Relationships with Animals

Here is another post that was written by a Palo Alto teen about a cause they care about.

Relationships are important for me, both relationships with my friends, families, and animals. I always think the earth is not only human, but also animals and plants. Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to the development of science and technology in order to build an advanced world. But at the same time, more and more trees have been cut down, more and more rivers and oceans have started to get dirty and messy. More and more innocent animals die because of this. 

I have watched a lot of documentaries about dangerous animals and also how people hunt animals for money. What impressed me most was a documentary called "Ocean". I watched this movie when I was very young ( As the information I got from the internet, I was five years old when this movie came up. But I think I watched it when I was around eight years old) It was directed by Jacques Perrin. “Oceans presents details and facts about the journey of the ocean.” I still remember at the end of the documentary, people caught the sharks and cut their fins. After cutting off the most expensive part of the sharks, they will throw the sharks back into the ocean and let them die slowly in their own home. I can still remember how the “no fins” shark turned the beautiful sea red. I was crying in my mom’s hug because of the cruelty of people and the poor sharks. For the first time as a little girl, I thought there were more bad people than the little boy who stole my candy. I told my mom: “Mom, I don’t like them. I don’t want to eat sharks! I want to protect them. Why can’t they have lollipops and play with friends like me? When I grow up, I will make friends with them and help them to fight with the bad guys!” 

In addition to watching ocean documentaries, I have loved to get a pet since I was a kid. I would keep running around my mom and ask her: “ Mommy, a little sister (brother) or a dog! Make your decision!” Last year, my mom finally couldn't take it anymore. And we went to a dog shelter to adopt my “little brother” ---- Bronson. He is a German shepherd, who looks cool and fierce, and in fact very cute and friendly. When I took him home, I felt that he was much thinner than the original german shepherd. The dog shelter gave him two meals per day as a normal dog, but as a powerful big dog, he is full of energy. If he doesn't have enough exercise during the day, he doesn’t really want to eat dog food. ( Also, Bronson doesn’t like eating that much if he is not hungry.) He is so powerful that he should walk at least one and a half hours per day to be tired. Unfortunately, the dog shelter has lots of big dogs like Bronson. For sure, the dog shelter can’t take each of them for a long walk every day. From then on, I made up my mind to help these shelters take care of the animals.