Just got news that Thunder has left for the Rainbow Bridge. R.I.P. little boy. My condolences to his loving family. They did a wonderful job providing him with only the best. The good ones die young they say…
Thunder turned 7 years old 8 days ago. You are sorely missed…
Filed under Rainbow Bridge
Since the longest time, there is a yearly and much ado hype around this Pet Expo that takes place in one of Malaysia’s largest shopping malls. It boast to be “the” place for all pet lovers and it is the largest gathering of anything related to pets – product suppliers and breeders from all over Malaysia. My last visit was 3 years ago and it was about time I revisit this “big” event now that my children have taken a keen interest in animals.
The only good thing that I can take away from this event is the vast variety of good animal products from a wide range of raw, holistic to organic offerings. Conventional kibbles are still selling like hot cakes. Whatever product a supplier is carrying, there is a subtle message that says, “mine is the best”. I can only sympathize misinformed pet owners that may be sucked into the whirlwind of “which is the best” tornado.
Yes, the wide range of good animal products is the only observation I appreciated during the entire visit. The huge amount of dislike will be discussed throughout the rest of this blog entry.
Three years on, looks like nothing have change as far is animal welfare is concerned. I had the “privilege” to see under aged puppies, cats, hamsters, sugar gliders, rabbits, guinea pigs, raccoons, prairie dogs and everything in between. There is this little booth that was bursting with large number of small animals caged up and another with puppies caged up – all up for sale. Whatever that can have a value on its head, is up for sale.
The most heart wrenching and appalling thing for me was that a few steps away from all these booths, you will find the likes of SPCA, PAWS and MDDB booths. Welfare organization looks like a very lucrative business to me in because all I see is a few sad looking puppies/dogs and a huge donation box filled with cold hard CASH!
How do I look at it?
If you have ever played the game called “CATCHING” or “POLICE AND THIEVES” back in school days, that’s exactly how I see the entire situation. HYPOCRISY at its best. My mind literally formed an image of the pet sellers going, “Nay, Nay, Nay, Nay, Nay – You cannot catch me” in the face of all these welfare societies and associations. It is utterly shameful.
The amount of effort to form and run such welfare societies should really be used to form task forces that targets and solve the “root” cause rather than being at the end of the “life cycle” of the problem. Animal welfare societies that concentrate too much of their effort in rescue is really breeding and encouraging pet sellers to sell more. Why should they worry because you will always be there to clean up the mess and after sales. What we need is a society that goes around shutting down bad/deplorable breeding facilities, put animal abusers behind bars and much more!
I guess all these are but for the idealistic minds because looking at how the nation is plagued with human welfare issues, we should not expect anything less or more when it comes to animals. But do not be surprised how the priority has changed for pet owners. We have humans living in deplorable condition but a lucky pooch eats holistic organic dog food which I myself cannot afford.
We rather splurge on a creature that loves us unconditionally but failed to love a fellow human unconditionally. That is just how ludicrous the situation is.
So now that I have written on my views, what action am I taking or what I am going to do about it? As for this nay sayer, I will never ever buy a ticket for such an expo and definitely will not ever buy a pet from such an expo/establishment that sells under age animals. It is of course easy for me to type my grievances behind the keyboard but, I (and all of us for the matter) is far more powerful than we think. We are the consumers that have the full power to make a change. After what I have seen today, I am reclaiming back that power. The power to stop buying.
When the buying really stops, then the killings can (truly be stopped) too….
Filed under Ramblings
Here I was in the waiting room at the car service centre and cannot help but to notice a lady with what appeares to me as a Sugar Glider bonding pouch. Firstly, I arrived at that conclusion based on experience and I guess it is only natural for one to notice certain things that he/she is intuned to. Growing up having all sorts of pets have indeed implanted or at least made me very aware the presence of cute furry animals.
My thoughts immediately turned into wonderment as to why we are fascinated with clingy pets. To tame sugar gliders, one need to bond with them and the one most important way is through scent. I have reasons to believe that people with strong body odour will have a lot of ease bonding with their pet sugar glider. Those who smell good have nothing to worry about as somehow your sugar glider will recognize you by scent anyhow. So yeah, you need a bonding pouch to keep this little marsupial comfortable and close to you at all times.
So why are we so drawn to keeping clingy animals as pets. I believe humans have the nature to nurture. We want to take care of another living creature and the more it acts like a little baby human, the more we are drawn to it. I am sure if given the choice, most of us will have no qualms raising baby chimpanzees and gorillas. Again, the human like behaviour is what draws us to another species.
No one notices that the lady have sugar gliders in that pouch because they were so comfortable being hung around her bosoms and it is also sleeping time. I guess the sense of achievement by successfully raising another living creature also plays a part to keep us interested in raising pets.
Filed under Random Topics
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