A video of a lion cub sitting in the backseat of a car alongside a young man is going viral on Instagram after it was posted online by a wedding photographer. The photographer spotted the unlikely pet at a red light. When she asked about the cub, the person in the car said that the cub was 8-month-old and named Mufasa. This clip has gathered over 2.6 lakh likes since it was posted on December 23. Despite the likes, many people took to the comments section to argue that wild animals should not be confined as pets.
A post shared by Umbreen Ibrahim Photography – Ambreen Razvi (@umbreenibrahimphotography)
“They are not pets, please free them,” an Instagram user wrote. Another person remarked, “But he doesn’t seem happy! You can’t just domesticate these animals like this. When they do what they actually do in the wild, then people come and give their unnecessary gyan ki. These animals should not be shown any mercy and stuff!”
Animal rights activists have long advocated that wild animals should not be domesticated as it infringes on their wellbeing and freedom. Born Free USA, a non-profit that opposes the exploitation of wild animals in captivity, wrote on their website, “Individuals possessing exotic animals often attempt to change the nature of the animal rather than the nature of the care provided. Such tactics include confinement in small, barren enclosures, chaining, beating “into submission,” or even painful mutilations, such as declawing and tooth removal.”
Domestication of big cats in confined urban areas also poses a danger to their owners. In recent years, there have been many cases where wild animals that were born and raised in captivity fatally attacked their owners.
The pet lion trade is rampant in Pakistan. Uzma Khan, who works as a technical advisor for WWF-Pakistan, told The Herald, “The problem is that there is no law in Pakistan to prohibit the possession of a wild imported animal. If, for instance, someone is keeping a lion as a pet inside their house and their neighbors do not like it, all they can do is go to the police and register a complaint under section 289 of the Pakistan Penal Code that pertains to negligent conduct concerning an animal.”
The rich across the world buy wild animals as a show of their wealth and status. The laws around the selling and buying of wild animals and big cats vary from country to country which makes universal protection of wild animals difficult.
What's your reaction?
Comments
0 comment