Pet 　　

Animals are very sensitive and feel everything that people feel. They feel pain, fear, loneliness, hunger, grief, frustration, happiness, comfort, pleasure, and everything else that we experience. They need everything we need: good food, a comfortable home, companionship, love, and protection.

Before getting a pet, there are many things we need to consider. Do we have the time to devote to their proper care? Can we afford them? Will we have familial and/or community support?Are we ready to care for them for a lifetime? We also need to gather basic information on how to take care of pets from reliable sources and prepare suitable housing, food, and contact with vets when they are sick.

We should carefully choose the right animals as pets. Wild animals don’t make good pets for many reasons. Many people don’t know how to care for them in captivity so they often die in short period of time. Also, many individuals may die under terrible circumstances before they even make it to the pet market because of the inexperienced or uncaring people who are responsible for getting them to the market. Animals which have been domesticated for a long time such as cats, dogs, goldfish, rats, and birds are fit for captivity and can be selected as pets. Another important thing to know is that it is better to adopt a stray or from shelter than to buy from pet shops. However, if we decide to purchase from a pet shop, we must make sure it’s a reputable one.

Good food is essential to how well pets live. You need to understand their dietary needs, prepare the proper foods, and feed them regularly to ensure healthy growth.

Neutering is also a necessity for your pets. The most important reason to have your dog or cat neutered is to prevent the birth of unwanted puppies and kittens. Neutering lowers the chance of a female dog from developing breast cancer and uterine infections. In males, it eliminates the risk of testicular cancer and lowers the risk of prostate cancer and other problems. Neutering is not a cure for aggressiveness, but it may lessen the urge to fight, particularly in males. It also lessens the likelihood that an animal will spray urine, cry, and mark territory.Un-neutered pets may be anxious because they have no outlet for their natural urges. Neutering eliminates this frustration and makes pets less distracted, more easily trained, and a more content member of the family.

Just as with humans, pets need us to care for their psychological well-being. We need to provide them with a comfortable living environment, give them novel objects to play with, spend time with them, and train them.

Never give up or release your pets into the wild. Released pets may suffer and die because they cannot adapt themselves to the new environment. If they survive, they will compete for resources with native plants and animals and thus threaten native species.

Pets are humans’ friends. They live with us and completely depend on us. To be a responsible pet owner, we need to care for them for their entire lives.

How to be a good pet owner:

• Love them and be responsible for them for their entire life
• Understand their habitats and needs and respect them
• Get them a “ ID” card and get them vaccinated
• Have them neutered
• Provide proper food
• Provide clean water every day
• Make sure they exercise daily (at least 15-20 min)
• Make sure they have proper ID tags or other forms of identification
• Always keep your dogs leashed and pick up after them.
• Spend more time with your pets if possible, strengthening the human-animal bond and teaching them how to live with humans.

More information;

http://www.hsus.org/pets/issues_affecting_our_pets

Asian Turtle Crisis

Turtles and tortoises are some of the most loved and revered animals on our planet. They are recognized for their longevity, gentle nature, beautiful and protective shell, and their appealing appearance. However, similar to many species worldwide, turtles are becoming endangered and disappearing at an alarming rate. This is especially true for Asian species. Three-fourths of Asia’s freshwater turtles are now listed as threatened and more than half are considered endangered. Habitat destruction is almost always the main cause for the loss of species; however, in the case of turtles and tortoises, it is over consumption and pollution by humans. In Asia, turtles are usually bought for food, medicine or pets and sometimes for their shells (to sell as ornaments).

While there is some data available on the numbers or shipment weights of turtles traded, the available data are incomplete, making it impossible to really know the depth of the problem..

Mistreatment of animals during shipment and while being held in markets is a major problem. Most of the animals die during the journey or shortly thereafter. This shows that humans have lost respect for living things, subjecting turtles to this inhumane treatment.

Often people buy turtles as pets without learning about how to properly care for them. Often turtles starve or die of disease very quickly and then the people may return to the market to get a new pet, increasing the drain on wild populations. Turtles can live for a very long time; some species may live up to 100 years or more.Sometimes people tire of taking care of them and release them into the wild. Usually, one of two things happens to those animals. Often, they suffer and die a painful death because they do not know how to survive in a habitat they do not belong in. Some species, such as the red-eared slider, a common species bought as pets and for food, survive and reproduce so well that they crowd out native animals ，thus driving Asian species closer to extinction.

What people can to help:

• Don’t buy turtles and tortoises as pets.
• Don’t buy turtles and tortoises for food or medicine.
• Don’t take turtles or tortoises out of the wild.
• Don’t release pet turtles or tortoises in to the wild.
• Don’t litter.
• Share your information with others and persuade them not to buy turtles or turtle products.

More information:

http://nytts.org/asianturtlecrisis.html

http://www.chelonia.org

http://www.turtlesurvival.org

Amphibians

Amphibians are the group of animals that include frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians. The members of the Class Amphibia were the first terrestrial vertebrates to successfully colonize Earth about 350 million years ago.

Amphibians play a critical role in ecosystems and in many food chains. They eat both plants and tiny animals and they are prey (food) for many animals and have a significant impact in nutrient cycling. Adult amphibians are the best biological pest controllers. Unlike pesticides, they don’t cause harm to humans and other animals. Because of their importance in ecosystems, the decline or extinction of their populations has a significant impact on the other plants and animals surrounding them.

Amphibians are very sensitive to environmental changes. They are often the first animals to noticeably decline in areas just beginning to experience environmental degradation. For this reason, amphibians are considered to be important bio-indicators.

The world's amphibians are in grave danger. Populations of frogs, toads, and salamanders around the world have been declining in recent years, and in some regions, entire. populations have been wiped out. Forests that once rang with whistles and chirps are now silent, while some species are declining in habitats that don’t seem to be disturbed. These population declines may indicate environmental problems that otherwise would not be noticeable. Scientists are just now beginning to unravel some of the causes for the declines, but species are going extinct faster than we can determine why.

Several theories have been proposed to explain the decline of amphibian populations and extinction of some species. These theories include infectious disease (chytridiomycosis, ranaviruses, bacterial infections and parasites), environmental toxins and endocrine disruptors, increased exposure to ultraviolet light, global climate change and other ecological disturbances .

When amphibian species begin to decline, the effects on the surrounding environment can be profound. Many mammals and other animals that rely on amphibians as a food source are noe threatened. Declining amphibian populations also result in increased populations of some organisms that can be dangerous if their numbers are not controlled such as insects, zooplankton, algae, and other microorganisms that amphibians would control through consumption. The disruption in the food chain caused from declining amphibian species can have a trickle down, or trickle up: a chain reaction that makes its way through the food chain, and very feasibly could reach human populations.

Here are some easy things you can do to help:

• To reduce your impact on the global warming: reduce energy consumption, save electricity, take public transportation if possible, plant trees.
• To reduce pollution: reduce the consumption.
• Don’t buy frogs, toads or salamanders as food, pets or medicine.

More information:

www.globalamphibians.org/overview.htm

www.iucnredlist.org

http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/biodiversity/amphibians/ecological.htm

http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/biota/herps/amphibians.htm