A nilgai, an animal extinct in Bangladesh, wandered into Panchagarh. But some local people beat and injured it for no reason. It was rescued and taken to Dulahazara Safari Park, but could not be saved. It had injuries all over its body, including on all four legs. Infection of the wounds broke down its ability to resist disease, and it died.

The nilgai is an extinct wildlife species here. Although called a "gai" (cow), it is not a bovine; it is the largest deer-like animal in Asia. The 2015 IUCN Bangladesh Red List says 31 species have become extinct in Bangladesh, the nilgai among them. When the animal crossed the border into this country, we did not let it live.

For no reason, out of pent-up brutality, we beat an animal that had disappeared from Bangladesh since 1940 because of loss of habitat and food and a hostile environment.

Monu Mia, a gravedigger in Kishoreganj, has dug graves for more than 3,000 people over the past 50 years. Whenever he heard of a death, he would ride to the graveyard on his horse with all his tools. But as soon as he fell ill and went to hospital, someone killed that horse. Since reading the news I have wondered whether anyone had a grudge against him, and whether the horse had done anything wrong. No one should have any enmity with a gravedigger, so why was his innocent animal killed?

The horse was like a child to Monu Mia. Perhaps someone did this to hurt him. When envy and hatred take hold, people become monsters and find satisfaction in destroying the loved ones, property and animals of the person they resent. The other day I saw someone's banana plantation hacked to pieces; someone else's pond had all its fish killed with poison; in Rajshahi, every tree in a mango orchard was uprooted, fruit and all. All of this comes from spite. The owner weeps aloud, and perhaps some sick-minded person takes pleasure in that.

Although there is much discussion of why people kill or mistreat animals, public awareness remains very low. Not only mobs but animal traders knowingly treat animals cruelly or neglect them. History shows this is not new: remains of domestic animals from archaeological digs thousands of years old show signs of numerous bone diseases, evidence that they were abused and underfed.

Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, said there is no fundamental difference in mental faculties between humans and the higher mammals. Animals cannot argue or speak for themselves, but they feel, rejoice and suffer, and they serve their owners devotedly; yet because they are helpless they fall victim to human violence. It is not only strays; many people mistreat their own pets, and animals in zoos, circuses, safaris, farms and pet shops are often treated harshly.

There is a link between cruelty to animals and violence against people. A 2009 study found that, compared with other industries, slaughterhouse workers had higher arrest rates for violent crime, rape and other sexual offences.

A survey by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies found "substantial overlap between animal abuse and child abuse". One example is zoosadism: a history of abusing pets and small animals, considered one of the signs in psychiatry. Zoosadism is sexual pleasure derived from cruelty to animals, a form of paraphilia. Some studies have found that people who are cruel to animals are more likely to be violent to people.

According to The New York Times, the FBI found that a history of cruelty to animals is a trait that regularly appears in the records of serial rapists and murderers. The standard diagnostic and treatment manual lists cruelty to animals as a "diagnostic criterion" for conduct disorder.

But Helen Gavin wrote in Criminological and Forensic Psychology (2013) that cruelty to animals is not a universal trait of offenders. Serial killer Dennis Nilsen killed at least 15 people in the 1970s and 1980s and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1983. The former civil servant killed several people at his home in north London, most of them homeless young gay men. Yet Nilsen loved his faithful dog, and after his arrest he was very worried about it, because the dog had also been taken to the police station.

Some people suffer from mental illnesses such as antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy or schizophrenia, which can reduce empathy or a sense of social morality; some of them may easily be cruel to animals. Others vent suppressed anger on animals, which become easy targets because they are weak and cannot resist.

Research shows that people who were abused or traumatised in childhood, or who witnessed animal abuse, may behave cruelly later in life, as learned behaviour. If children see that no one is scolded or punished for cruelty to animals, they may think it acceptable. Research says that in a third of families where there is domestic violence, a child has injured or killed an animal.

There is ample evidence of people killing animals for no reason. Besides the nilgai beaten in Panchagarh, some young men in Sylhet killed foxes and a civet that had taken refuge on a hillock and paraded with the skin of a jungle cat. A deer that sheltered in a house during a flood was eaten. Another group killed a mother palm civet, leaving her young homeless. Those who broke a dog's legs, hanged a cat with a rope, cooked and ate injured openbill storks, and killed fish, monkeys and birds with poison are in fact killers. People who can kill animals without need may kill people tomorrow, and we see proof of that every day as people kill one another with or without reason.

Psychology has a theory called "The Link", under which cruelty to animals is connected to violence towards people. Those who abuse animals are more likely to be violent towards people later, and many serial killers have a history of animal abuse in childhood.

Mental illness or a violent mindset behind cruelty to animals is a serious matter. It harms animals and also signals wider violence in society, and preventing it needs mental health care, education and the legal system working together. A study of psychiatric patients who had abused dogs, cats and other animals found that all of them harboured anger and resentment towards people; one of them had killed a small boy.

Robert K Ressler, a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's behavioural science unit who studied serial killers, said such killers began by killing and torturing animals as children. People with antisocial personality disorder lack empathy, and hurting animals often becomes a way for them to show power or relieve stress.

In Bangladesh, dogs and cats in the streets continue to be kicked, stoned, scalded with hot water or poisoned. A visit to the pet market at Katabon shows the inhumane conditions animals are kept in; countless animals died there during Covid, and the animals are still suffering.

A zoo is also a prison, where animals suffer from neglect, malnutrition, thirst or filth. The owners and drivers of horse carts in Cox's Bazar and Gulistan treat their horses inhumanely, forcing them to carry excessive loads, beating them and underfeeding them.

Children who grow up without love for animals grow up hard-hearted. A lack of empathy and awareness towards animals, a gap in moral education and cruel behaviour increase violence among children and teenagers. If young people grow up without love for nature, animals and people, they will never be able to love their family, society or country, and we are seeing how terrible the consequences can be.

The writer is a communication specialist and columnist. Written on 27 May 2025.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.