Editorial:: Alex the African Grey

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EDITORIAL

Alex the African Grey

Dr.Roopa Vajpeyi
Hony.Editor

In our usual meeting for drawing up the contents list for our October issue, when I wanted to include the World Animal Day(October 4), I got a lot of raised eyebrows, some quizzical looks and some direct brick-bats...'now what have animals to do in a consumer magazine?'

What indeed?

As an answer everybody had information falling out of their ears till they cried halt, and here we are with some of it for our readers. We ofcourse have Maneka Gandhi giving us some sweet advice on how to lure bird-song into our handkerchief size urban 'gardens', besides a very imaginative motif for our Editorial Corpus Fund ad on the back cover. Do take a look, and also visit our pet's section at www.consumer-voice.org for some fresh updates. First let's talk about Alex the African grey parrot that died on September 6th, aged 31.

Alex, (his name an acronym of 'Avian Learning Experiment), was working harder than any human student, all his life, on learning complicated tasks, which no bird had ever attempted before, and might not ever be able to replicate again. The gift he left behind for the human race by spending his entire life, alone in a cage, with only human companions, helping them prove something that he could have had no interest in, was help us stretch our sensibilities just a little bit by adding to our knowledge about the world we all inhabit for our God given days, but which, we as consumers often end up thinking, was created just for us. We appropriate all its gifts with little or no compunction, and not a single thought for all the creatures that inhabit our world and make it what it is.

Animals , of all ilk, are a part and parcel of our daily lives and give their lives and spend their earthly days so that we humans may live a safer and a richer life than we deserve. We wear their furs and make bags and shoes out of their fabulous skins and feathers. Tame them, make them dance for us, lay eggs for us. We drink up the milk that actually should go to their offspring. We hunt them and cut them up and eat them. We also put them to work for us. Animal research alone uses 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals every year where they are either killed or euthanized subsequently, so that we may eat safer food, have drugs for our ailments or paints and potions to anoint us in our race to camouflage our blemishes and defects. 0.3 percent of research animals are non human primates, with 55,000 used each year in the US and 10,000 in the European Union.

For centuries animals have been used for experiments resulting in path-breaking discoveries in medical science. Insulin is a gift from man's best friends , the dogs, which revolutionalized the treatment of diabetes. Laika, the Russian dog was the first of several animals to go into space and orbit the earth. The multi-drug antibiotic treatment for the dreaded disease leprosy, is a gift from the armadillos. The first animal clone, Dolly was a humble sheep. Mice share 99% of their genes with humans and are popular as research animals because of their small size, low cost,ease of handling and a prolific reproduction rate.

We Indians ofcourse have our own take on the support structures that animals provide for both humans and gods. Sacralizing life comes easily to us. Vegetarianism as a lifestyle option and a philosophy has extensive reach within the Indian society. Nonviolence is another domain where Indians have developed complex thought structures, exploring it in many variations and applications, from day to day life to political stances.

Every conceivable animal can boast of godly patronage, serving the gods either as vehicles (vahana), associates or companions. Animals from ants to elephants are woven insightfully into the patterns of our daily lives, so that we end up sharing food with the crows and the fishes, and rituals with cows and tigers alike. Even the much dissected rodent has a symbolic partnership with the elephant god. Snakes, birds, marine creatures, or whathaveyou are never far from our thought. However what remains to be seen is whether this seamless integration between all creatures great and small will survive the urban upsurge and if it does, in what way. Having the animals torn from our sides will definitely damage the cultural psyche of every Indian. We invite our readers to come back with suggestions for
accommodation and acceptance of all life in new modes and avatars. We will be posting all response on our website in the 'pet's section'.

There is also a 'Meatless Day' coming up( we already have Tuesday as an unofficial meatless day in most Indian households, besides a variety of fasts and rituals where meat is not considered a gastronomic option). Check it out on meatlessday.com.

Cheers!

Dr.Roopa Vajpeyi
Hony.Editor

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