see animals - as well as humans of course - suffer but stopping people from using animals is no the solution. First of all, people's livelihoods depend on these animals and secondly, if the animals become useless then their fate is even worse. Also, it would be unfair to say that all working animals are badly treated. We often see well fed mules drawing vegetable carts and we know farmers who feed their cows and horses better than their own children. So the way forward is education and awareness. It will be a long and arduous journey but it will be worth is. 

After all, didn't Ghandi once say The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way it treats its animals. 

PS - I put a photo of a kid training baby camels for racing Oman. This doesn't mean it's a sad thing, on the contrary the camels are treated like kings and the boy seems to be having a great time.