Fighting For Their Rights

People Have No Right to Keep Exotic Animals as their Home Pets.

I've always wanted to have either a koala or a panda bear, but keeping an exotic animal as a pet is not only illegal in the most of the countries, but also immoral. Even though, there are people whose money allows them to buy everything possible; however, attained wild animals usually become obsolete for them as it has always happened  with their own toys, just trophies to brag about.

Statistics shows that 75% of exotic animals' deaths occur while in captivity, becoming a multi billionaire outlaw trade that has more captive tigers, around 7 thousand, in comparison to the 3.5 thousand that still live in the wilderness.

In 2015, slow lorises were filmed just eating rice balls, thing

that triggered a tracking of those videos posted in YouTube, letting us stay that both e-commerce and social media websites, have their hands dirty because of releasing visuals of suffering animals in poor conditions, but not banning them, which should be regarded as lack of common sense and humanity, thing which is by far, a morbid fascination.

Poaching and plucking animals from the wild is a black business, a market that has no soul,  that shouldn't be supported by anyone, but as part of a mindset where many are educated as if they were more because of what they own, then this is a lost fight where birds, like the African gray parrots, are being brought to the brink of extinction.

On the other hand, 90% of reptiles carry out salmonella in their feces, whose contact with humans may contaminate them, risking their lives if not correctly handled. This is a serious issue, unveiling that not for having the economic means, you are prepared to deal with animals, as a trained veterinarian could professionally do it. Nowadays, the coronavirus that has killed a thousand Chinese people, is said to have been infesting them throughout the infected pangolins.

Despite everything told and shown, is it possible to make

from this global mostly illegal black market anything more humane? In my personal opinion, this is impossible, since many traders even poach and as a resuling effect of the corrupted politicians in positions to protect the wildlife, instead they sell under the table the right permissions, making these exotic species seem as legally bred.

I would like to bring your attention to the fact that as long as there are policies which compel to join the healthy movement to protect endangered species, there should also be other kinds of   regulations intended to dignify confiscated traded exotic animals that die while being supposedly protected by those called to care for them, as a consequence of the inhumane conditions in which they remain under tones of legal papers, when they should be released to their habitats as soon as possible.

The first step into making from this trafficking a more humane attempt to lower mistreated exotic animals was signed in 1972 and entered into force on July 1st, 1975 , it was "The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement signed by 183 governments, from which also Colombia has voted to ban or limit trade in many animal species sought after as pets", but this hasn't been proven that effective so far. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reference/exotic-pet trade/&ved=2ahUKEwij7LDBlMjnAhWQrVkKHbfEDoIQFjABegQIDRAH&usg=AOvVaw0pzXwPo2N6UktXGk_nPMAU&cshid=1581380607568.

Finally, let's see how everything evolves, if in favor of the poor traded creatures who have no voice, or for the sake of some  people, whose appetite is to recall how much they have, no matter what, but in many cases own the media, since their money talks in a language that makes from everyone else their accomplices.

" The most dangerous animal in the woods is a wounded one. We've been stabbed by the media and everyone else. It will all be silenced tomorrow" Antoine Hood.

By Miss Odilia Pérez

E.L.A. Teacher