five freedoms

1. Freedom from thirst, hunger & malnutrition
2. Freedom from discomfort & pain
3. Freedom from injury & diseases
4. Freedom to conform to essential behavior patterns
5. Freedom from fear & distress

And that's for my animals, courtesy of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI). This is part of a new bill that has been signed and all but not yet published because the BAI claims to have no budget allocated (yet). So we had to go there and copy it parts of the document.

Anyway, I'm all for this. Freedon 1 means proper vitamins and vaccination. Freedom 2 guarantees that the animals have enough space and that pet stores do not overstock. Freedom 3 requires a quarantine area of sorts. Freedom 4 is a bit tricky since all pet store environments are immediately artificial, but I guess we can provide them with a semblance of home. Freedom 5 means keeping them safe (but really: imagine that you're an animal in a pet store - wouldn't you be distressed?).

We are also enjoined by the BAI to "separate predator from prey pets". Well, yes.

Also, to "avoid selling 'stuffed animals'”. By this, they do not mean the cutie teddy bears (which I don't carry anyway) but the products of the taxidermists. The poor, posed, stuffed and mounted creatures with glass eyes. Never for me. Ever.

I'm doing my best to take care of the animals in our care. But I can't but think, looking at the 5 Freedoms, just how heart-breaking it all is, considering that so many people in our own country do not enjoy these "freedoms". (That's my social realist thought for the day, thank you).