Is it okay to hurt animals just because they are not human?

A 5-month-old pet cat slipped out of her apartment in Dhaka and wandered into a neighbouring flat. What happened next was not a misunderstanding.

It wasn't fear. It wasn't allergy. It was cruelty. Cold and deliberate.

The couple living there allegedly ordered their domestic helper to beat her with an iron rod, according to sources quoting the helper. They stood there watching her beat the little being, sources who were present there claimed.

The screams of the cat's human mother echoed through the building once she found her. Threats followed. So did justifications. Because to them, she was just "an animal".

This couple had allegedly thrown another cat off the eighth floor previously. This is not an isolated case. I have had my own neighbours casually threaten to poison and throw away strays who came looking for shelter in my building. People brag about kicking dogs. I've seen children laugh while pelting puppies and kittens with rocks.

And we let it happen.

What I am talking about here is not pet culture. It's not about saving cats over cows or loving dogs more than ducks. It's about this sickening belief system we've inherited and enabled -- one that says animals do not matter. That their lives are expendable. That only humans deserve protection, peace, or the right to exist.

It's about power. And how violently we wield it.

We are a species that prides itself on intelligence, empathy, and evolution -- and yet, we think nothing of hurting beings who cannot fight back. Beings who feel pain, terror, confusion, and grief just like we do. We cage them, beat them, burn them, hang them, drown them, skin them, experiment on them, and laugh while doing it.

And then we say: "It's just an animal."

What does that even mean?

Psychologists call this speciesism -- the deeply ingrained, culturally taught prejudice that human life is the only one that matters. That every other being exists to serve, entertain, feed, or disappear for us. And like all prejudices, this one doesn't emerge from logic; it comes from power, entitlement, and a refusal to see.

You don't need to be an animal lover to oppose this. You just need to be a decent human being.

Violence against animals is not a symptom. It's a sickness. It reveals a person's capacity for domination, their disregard for life, their need to control and destroy. It is not a personal quirk. It is not "how we grew up". It is cruelty -- plain and simple -- and it must be called out and criminalised like any other act of violence.

The Animal Welfare Act, 2019 makes animal cruelty illegal in Bangladesh. It defines animals as sentient beings, and it criminalises abuse, neglect, and torture. But legislation means nothing without enforcement. And enforcement means nothing without public outrage.

How dare we still think animal abuse is a "private matter"? Why do we allow abusers to keep their jobs, keep their social status, keep their reputation -- just because the victim had four legs or feathers or fins?

Animal cruelty is not a lesser evil. It is just plain evil. It is criminal.

It is not a cultural "norm" that should be left alone. It is a dangerous psychological marker. The FBI profiles serial offenders using histories of animal abuse. The Macdonald Triad -- long studied in criminology -- links early acts of animal torture to adult violence. Dr Emma Alleyne, a forensic psychologist, has studied how these behaviours are rarely isolated. People who harm animals often harm humans too. Abuse is abuse.

We don't get to look away anymore.

Every time someone hits a dog, burns a kitten, chokes a bird, or kicks a calf -- we need to stop just saying "how horrible" and start asking: why did they feel allowed to do this? What moral licence did they think they had? And why does society still shrug it off?

Because they're "just animals"?

That's not an excuse. That's the problem.

We are not gods. We are not rulers of all life. We are a species among millions. And the sooner we stop pretending that our pain is the only pain that counts, the sooner we can start building a world where cruelty, towards any living being, is not the norm, but the exception.

This isn't a debate about dietary choices or conservation or religious customs. This is a confrontation with a mindset. One that says it's okay to hurt something just because it can't fight back. That is cowardice. Not culture.

We must stop hiding behind tradition, convenience, and ignorance. We must stop ranking lives. Stop rationalising suffering. Stop excusing harm.

Because when you hurt an animal, you are not asserting control; you are exposing your own emptiness. When you teach a child that animals are "less than", you are teaching them that empathy is selective. That violence is relative. That might is right.

And that lesson has never led to a kind society. Ever.

No being, no matter how small, how voiceless, how different -- deserves to be brutalised. Not for fun. Not for power. Not for punishment. Not for anything.

Animal cruelty is not a soft issue. It is a test of who we are.

And right now, we are failing it.