The Little Bear-cubs

The Little Bear-cubs  

I saw some little bear-cubs in a cage that were trying to climb and bit the bars to get free on TV, as though I saw innocent little kids, nervous, helpless in a cage. They were to be sent to Hong Kong, sold, to be sacrificed, perhaps to have their liver or heart for the health of someone or as a cure for a certain decease.

  And it was as if they silently cried and I  seemed to hear: ‘ What wrong have we done? Save, free us. While what we most desire, cherish, our life, our freedom, that exactly is what you take from us  for your health, your life. We’re so helpless and without Animal Rights. What if you were fated to be born bears instead and we man?’  A sorry fate awaits an animal if people knew its beneficial, profitable values, isn’t it? The rhinoceros was hunted for its horn and the elephant for its ivory.  That’s what Si Upik related to me.  

From Jayakarta, October 27, 1994