Friday March 29th, 2024
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Giraffe

The sad news of Giza Zoo's giraffe dying yesterday has left Hassan Hassan distraught and empathetic, not only for animals, but for Egypt as a whole.

Staff Writer

Last night after a long day, I went home and did that thing I do to ruin my life every night; I checked Facebook. Sitting on the toilet trying to poop, everyone started talking about some giraffe. Fuck, that stupid riddle is coming back, how can I block mentions of it from my phone? Then I found that an actual giraffe killed itself. Then some people were all RIP giraffe and making jokes about Paul Walker and generally being massive dicks. I was irrationally upset. Not irrationally in fact; this was fucking upsetting. I related to that giraffe incredibly. It was tall, it has been suicidal since August, and it had a panic attack that killed it.This giraffe could have literally been me.

Then I became obsessive. I could genuinely imagine being really tall and having a mob of Egyptians coming at me; with their sweat and their yelling and their laughter. With their rocks and their pointing and their insane euphoria at seeing me writhe and suffer in a cage in one of the worst kept zoos in the world. I would definitely have a panic attack. I would definitely hold my breath until I died. I would definitely, without fail, really just wish for death and the release it would bring. I feel the same way almost every day.

What the fuck is wrong with humanity? What would possess people to do this? What was the entertainment value in ganging up on a giraffe? A suicidal giraffe? It baffles me that this kind of ignorance still exists in the world. It really confuses me that we have been reduced to such a barbaric behaviour; a society that bullies and goads and tortures until you have no choice but to kill yourself. And nobody even stopped them.

I have never been one for animal rights, I have never been one of those people that would sit there and say save the dolphins before you look after actual humans. But at this point, I would choose animals over the general Egyptian populous. We have become a society that is, at its core, sick. We have lost respect for everything; humans, animals, infrastructure, art, architecture, history, heritage. Nothing means anything to us anymore and I don’t even know if there is a solution at this point. I know all of you are going to say ‘let’s focus on the people before we focus on the animals,’ but isn’t focusing on the animals going to mean focusing on people? Doesn’t educating them about how to treat living creatures and the environment and culture and how to act in general, help people?