Keeping pets

Responsible ownership

Some people have weird ideas about which animals can constitute as pets.There had been accounts of people rearing animals unsuitable to be pets, like, for instance, a monkey, which scared neighbours out of their wits, to say the least.

In some countries, monkeys have been trained to carry out certain tasks, such as plucking coconuts, though I often wished they would drop the coconuts on their owners’ heads. But these monkeys are not pets… they are employees, with no union, to fight for their rights!
I sometimes wondered how some animals had been trained to perform certain acts. Did they have to undergo much pain and cruelty before they performed to their owners’ satisfaction?

We ooohed and ahhhhed at the circus when we saw tigers springing through flaming hoops or leaping over their snarling brethren.
We held our breaths when the lion trainer placed his head in a lion’s mouth.
We clapped and cheered when we saw an elephant balance on a big ball and we laughed at the sight of a number of elephants parading , each elephant holding on to the preceding elephant’s tail, with a very cute baby elephant right at the end.
How much suffering and misery lay behind such marvellous circus acts or were the trainers or owners of these animals enlightened enough to teach them with love and patience?
Fortunately, it is now not politically correct to have animal performances in a circus.Another reason besides the possibility of questionable training methods is the fact that the animals are caged, to the detriment of their health, both mental and physical.