In an interview, Javed Akhtar was asked this question, and his answer, along with the way he explained it, was quite interesting. Here is the link to the full video.
"You must have heard so many people talk about 'Save the Tiger' and 'Save Wildlife.' How can you kill animals like this? How can you kill a tiger? Has anyone ever stopped fishing? Nobody. Fishing is actually supposed to be some kind of entertainment. You're retired, you have leisure time, so you go fishing. There's no noise, no commotion, no violent sound, nothing. You're sitting near a lake, and a few of us are having beer.
Fishing is seen as a gentle activity. But now, let’s look at it from the fish’s perspective. You enter a room, and you see your favorite dish, like a gulab jamun, hanging by a thread. So, you rush and take the gulab jamun into your mouth. But inside the gulab jamun is a steel hook that goes through your palate, and then someone pulls you up. You reach a point where there is no oxygen, and you are lying there, but the person puts you on the floor and, with a sharp knife, starts skinning you alive.
Nobody calls fishing sadistic. Nobody calls it human cruelty. Why? Only because the fish doesn’t have vocal cords.
The only reason art, poetry, and storytelling exist is because society has vocal cords. If there were no vocal cords, people would silently kill you in tranquility, and it would be considered a great act, your silence, your death.
Society's collective aspirations, collective sorrow, deprivation, and collective hope are expressed in art and poetry. That’s why poetry touches the heart, like storytelling. Because society has vocal cords. If there were no vocal cords, people would kill you in silence.
Your silence is their tranquility"