Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Cruelty to animals is a proof of our love for humans?


Cruelty to animals is not a proof of our love for humanity. On the contrary people who are cruel to animals are likely to be cruel to humans also. Our assumption of superiority over all nature and all other creatures is the reason why we have to buy drinking water today. Might is right begins with animals and ends with holocausts.

I always remember this friend who called late one evening, many years ago, she was complaining about the disturbance caused by the noise made by pigeons. Maybe we will soon have no reasons to complain. Sparrows are said to be disappearing from cities. Other birds will follow?

Since we don't believe in keeping birds (or animals) in cages, and since we wanted this round eyed cheeper to practice flying and fly away, we let her out of the cage, shut all windows and switched off all fans.
She was cheeping aloud, eating a little then dozing off.



Then we noticed a sparrow crashing into the window panes, and this baby bird also flew to the pane, it was obvious that this very worried male sparrow on the other side was our baby sparrow's dad. We slowly slid open the window, and the way they met was worth seeing.



This was like a miracle. And then mother bird also came, she did not feed her, she just hung around. I was too overwhelmed and relieved and amazed to pick the camera. I wish I had taken some more pictures. The baby bird inside the cage, feeding off our hands, and the way they first greeted each other were precious!

These pictures were taken much later. We thought it would be easier for the parents if they did not need to go looking for food leaving us worrying about the baby outside the window. So we placed food and water for them. They feasted and fed the baby. And many pictures are blurred because there was too much sunlight outside and I was afraid of frightening them away. (all excuses for bad photography)

It is amazing how they did not reject the baby. It's possible that sparrows don't reject their babies touched by human hands. Or maybe the baby is too old to be rejected.

I have assumed they were the parents, because of the way they greeted each other, and the ease with which they showed him how to fly away to a tree outside. (But I have seen, twice, male cats adopting and taking care of kittens in Kerala, so maybe birds do the same thing?)

The parents visited us for breakfast today morning also, and carried beakfuls of boiled rice for our little Tweeter :)

Like Solilo said this amazing experience did remind me of Mahadevi Verma's amazing stories.





52 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen this: http://catanchaos.blogspot.com/2009/03/from-my-archives-courtesy-sunday-times.html

Saritha said...

Happy ending IHM.I think no reader has predicted this.
I am suprised that they didnt reject the baby.

Btw i loved the last snap.

hitch writer said...

those are unbelievably beautiful pictures... !!!! heart warming stories on a day thats turning out to be quite frustrating...


wonderful story and pictures... cheers me up!!!!

even i was of that perception that sparrows dont accept babies that are touched by humans... what a refreshing thing to learn today !!!!

good soul you and lucky you !!! and lucky baby sparrow tooo !!!

:)

wonderful.... really wonderful,,,, needed something like this !

Aathira Nair said...

:) Lovely...I am glad they did not reject the baby. Pigeons do that, and its horrible. Maybe sparrows are way more intelligent.

Smitha said...

IHM - That was incredibly lovely and heart warming.. The pics are so sweet.. Its so amazing...

'Might is right begins with animals and ends with holocausts.' Can't agree more...

Anonymous said...

Combining comments for previous post and this post:

And I have always been skeptic of Maneka Gandhi I mean most of the time, she does, goes over the top. or maybe I am biased.

I don't have a pet yet, but when I settle down I am having Bulldog , Great Danes or Siberian Husky :). Garfield looks really good today :) the tongue too.

@baby sparrow: Obviously water or something soft thing eatable :) sorry, I know I am hopeless.

IHM, you must forgive me if the Gardfield and Spaoow, situation reminds me of Sylvester and Tweety ;)

NOTE Something unbelievable happened to the bird next day, guess what? A special award for the correct guess!!! I had never dreamt that possible, now she is best possible hands... guess whose???

-------
Now I know what happened to tweety :) I am happy :)
Hey, no parent ever reject their baby :) great snaps :)

Anonymous said...

glad they accepted the baby....this made me happy

Anonymous said...

Hey who's calculator is that? I mean have the same one, amazing right!

Anonymous said...

sniff!!!! i want one too...anything...cat,dog, bird,racoon...

this is such a heart-warming incident IHM. now don't panic when i say I LOVE YOU!!!! for sharing this incident and the awesome awesome pics :) u made my day, really. arrived too late and read both posts...swamped in work, i took a break and read this n am feelin all fuzzy!!!! may tweety n parents live happily ever after! u r like their fairy god mother! oh IHM! i cud like just go on man!!!! hugs!!!
ok, before i make a post of my comment, lemme add, i love ur cat! my folks at native place had one called cheeru! i LOVED her...thinkin of a post for her once i crochet a cat to put up! :D

Iya said...

lovely pictures... i am a sucker for happy endings!! i love this

OG said...

brilliant snaps and brilliant post ihm....:)

so my guess was right in previous post.....:) what is the award going to be???? :P lol.............

Dr. Ally Critter said...

Thats a very sweet story with a very nice ending! Reminds me of the blue jays that had a nest in our veranda BhimTal. The young ones even learn to fly from there!

Anonymous said...

wow lovely!!!

thats indeed amazing....yet another live example of Nature teaching us!!

Anonymous said...

nice post IHM...I wish there was a video too..but the pictures are great !! amazing story ..excellent job !!

This really makes you wonder where animals get their compassion from...not from any religion i am sure..I had written a small post about animal compassion a while back on my blog..here is the link

http://nitwitnastik.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/animal-compassion-the-hippo-and-the-leopard/

DewdropDream said...

Lovely photos!! And parent birdies came back for baby?! Wow!!! Never known that to happen but glad they don't all go ostracising baby birdies touched by humans.

Maybe the family will be regular visitors... that would make for a lot of interesting posts :)

Usha Pisharody said...

Now this is one raaz that no one would have cracked! And one that should not have been too...

Unbelievable is the word. And incredible is the feeling:) Incredible photos too... all so very natural; treasured moments, timelessly captured, each of them, esp the last one!

As you say, anyone who can be cruel to animals can never be kind to people! Reminds me of Gerald Durrel and James Herriot anecdotes:) You prob have a collection to share as well!

Lovely feeling after reading this!!! And yes, it is a miracle too:)

Sandhya said...

This post is my picker upper for today :-) Thank you

Piper .. said...

wow!! I wouldnt have thought this to be possible at all. The pictures speak a thousand words! Lovely!
I wholeheartedly agree on the cruelty part. I just did a post on a visit to the zoo. It broke my heart to see the animals all caged up. We humans fight wars for our freedom and yet end up imprisoning the powerless. It makes me so sick in the heart..

Destination Infinity said...

Lucky you. I, for some reason, like house lizards! I think they are clever! Once a lizard came on my table while i was browsing the internet. I thought I could make friends with it and started searching for what lizards eat. My bad luck, they eat only insects! I really wished they could eat something like apples.... Hmmm anyways there is always some other pet to domesticate!! I like cats too.... they have an attitude!!

Destination Infinity

J P Joshi said...

Love for animals, patience and good photography all come through this lovely post. Enjoyed the adoption and return story of this little sparrow.

Anonymous said...

did u get my comment, IHM ? blogger sent me to an error page after i i hit post ;/

Anonymous said...

This is one of the cutest things I have seen. Awww...

Reema said...

I am so happy for the baby sparrow!! a true miracle!!

Indyeah said...

awww IHM this is so cute..and heartwarming and so much more:)))
I have no words...

reminds me of this
''The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp." ~ John Berry


and so did these little creatures didnt they?:)
They must have know instinctively that here was home and warmth and safety:)
your home must have said welcome:)
and you too:)

loved this IHM:)

Sujoy Bhattacharjee said...

Birds do not reject their babies just because they have been touched by humans. Unlike cats, birds do not have a highly developed smell of sense. So there was no danger really of rejection.
But the joyous reunion of the sparrow family made a wonderful read. And yes, it reminded me of Mahadevi Verma...the CBSE syllabus had lots of her stories.

mindspace said...

wOw... ur post with the pictures made me live this experience as if it happened in front of ma eyes.. really really loved it..

Winnie the poohi said...

oh beautiful! I am so happy for the lil imp! its lucky am sure it knows it!

vimmuuu said...

Im missing my mom now !!!

Bud-Wiser said...

I Won, I Won, I won...Yeahhh!!

What are the lucky winners getting??:-)..

Biju Mathews said...

This is really sweet. God Bless you IHM!!

These pictures are really amazing. Are you a professional photographer?

Keep Blogging!!

Pixie said...

How cute ! :)
Glad that the sparrow is back to its home!

I was also close to the answer! So, I deserve second prize, if not the first!! :P

What's my prize?!!

Anonymous said...

Earth Hour is this Saturday. If you are participating, prepare to power down from 8:30 to 9:30 PM. Plan ahead!

Anonymous said...

Of course, people who are cruel to animals are likely to be cruel to human as well. I loved this story about tweety :) and I AM nostalgic of Mahadevi Verma stories. I loved reading them. Some of them are still etched in my mind about her cow gaura.

Monika said...

awww seeing this post.. i told u :) :) but i could guess because i had seen that happening...

and my granny choose to instill a big lesson by this... parents never desert their children come what may I never gave it much thought at that time but now that I am a mother I know what she meant

its so heartwarming to read this post and see the pics

PS: BTW chirag and IHM i was able to read the later post first is only the courtesy of those 40 open tabs ;-)

Anonymous said...

that was so amazing!!!
i'd always been told that birds reject the babies if humans touch them... guess it was just a way for my parents to make sure i didnt bug the baby birds outside the house...

Vally said...

Lovely photographs.

Mama - Mia said...

awwwwwwwwwwww!! thats just way too cute!! am so happy for these happy beginnings!

hugs

abha

Mamma mia! Me a mamma? said...

Lovely story made more lively by the pics you took! I love happy endings!

Anonymous said...

I like this post IHM and I liked the previous one too. I love your photographs! I love birds too and of late have taken to watching them. That is because I have shifted to a place where I see more birds, in fact quite a few. One of these days I want to write a post with photos on the birds around my house. But it's so darned difficult to photograph them!

Indian Home Maker said...

@Nita I love taking bird photographs too :)
I sometimes go for a drive early in the morning, but I find birds are forever moving, learnt what they mean by bird like movements :)
Took most of these photos through a glass with reflective film, so the birds could not really see me ... I keep food and water for birds to keep them coming.
Although I have also taken pictures of a variety of birds, they are all taken from a distance and now after reading your comment I feel like examining the zoom lens I had bought so enthusiastically :)
(This blog is too addictive, leaves time for little else, including this other addiction)
I love you ever changing header pictures !!

Indian Home Maker said...

@Aman Thanks for the link. Was it about our being a child centric generation?

@Varunavi I don't think they reject their babies - Monika says in her comment she knew they no parents ever reject their babies, many comments are correct guesses, and I am so confused that I think there should be a much delayed award ceremony now:)

Indian Home Maker said...

@hitch writer Yes this did warm our hearts too:) We were wondering what we were going to do, we even have a cage but I didn't want that ... this was amazing! And glad you liked the photographs :) I wish they were better ...

@Aathira YES! I am also so glad they did not reject the baby. Pigeons do that?? Maybe that is also a myth!

@Smitha Yeah totally incredible... all these years I have never attempted to let the parents find any lost birds because I believed they will be rejected!

@Chirag Most of the time animal abuse is avoidable ... like in today's times do we need circus animals for entertainment? And I wrote a post about use of animals for testing cosmetics, even though we have options...
And then the way energetic, strong, wild animals are kept in tiny cages is so cruel., Until I started reading James Herriot’s wonderful books I had no idea animals have psychological problems too.
.. then see how horses and buffaloes are made to carry heavy loads, much more than they can. The way we abuse each other, we abuse animals too. Neither is justifiable... don’t you agree?

@Unknown Yes it made me very happy too : D

@Chirag Hey I have no idea how to use it, this belongs to my husband. But I know you can do a lot on this, my regular calculator in the one on my mobile phone, right next to the calculator in the picture : )

@Crafty Shines Cats and dogs are the only animals who need us, and they are great companions, because they respond much better. All our pets have been picked from the road side. I feel most other animals are better off in their own habitat...
I know how you feel, I was feeling all fuzzy too ...A hug to your Cheeru too : )

Indian Home Maker said...

@Iya I feel the same way... this was amazing!

@ Ordinary Guy lol and I am so glad you liked he post! The award bit is so confusing, many people guessed it right!

@lankr1ta My only regret not taking some more pictures ..

@Sahaja True, ‘yet another live example of Nature teaching us!!’

@nitwitnastik Loved those videos, and I too wish there was a video, next time anything like this happens, there ill be a video.

@DewdropDream I always thought the same, but it seems that’s not true... Yeah the parents came today morning too .... I took pictures too : )

@Usha Pisharody ‘incredible is the feeling: )’
Usha, I have not read Gerald Durrel ! But James Herriot anecdotes are listed on my profile age too... he is amazing, and I learnt a lot from his collection s. An eye opener each one of them! Now let me look for Gerald Durrel too.

@Sandhya s Aww thank you : )
@Piper I want to read the post on the zoo, I am glad we are all becoming aware of how unethical it is to abuse and ill-treat animals.
“ It broke my heart to see the animals all caged up. We humans fight wars for our freedom and yet end up imprisoning the powerless. It makes me so sick in the heart...”
Echoes my feelings.

Indian Home Maker said...

@Destination Infinity The only animals who need us as companions are cats and dogs! ...dogs are more obvious of course, but cats also show affection in subtler, but equally lovable ways. But they also need lots of love, care and most of all our companionship and our time.

@Mr J P Joshi That's a very nice way of putting it, thank you : )

@roopscoop No roop I did not get any other comment from you : (
... please do post it again!
@ Solilo Thank you : )

@Reema Yes, didn’t it seem like a miracle!

@Indyeah ''The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp." ~ John Berry Love those words Indyeah! And maybe because they sense they would never be grasped we have had many bird-experiences... will blog about them, including two owls, being attacked by crows in two separate incidents (both saved).

@Sujoy Bhattacharjee I did not know, Birds do not reject their babies just because they have been touched by humans. Unlike cats, birds do not have a highly developed smell of sense. So there was no danger really of rejection. This is something we should all know, some old myths can do so much harm ! I loved Mahadevi Verma’s stories too.

@mindspace Thank You : )

@Winnie the poohi It was an amazing experience for us too!!

@vimmuuu : )

@Chikki You did make a good guess, but where’s the luggage you mentioned?

@Biju Mathews Thank You!

@Pixie Second prize ... err : ) lol
I think I better do an awards post!

@maald Will remember.

@Poonam Another Mahadevi Verma fan : )
And I am glad more and more people are realising that cruelty towards animals is not something we should take lightly.

@Monika You were absolutely, hundred percent right! parents never desert their children come what may I never gave it much thought at that time but now that I am a mother I know what she meant
@”PS: BTW chirag and IHM i was able to read the later post first is only the courtesy of those 40 open tabs ;-)” 40 tags is much more than I have opened!!

@aneesha I think you are right, “ i'd always been told that birds reject the babies if humans touch them... guess it was just a way for my parents to make sure i didnt bug the baby birds outside the house...”

@Vally Thanks : )

@Abha yes, this was just way too cute : )

@Mamma mia! Me a mamma? You liked the pics? They would have been much better if I wasn't so awwww struck at the unexpected surprise :)

Bud-Wiser said...

What are you talking?Did she leave all her luggage at your place itself then??--Hmm--..

But I still deserve a price..Can you give me some fans?:-(..I have just 3..!!

Anonymous said...

Can I call this Sparrow Gillu too? I love Gillu and I love Sparrow. Cho chweet.

Poonam J said...

What a heart warming post IHM. Sentimental fool that I am, I am all misty eyed....George Eliot so rightly said..."Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms”And I feel, of all the animals, man is the most cruel.If animals could speak, wonder if they would want us humans as friends???
I have this lovely forward about sparrows, am going to post it now...And Thankyou for this very cute post.

Arun.N.M. said...

Great to hear the baby sparrow is united with its family.
"Cruelty to animals is not a proof of our love for humanity" ? ? ?
Did somebody said it is?
May be it should be in reverse.
Love for animals is not a proof of respect for human rights as Maneka Gandhi proved.She is defending Varun's right to contest elections but have not yet said that Indian Muslims need not go to Pakistan [as Varun said in his speech]

Anonymous said...

I have also heard that birds reject their babies after they are touched by humans.
Something similar happened with me too some years back. But I was not able to save the baby sparrow. He was too small and was very ill.
I am thankful that this was a happy ending. :)

aMus said...

oh my..this was such a wonderful ending...i read this and the one before..and i'm really touched...

Anonymous said...

Its truly amazing. All I can say is 'WOW'

SUR NOTES said...

and the photos are as beautiful as the description of the bird family.