Today’s topic is a result of recent events that have inspired me to discuss the lack of care many people have for our earth’s animals.
I’ve seen this carelessness firsthand, as well as online.
Two examples that stick out to me are:
- My friend taking a wild baby turtle home to keep as a pet (resulting in its starvation and agony for a week).
- A YouTube video where a teenager was chasing and catching wild iguanas and threw one into the ocean.
Let’s discuss number one. That baby turtle was oh-so-adorable. It was kept in a small tank with a few lettuce leaves in my friend’s room, and it tirelessly tried to climb the tank’s walls to escape. I encouraged her to release it, but she refused to do so. We took it into her backyard where I placed it on the floor to walk around, and it waddled so quickly away from me in the direction of the sunlight. No matter how much I tried convincing her to let it go, my friend wouldn’t do so.
I went home and told my mom, and we both felt sad for the poor turtle, ripped out of its natural habitat to entertain a kid. What’s worse is that my friend’s father brought her the turtle. I didn’t understand how an adult could make such an irresponsible decision.
Luckily, she released it after a week because it wouldn’t eat, and I think she got bored of it. Nonetheless, that is a cruel thing to do to an animal.
The second example, a YouTube video, received some backlash after a teenager put an iguana in distress (especially since the one that was caught happened to be an endangered species). Although the person in the video was only in their late teenage years, there is a difference between interacting with animals (feeding them, taking photos of them, etc.) and hurting them, and the teen was old enough to distinguish the difference between the two.
Some people made the comment that “we’ve all done dumb things as teenagers and were lucky enough that they weren’t caught on camera.” Though this is a fair point, I do believe that we should teach others to be gentle with wildlife, especially if you’re someone with an influential platform.
Practicing this in our everyday life
It’s not difficult to make a difference and treat animals with respect. There are a few givens such as being patient with creatures crossing roads.
In some areas, there are turtles that cross roads. You can stop for them, perhaps move them, and potentially save their life.
Other things include helping animals that may be suffering. When I was in second grade my family found a bird that wasn’t moving during a rainstorm. We took it home for a day and kept it on my balcony with an open shoebox for it to hide in (shelter), birdseed and fruit, and allowed it to recover before releasing it. It flew away, happy and healthy.
Final thought
Just your reminder to be gentle with wildlife and treat animals with respect. 🤗
Make smart decisions and please don’t take wild animals into your home unless they are hurt, or you’ve taken them to a veterinarian and were told that they have a small chance of survival in the wild and should be taken in.
Hope you enjoyed this post, and don’t forget to leave a comment below!
-Nicole
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