Sometimes people are so convinced that animals are more important than their fellow human beings. Some intentionally and convincingly turn to treat the latter with no love and respect whatsoever. In addition, they do not respect their human dignity. In some religions of the world, adepts will injure and kill their fellow human being should he or she kill or treat their totem accidentally or in self-defense. An example is the Hindu Religion, where cows are highly defended and treated as lesser gods.
Madagascar as we all know is among the poorest nations in our world today. Even though, she is endowed with a lot of natural resources, corruption and bribery is the order of the day and thwart the country’s political and socio-economic development: stealing and embezzlement seem not to be a “crime”. Mananjary, a town that lies in the east coast of Madagascar has a very bad phenomenon that is actually going on. Very often people release their livestock, especially cows, fowls, sheep, ducks, geese etc to fend for themselves. These innocent animals end up on peoples’ (neighbours’) farms and destroy the farmlands and crops. These most at times lead to fights and long family and tribal misunderstanding a'd dispute. Sometimes these misunderstandings result in bloody death of some members of family through mysterious and brutal means. The suspects end up in prisons especially the poor ones who cannot pay for the things destroyed. Some of the local population, also recourse to the use of juju to scare or kill owners of farm land and animals. They hold in high esteem the lives of livestock than the lives of their fellow human beings.
It is in line with this that the coordinator of Justice and Peace and the Integrity of Creation (of the SVD) in collaboration with the commissioner of police of Mananjary District, the president of the district tribunal together with some highly profile men and women organized a workshop to create the awareness of the local population of Maro Voay and Tsaravary, rural areas of Mananjary, on the need to respect the human being and do all to protect him or her. The rights and obligations on rearing of animals, of each individual were re-echoed and awareness of a possible arrest of suspects who intentionally kill their fellow human beings because of an animal was invoked. It is important to add that majority of the victims are the poor and the marginalized. The program saw the presence of people from all walks of life with no tribal or religious distinction.
JPIC Madagasdcar