THE CRY OF ANIMALS

THE CRYOF ANIMALS

When the dinosaur heard the shark’s rhetorical questions, he stood up and breathed out fire into the sky as he continuously roared weirdly and loudly such that the mountains around echoed.

Dinosaur: “Since man is killing us and possessing our fertile land, I swear to devour him with fire the soonest possible. I will set fire to his homestead to destroy him and his farm. I will hunt him down in all his places.

I will squeeze him to death with my big toes or step on him, pressing him against the ground until he suffocates. I swear by the mountains, I will sweep away man from the land. I swear by fire and mountains. Please leave the matter to me.”

The crocodile ran forward boastfully with his long-scaled tail swaying from side to side, sweeping all the light leaves and grass. He made superficial sympathy shading fake tears of grief. He expressed his anger towards the man as he presented his cry.

Crocodile: “Man is always killing us for any reason." We tamper neither with him nor his farm. He kills us, leaving us to rot on the river banks. My friend Dinosaur, kindly do your best to save us! Save us before we perish at the hands of man!”

It was now the hippo’s turn. As if laughing, he made a painful grunt. He groaned violently, rubbing his hard skin against a nearby trunk of a Manee tree. As the hopelessness of the situation sank into him, he supported his oval-shaped head with his front legs. Bitter sobs emanated from his throat as tears of pain cascaded down his cheeks. He loudly cried for help from the rest of the animals.

Hippopotamus: “It has been the evil character of man to chase us back to the water or kill us for meat. He accuses us of feeding on his farm, thus fencing our feeding pastures. We are dying of hunger! Who will save us from this calamity? ”

Raising their heads in the sky, the cheetah and the leopard roared terribly and loudly, as if they were awakening the dead. Proud of his soft black spotted skin, the cheetah moved close to the lion to express his anger against the man.

Cheetah: “The essence of life is happiness, but man is killing us for our precious skin and claws. He is eliminating us and denying us the right to enjoy life in full measure. From today, I will feed on man and quench my thirst with his blood. Thank you.”

There was no need to subject the leopard to interrogation, for his eyes told a tale of melancholy. He literally breathed death, an approval that man would not survive the anger.

Leopard: “Man is brutal and merciless at us. He doesn’t want us to come close to his farm. He is chasing after us for our precious skin and claws.”

The mosquito flew over the animals, whining and vigorously buzzing with anger and landed on the horn of a buffalo who stood near the lion. Although his tone was seemingly low, all the animals managed to hear him.

Mosquito: “We are sprayed with a poisonous chemical every night. Sometimes we are heavily crashed over a man’s body without cause. Man has poisoned the nets where we like to land happily at night as we enjoy the warmth of his breath.”

It was now the turn for the butterfly. He usually had a poster in front of all the animals purposely for his recognition. Maintaining his nature of having few words, he presented his cry to the animals.

Butterfly: “Man has turned against us. He is unsparingly destroying us without a reason. At first, we were friendly to him until he began spraying flowers with poisonous chemicals. There is death in those beautiful blooming fruit trees. The nectar is poisoned. Who will save us from death? Who will advocate for us? Is there any healing for our dying land?

The weevils hardly waited for him to finish his speech. They painfully joined the stage, making some unclear sounds that were heard as if it came from a far distance.

Weevils: “Man has been harvesting all our cereals from the farm. He applies poisonous chemicals and puts them into bags. He has denied our right to feed on cereals. Who will advocate for us? I asked the leopard and the cheetah to chase after him and devour him. He is of no benefit to us.

It was already at noon and the sun was scorching over their heads. It was the turn for all the birds. They were many and each had different colors and were of different sizes. They all flew above the animals, making many different short, high-piercing and sorrowful sounds that led some of the animals to solemnly shed tears.

Some whistled painfully while others twittered regretfully across the sky. The owls hooted in a karmic manner as doves cooed mournfully with anger towards the man.

Many of the cries were about the forest which had been their habitation. The forest had been destroyed by men for timber and firewood and turned the larger part of the land into his homesteads and farm. They could not present their cries all of them. Thus, they appointed the hen and the ostrich to make speeches on their behalf.

Clucking and cackling, the hen flew over and over round the animals and landed in front of the animals. He continuously beat his wings vigorously in anger as she prepared to make her speech.

Hen: “We are robbed of our daily eggs and are being slaughtered for meat. Man has denied our right to enjoy life in a forest. He has taken the seeds and vegetables that used to sustain us all through the forest. He is selfish and greedy. He should be skinned alive or chased from the land. He is merciless and selfish.”

The ostrich walked sorrowfully in front of the animals. Her heavy steps could be heard by every animal at that meeting. She blew her large and wide wings in the air as if she wanted to fly as she cleared her throat in order to make her speech.

Ostrich: “Man has tamed us to live in his small homestead and limited our freedom of living. He has taken our land and turned it for farming. He is killing us for meat and feathers which give us warmth. He is stealing our precious eggs. He should be poisoned to death. "I swear by the mountains of our land that I will never go back to his homestead.”

All the ducks quacked, and the eagles screamed painfully on hearing the ostrich’s speech.

Afterward, the lion called out the elephant to come forth. The elephant had trained himself to always live in peace with all other animals. In every meeting he was of few words compared to all the other animals, and he used to urge them to love one another and live in peace. When he heard that it was his turn, he bountifully walked towards the center of the circle.

He blew his trumpet as he heavily stepped on the ground repeatedly with his heavy feet as a sign of anger. Again and again he blew his trumpet, sending a dangerous warning that was sensed by every other animal.

Elephant: “Poachers are killing us! We are dying of our precious ivory and meat. Man is eliminating us for our skin that he uses to make clothes. I propose that he should be wiped away from the land. He is our biggest enemy, the source of all the troubles in our land. He has committed wildlife crimes and also abused the environment.”

His fury had reached to the maximum limit, leading him to lose his ability to speak.

Unnoticed by the animals, the man interposed in the meeting. He was holding his bow and poisonous arrows in search of his lost farm animals. If it were not for the elephant’s trumpet, he would not have known where to find them.

He stood speechlessly in full wonder of the animal’s meeting. A weird facial transformation exhibited the gravity of the state of things. Goaded by sheer confidence, he walked into the meeting.

All the animals were terrified by a sense of death on seeing him. Each stood horrified, undecided about what would happen next. Like dolls, they looked at him endlessly and a feeling of deep hatred filled them. How they wished he could shrink and shrive to death like a mushroom in the sun!

The man interrupted their meeting angrily! He began with trembling, clearly manifesting his deadly anger that would only leave him after excellently accomplishing his mission.

The scene was electrified by the carnivorous atmosphere that engulfed the place. The icy head of fear caressed their spines. With unmatched anger and fury, the man began shooting them aimlessly as he hit them with anything that he could lay his bare hands on.

He scattered the meeting by brutally beating the animals with his bow and punishing the farm animals. Scared out of their wits, they cried bitterly and broke into a wild run. Each animal screamed painfully with a profound bitterness, expressing their longing for help.

Their screams were loud enough to stir the dead back to life. They avoided man like the plague. Leaving dust floating in the air, they ran as fast as each could afford.

The lamb was face to face with death, but the situation called for a great degree of calmness and cooperation. Any foolish move or lapse of cooperation would have made the pendulum swing either way to death or life. He looked straight at man’s sockets and saw death, which was his greatest fear.

All the species of birds that had the ability to fly were seen hovering above the man, painfully whistling curses against him as if he had stolen their chicks. In the nearby trees, the owls were heard hooting loudly and scarily as the man stood horrified for a moment as he gazed toward them.

A man struggled to gather his farm animals. Some ran away and hid in the forest while some birds flew away, getting lost in the thick forest. Some of the dangerous animals took it as an opportunity to kill man, but it was all in vain. They feared death and thus fled to save their precious lives from the angered man.

Although he managed to recover some of his farm animals, the rest of them cursed him and swore to fight him throughout the generations to come. He led the recovered animals back to his firm and locked them never to flee again.

It was from that day that man became the enemy of animals and nature turned against him.