COULD WILD ANIMALS BE KEPT AS PETS?

Could wild animals be kept as pets? No, no, and once again NO! Wild animals should not be kept as pets. Nor should it be legal for wild animals to be kept as pets. The fact that so many wild animals are kept as pets is to me a blatant abuse of these animals. The mere fact that they are wild is the reason. Wild animals are wild, not domesticated no matter how long they have been kept in captivity, how young they were when acquired as a pet, how much you think you have bonded with the animal, or how cute and cuddly they appear.

One can not keep a wild animal as a pet and expect it to act or react in ways that domesticated dogs and cats do. This is not to say that domesticated dogs and cats can never be dangerous. We all know that in the hands of the evil, even dogs and cats can kill. But when you compare a house cat to a tiger, there is no match for the destruction. Wild animals are inherently and instinctively dangerous not to mention that forcing a wild animal to live in captivity is cruel.

These were huge news stories and make my point perfectly about how wrong and dangerous keeping wild animals is. These tragedies happen regularly and often times leaves the poor wild animal shot dead in a pool of its own blood just for doing what comes naturally. Then, people want to blame the animal and rarely blame the animal’s captor for reckless handling. Is keeping a wild animal in your house, around your children, friends, and family any safer than keeping a loaded gun?

It should also be stressed how torturous being kept in captivity is to a wild animal. Disallowing a wild animal to be wild is like if not worse (because the animal doesn’t know why) than putting you in prison for life for committing a crime you didn’t do. Would you like that? Would you sit in prison day after day saying to yourself how great it is? 

After all, you are being cared for, you get three meals a day, healthcare, and entertainment. Sounds good but is it? Or would you grow, more and more with every day that passes, resentful, angry, vengeful, crazy, hostile, and enraged? I believe you would and so do these animals. Therefore, it should be no surprise to anyone when a wild animal finally snaps.

Our handling as humans of wild animals is appalling, arrogant, selfish, negligent, and unjust. I ask you to boycott any spectacle that uses wild animals for entertainment. And I call for laws forbidding with strict penalty the capture and imprisonment of any wild animal. I call for justice and rights for wild animals everywhere. Leave wild animals where they belong, save lives, and if you need a pet, visit your local animal shelter where plenty of domesticated dogs and cats, victims once again of human ignorance, are waiting to be adopted.

HAMDAN SYAKIRIN BIN ZAIDUN 16121

MOHAMAD AZRI BIN JOHAN 15916