Are you someone who loves animals? Ever made a deliberate choice to buy products labeled “cruelty-free”? If yes, what do you do or come to your mind when those animals we claim to protect are subjected to unthinkable cruelty?
Having been raised in a small town in Kenya, I observed things that haunted me. I vividly remember being 7 years old, standing helplessly as a group of teenagers threw stones at stray dogs and cats. Their screech echoed in the streets and inside my heart. I clutched the edge of my pants with trembling hands and begged them to stop.
But my diminished voice was no match for their cruelty.
Until today, stories of animal maltreatment surface on social media with horrifying regularity. In September 2022, a volunteer-run animal shelter was attacked by a local mob—most of the dogs were brutally killed, not because they had harmed or disturbed, but because of personal grudges held against the shelter’s owner. A month later, a donkey was forced to swallow acid for similar reasons. And perhaps most shockingly, in June 2020, a pregnant elephant died after unknowingly eating a fruit stuffed with explosives.
These aren’t isolated incidents. They reflect something deeply troubling, a growing humanitarian and moral void in our society.
In the current world, where we regularly talk about climate change and human rights in classrooms, why are discussions about animal maltreatment never a topic? The same hands that now harm innocent creatures once belonged to children. What if those children had been taught compassion early on? What if someone had spoken to them about kindness, not only towards people, but toward every living being?
It’s time to educate, advocate, and legislate. Time to change
First step by push for animal rights to be part of school curricula. Demand stronger animal protection laws. And most importantly, we act when we see cruelty instead of turning away and saying it doesn’t concern us, we report it. I write not just as an adult, but as the voice of my 7-year-old self—hoping that another child, somewhere, will hear me and grow up choosing kindness over cruelty
