Treatment of wildlife: Teach kids the right values

Straits Times Forum 24 May 13;

IT IS ironic that the number of "monkey nuisance" calls has risen, when homes and commercial establishments are being built closer to our forests, edging out the animals that used to live there ("AVA explains monkey trapping video"; Wednesday).

It is ironic that we want to teach our children to be kind and gentle, to love and empathise, yet we sow in them the seeds of cruelty and disrespect for life when monkeys and wild boars are caught and probably will be culled because humans complain that they are a menace and destroy property.

These animals lived in the forests long before we started encroaching on their territory.

All life - human and animal - should be respected. We try to teach our young this basic tenet. Our children deserve more, for they will inherit what we leave behind; do we want cold, heartless, uncaring citizens, or those who will defend the weak and the voiceless?

We reap what we sow.

Corinne Fong (Ms)
Executive Director
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals