The Voice of Animals by Margrit Coates

Author:Margrit Coates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Understanding our responsibility

Through increasing our understanding, we are urged to become responsible and consider the needs and behaviours of other species in our care, so that they have the freedom and choice to fulfil their own sense of purpose, or semblance of it. Shortly after the incident with the swallow, I found myself strolling through a town centre, thinking about the topic of freedom. Freedom means different things for each of us: the space to live without feeling cramped by neighbours; being able to make our own choices in everyday life; not feeling confined by a restrictive relationship; and being at liberty to live without restraint. And all these considerations equally apply to the needs of animals.

I was attending a conference at a university in an affluent north European city and, with a few hours spare, I wandered around the side streets. It was very hot for the time of year and as I turned a corner I noticed a café in a shady part of the street with several cloth-covered tables outside. The café looked cosy and inviting until I noticed a cage hanging from a window frame with a parrot inside it, perched on a pole.

Two pigeons were pecking underneath the parrot’s cage at seeds that had dropped from it. One of the pigeons flew up to sit on the top of the cage and preened itself whilst the parrot tilted his head from side to side, looking up at the pigeon. Then both pigeons flew away, up over the rooftops, into the sunshine. Stepping forward, I held out my hands to the caged bird, offering healing, and at the same time asked, ‘How does it feel not to have your freedom?’

The reply from the parrot came instantly: ‘What is freedom?’

I understood from this exchange that the poor parrot was permanently incarcerated in the cage – just an ornament. The question ‘What is freedom?’ should never be asked of us by any creature. Our fellow Earth dwellers deserve far better, particularly now that science is increasingly confirming the extent of animal sentience.

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