Poaching | Teen Ink

Poaching

November 19, 2014
By Anonymous

I lived my life fascinated by animals. When I was young, I went to a zoo and saw many different animals and instantly fell in love with them. So as a kid, I grew up loving animals thinking that they will be on this earth forever. Or so I thought. I soon later found out that the animal's population were decreasing and soon many animals will be extinct. Hearing that, a big part of my childhood was basically broken. My favorite animals, extinct some time later. I had trouble processing it. I did some research on the topic and found out that a huge part why they are endangered is because of poaching. People hunting down innocent animals just for money or enjoyment. I believed that there was always good in people's hearts, but this ruined that belief. How can someone who kills innocent animals even have a heart? In 1950, lion population was estimated to be around 400,000. The population decreased so rapidly that by 2004, the lion population went down to 47,000, all because of poachers. Poachers are still in the world, so that made me want to become someone who catches these people and put them to justice. Although I am trying to pursue this career, there are many obstacles in my way. My parent believe that although it is helping the world, they believe that the job won't be a good choice money wise. They think that I should get a better job that makes more money to support myself and my family in the future. They also think it is dangerous, and I can't argue with that. I've read about people who are shot by accident or on purpose by poachers, and even the animals can harm you. But that is a risk I am willing to take. I cannot live in a world without animals. There are organizations like the WWF(world wildlife foundation) who are doing everything they can to save animals. But the money and people they have is not enough. We all have families who take care of us. Animals have the same. If a baby lion's mother is shot and killed, that baby is likely going to die of starvation. We don't shoot our parents, so why shoot theirs? We all need to join together as a community to save the animals, and if you think about it, animals are not so different from us. Like Gandhi once said," The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."


The author's comments:

I hope that this will help inspire people to step up and help make a change.


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