But NOT Your Home

 

Almost everyone loves animals! And why not? Having wildlife around adds so much to our lives-color, beauty, excitement, and laughter. Some people think that the best way to enjoy wildlife is to keep wild animals as pets. But we have to ask ourselves an important question: Best for whom?

Certainly not for the wild animal, although at first it might seem otherwise. After all, we would provide our pet with all the food and water it needs, a safe and warm place to live, and lots of love. But let's try to look at it from the animal's point of view.

Try to imagine that you are a small bird or a raccoon or a lizard. There you are, minding your own business, when suddenly a human hand swoops down and carries you away. Sure, its just a hand, but you probably think you've been captured by a monster! Who is going to eat you! Imagine how terrified you would be at that moment.

Well, the monster doesn't eat you, at least not yet. But it's definitely carrying you off. Away from your mom, if you are still a baby, or away from your mate and your children. You are taken into a strange place where you can no longer see the sky. You are surrounded by strange smells and sounds. Then you are placed inside a cage. 

This is like nothing you've every experienced before! In fear, you might try to fight your way out of the cage, and hurt yourself in the process. Or you might just give up and try to disappear by being very still and quiet. Unfortunately, the monster might interpret your stillness as contentment, and think you are happy to have been caught and placed inside a cage.

Eventually, the monster places food and water inside the cage. If you are lucky, the meal you've been offered is actually something you like to eat-but chances are it's something you've never seen before. But it might not matter. You might be too scared to eat. If you are still a baby, you might not know how to eat on your own, or if you are a mammal you might still need your mother's milk. And the milk from the monster's refrigerator won't do. In fact, it will probably make you sick.

Now, the monster isn't really a monster. It's just a person who thought it would be fun to have a wild animal as a pet. This person thinks they've done something nice for you-after all, you are safe and warm, and you have plenty of food and water. What more could you need? You don't have any way to tell this person that you aren't happy. That you miss having the freedom to go where you choose, to eat what you prefer, and to interact with others of your own kind. Dogs and cats like to live with people, but you are a wild animal. This is not your home. You are not a pet. You are a prisoner.

If only you could help this person understand what it would be like to be locked up in a room - a very nice room, with a TV and video games and pizza delivery every day, but no other people to talk to or play with, and no chance to ever leave the room unless you were on a leash.

There are many different meanings behind the statement, "I love animals." To some people those words mean they want to keep animals as pets. Ownership is not love. Love is putting another's welfare ahead of your own wishes. Love is wanting what's best for someone else. Keeping a wild animal as a pet is never what's best for the animal. If you truly love wild animals you'll allow them to live free.