India, Sept. 14 -- Some wild creatures get trapped in popular lores and cultural mores which are not based on a scientific understanding of their lives. They are given the proverbial "bad name" and then it is morally easier to deal brutally with them. One such stigmatised 'caste' is the Asian or Common Palm civet.

A magnificent specimen was rescued from Banur (Punjab) on Wednesday morning in a horrific, paralysed condition. Its spine was fractured, it was suffering from multiple haemorrhages and it had a brute of a wound under the tail. It died at Chhatbir Zoo on Thursday-Friday night. Either the creature had been bashed with a blunt instrument or it had suffered a vehicle hit.

The civet is labelled as a 'Kabr bijjoo' or 'Murda khor', i...