Animal Cruelty: Wild Animal Captivity

When people think of animal cruelty, they often times don't think of keeping previously wild animals as "pets". People often end up keeping wild animals because they rescued them from a bad situation, but instead of letting them go upon reaching full health, they keep them captive. This is not seen as animal cruelty by many people, but in reality, it is.

Wild animals live in the wild for a reason. They have family, they have lives. They know their place in the wild. When humans come in and take them from their families and their lives, they have no idea what's going on. They're put in cages and sometimes seen as "vicious" for fighting against this theft. They're used to their lives in the wild, and it's completely unfair of humans to assume they know what's best and kidnap an animal. Granted, they're cute, sometimes they need saving, and many other excuses. This is the most ridiculous reason for caging animals and treating them as commodities to serve humanity.

Animal rescue is great, and unfortunately it can be necessary. If they need saving, that's horrible, and the fact that there are people who dedicate their lives to saving wild animals is very admirable. However, in animal rescue, the wild animals are freed back into their natural habitats upon healing. Wild animals are not kept for longer than is needed after healing. However, keeping wild animals as pets is excessively cruel, and very unnecessary. It denies animals their rights to freedom, it takes them away from their children and mates, it pulls them out of everything they have ever known. What is this for? This is usually because someone feels the desire to exert dominance over wild animals, or because someone thinks they're oh, so cute and cuddly, and must have one!