I have feelings. I feel pain.
I did not choose to be brought into this world.
I have no home.
Everyday I search for food
In drains, rubbish bins, in places no one would think of,
Just to eat so that I may survive,
So that I may live another day to search for food.
I see so many of my kin doing the same thing,
Some are fortunate like I am, some are not,
Countless are those who have drowned, who have died,
Just searching for that morsel of sustenance so that they may live another day.
Where do I go? I sleep where I can,
I suffer the ignominious looks of people.
If I am lucky, I am shooed away,
If I am not, I get kicked, swept at by brooms,
And it hurts.
I have seen my children tortured.
Images of Rubber Bands stapled on ears,
Of tin cans tied to tails to scare us.
Even worse, of detergent poured into water to poison us.
Whom do I tell these feelings to?
No one. We suffer in silence.
Yet there are kind souls.
There are those who will feed me, who care.
There are those who give me a gentle hand,
That will make that very special effort.
Who amongst us do not crave a mother’s touch?
Who amongst us do not wish to live?
Yet we are denied this right...
Countless of us are sentenced to death.
Today I look again for food,
I may not see tomorrow,
Because I am just an “ANIMAL”
I have no rights,
And thus, I am no longer allowed to live.
