The Association for the Protection of Animals in the Algarve (APAA) has a strong sense of right and wrong.
“When it comes to animals, there is no halfway mark.” President Jenny Clarke’s work is cut out with domestic and feral animals. “Abandoned, abused, neglected. It doesn’t matter how you describe it. If openly allowed, then society has lost the plot.” Indeed. “Humans are supposedly on top of the chain. Supposedly setting an example.”
The Resident reported in December 2020 about “the massacre”. The subject matter covered the killing, or politely ‘cull’, of wild animals within a walled estate. Over 500 animals had been slaughtered, mostly deer and wild boar, making way for a massive solar energy park. A hunter quoted as saying, “We did it again! A super record hunt! 540 animals with 16 hunters!”
This took place in Azambuja, Portugal. Spanish and Portuguese hunters massacred the animals. “These animals had no way of escape … they were confined within the property’s walls,” Silvino Lúcio, at the time deputy mayor of Azambuja (now mayor), was quoted: “And the forest that should have afforded them some protection has been denuded.”
APAA has the same qualms for the Algarvian countryside. It is also being stripped for man’s creature comforts. “Where do the birds, animals go?” Taking their natural habitat away leaves them little opportunity to find homes and re-populate naturally.
‘Rare’ becomes ‘Extinct’. “We all look for nirvana. Cheap electricity, cheap food. Cheap housing. Faster service. Carrying slim-line mini-computers in pockets, bags,” Jenny nods. “I’m just as guilty as the next person.” Where does it end? If, as the “superior” of all animals, at the top of the pile, we cannot control what is happening on our own doorstep, how can associations and shelters survive? Animal intake is increasing. The super-fast world is indeed on our doorstep, in our tote-bags. Children are seeing things they wouldn’t have been exposed to decades ago. And it isn’t improving their world.
If this is the world in 2025 and this is mankind’s legacy to the future, where children will see animals slaughtered, needlessly, not even for food, carcasses rotting in the confines of a private estate, will they accept that as ‘normal’? If ‘education’ has become the keyword, it needs to be implemented before it is erased from the smartphone’s dictionary along with ‘humanitarian’ and ‘respect’.
It is said psychopaths start with insects and small animals gravitating to torture and murder of humans. Keywords: Callous, unemotional, morally depraved.
By APAA
