LIVE Animal Key Rings – The latest fashion must have.

It is not often that I present only one side of an argument. I like to give both sides of the debate, or at least not only represent my own opinion – in practice for my future career (fingers crossed!). In a lot of my posts, I look at why circumstances are as they are, and try and see the bigger picture. That said there are times when I feel exceptions can be made and here is one of those exceptions:

A couple of weeks ago I came across an article that literally disgusted me. I thought animal cruelty only happened because of a minority of individuals who didn’t care or were more concerned with self-interests. I had faith that the vast majority of humanity would be as outraged with animal cruelty as me. That was until I read this article, describing the new fashion craze to hit Beijing: Live animal key rings.

I was outraged to read that the younger generation are being sold turtle hatchlings, a newt or two small fish. These helpless animals are sold in a sealed plastic bag, with a brightly coloured liquid and enough oxygen to survive a couple of days at the most. Worse still, because these animals are not endangered there is no legislation to protect them from abuse, cruelty or being shaken in a plastic bag until they die of shock or complete deprivation of oxygen.

The RSPCA are working with the Chinese government to draft legislation but you have to wonder how effective it will be. In a country where it has always been ok to mistreat animals, will people change their opinions? Furthermore with future generations learning the bad habits of their elders, with ridiculous fashion accessories, can the mind-set of China change? Adding to this problem we shouldn’t forget despite this being a truly awful case, it is by no means the worst thing going on in China. So is it even a priority? And how do you enforce something so few people seem to care about? There are certainly many issues that face China, I just worry that asking for an almost complete transformation of culture and beliefs is really going to happen. Is it just too much to ask for?

Live animals as key rings
Live animals as key rings - the latest fashion must have!