Conservationists in Jordan have criticized a news website for reporting positively on a video which shows two men posing with a dead owl they claim to have killed
Images have emerged of more animal rights abuse in the Middle East – this time in Jordan. A video was posted on a Jordanian news site showing two men boasting about the killing of an owl. Conservationists in the country were rightly quite upset about this, particularly as there have been concerns about the falling numbers of owls.
Sadly this is in a long list of animals rights abuses that Green Prophet has reported on from across the region. In the last couple of months alone we have reported on a Kuwaiti posing with dead wolves, the massacre of 12 flamingoes as well as thousands of endangered fruit bats which were gunned down in Lebanon. Whats more, despite laws to ban the ownership of exotic animals in the Gulf, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more pet cheetahs being paraded around.
It’s honestly just astounding. Every week it seems as if some idiot has either posed in a picture or posted a video of themselves next to a tortured poor animal. I just don’t understand the logic of it all. Okay, you killed an owl. What does that even mean? Is that supposed to be an achievement? I mean, really it’s a harmless and defenceless bird which happens to have a dwindling population.
How can killing it be momentous enough to warrant a photo? Surely that can’t be a highlight in someone life. Will they be flicking through photos with their grandchildren saying “And this is when I got married. This is when you’re father was born and oh yes, this is when I killed a poor owl and contributed to its extinction”?
I know that in Jordan the owl represents bad luck but does that make its killing justified? Should we also be killing black cats? Reports did emerge that Gray wolves in Jordan were being hunted, poisoned and ran over as they are considered a huge threat but surely, it’s different for such a clearly harmless creature? Well, apparently not.
Head of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature’s field research, Ehab Eid, told the Jordan Times that hunting is a real threat to the owl population in Jordan. “People hunt owls because in our culture, owls are thought to bring bad luck and jinx those who see them,” Eid explained. However, owls have many benefits that people are not aware of, Eid said, such as limiting the spread of rodents that carry diseases.
: Image via Jordan Times/MENAfn.
For more on animal rights abuses in the Middle East see:
Kuwaiti Man Kills Wolf and Then Shows Off
Gulf Country Completely Bans Ownership of Wild Animals
Kuwaitis Use Shotgun to Kill 12 Flamingoes
Jordan’s Gray Wolves Are Hunted, Poisoned and Run Over
Author: Arwa Aburawa
Arwa is a Muslim freelance writer who is interested in everything climate change related and how Islam can inspire more people to care for their planet and take active steps to save it while we can. She is endlessly suspicious of all politicians and their ceaseless meetings, especially as they make normal people believe that they are not part of the solution when they are the ONLY solution. Her Indian auntie is her model eco-warrier, and when Arwa is not busy helping out in the neighborhood alleyway garden, swap shopping or attempting fusion vegetarian dishes- with mixed success, she’d like to add- she can be found sipping on foraged nettle tea.
Regardless of how far back in the past people live in the middle east, most of their philosophies are bogus. Women shouldn’t be kept as puppets and sex slaves and animals are not dirty or bad luck. They treat animals the same brutal way in Croatia and surrounding countries. #porkisevilanddirty
pourquoi pourquoi…les oiseaux sont nos freres nous devons les respectés.se sont des anges qui lutte contre les superstitions comme les chats noires qui ne font de mal a personnes.TOUTES les creatures sont et doivent etre en harmonie avec notre joyaux la TERRE.aidons nous a combattre notre ignorance.
Owls, in Jordan, are considered a harbinger of the “evil eye” or a sign of bad luck. Shaul Aviel, of Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, has been actively working in conjunction with Jordanian authorities to enlighten the population there as to the advantages of barn owl to agriculture. This program, which has been going on for years, has had great success (see the recent article on owls on this website!). As with anything having to do with the environment, the key word is education and awareness of advantages to having an owl population that naturally controls the rodent population.
Saw this in The Jordan Times – and was tempted to write about it – until I overheard 2 young teens (looking at the same newspaper) say “wow, cool”.
Wish I knew the stats: I think putting the spotlight on this only feeds the insanity.
There’s another owl-killing floating around the web – some soccer knucklehead kicking a downed bird off-field. Wonder if those teens thought “wow, cool” about that too.
Crazy stuff.
Maybe if the media pointed out, wow way not cool, then Jordanians will stop doing this.