One moment that has really stood out for me was our group's trip to Ica and Paracas. We went to an island where the water was blue, the dirt brown, and there was animal life everywhere. The penguins sat on rocks, watching our little boat cruise by. The sea lions sat, fat and seemingly happy, many of them socializing with each other. We also spotted several dolphins- which looked the way I've always imagined dolphins would look. It was awesome we could see all these animals in more of a natural environment, playing and spending time with their families, as opposed to my other animal experiences in Peru. The zoo we went to as a class featured many animals that seemed to be underfed and in less than prime condition. Birds had feathers missing, snakes were sitting in pools of filthy, almost opaque water. Nothing in there looked like it had many years left. My other animal experience in Peru was when we went to Crocodile Island near Mancora. It was a hot day, typical of Peru, and even more so since we were in very north. There was no water in sight for these crocodiles, and there were, in my opinion, way too many crocodiles per pit. I'll be the first to admit I know next to nothing about crocodiles, but I can't imagine any animals enjoys being in that close of quarters. They didn't have room to move around, and there was no shade. There was an awful smell coming from the pit, and at first I thought it must just be waste, but our tour guide even admitted that a lot of the crocodiles were dead. The problem was there either weren't enough resources or enough motivated to move the dead crocodiles out of the pit. This meant the living crocodiles had to be constantly surrounded by dead bodies. My friends and I were trying to determine which of the crocodiles were dead and which were alive- it seems the majority were either dead or just extremely dried out. I don't know how they could live without water. When we asked the tour guide why they dumped all the crocodiles in there instead of letting them live in the wild, he said it was safer for them in there. He said in the wild people would try to hunt them, since their skin can be used to make a lot of fashion items. I couldn't imagine a life of captivity and certain premature death would be preferable to one of freedom even if there was still certain premature death. I can't say I've ever been a crocodile, but for me personally it doesn't seem like fun to be locked in a pit with a bunch of corpses of my own species. Other dead species, I can't say, but my own? Definitely not. There was an opportunity for photos at the end, there was a crocodile tourists could pose with. Mallory asked if the crocodile was real, and the guide said yes, it had been stuffed when it died so they could use it as a prop. We all took one happy photo with the crocodile, and one sad photo. I also rode a horse in Lunahuana, and the horse was in pathetic shape. Anna, Mallory, and I went with a Peruvian girl to go white water rafting and ride horses. The white water rafting was all fine and dandy, but when we saw the horses, we had to debate whether we should even ride them or not. The horses looked not only exhausted but also starved. It seemed as though they hadn't been fed properly in some time, and we could see a lot of their ribs prominently. The thing that convinced us to still ride them was that their owners looked in even worse shape. Knowing that poverty is a real problem in Peru, and many people struggle to provide for their family, we thought it was better to provide something for these people. I did feel guilty about putting so much weight on the horse. In addition, I had the most feisty horse. For whatever reason, Anna and Mallory were guided by a girl and they just got to sit there and ride along. However, my guide offered no help and I had to completely guide the horse by myself. Why he thought I was capable of this, I don't know. I hadn't ridden a horse since I was in Girl Scouts- more than 10 years ago. My horse constantly got off the path or started to go too fast or try to stand up. I was terrified by this, and have now vowed to never ride another horse. On a different note, I read a blog about a girl who decided to become vegan for health reasons- and felt she became much less sluggish when she cut out processed foods including cheese. I asked my pen pal why she is vegetarian, because after reading that article I was interested to hear her reasoning. She said it is because when she was 12 years old she read a book about the horrible treatment of animals in the slaughterhouse system, and how many emissions are given off when producing one cut of meat. She cares about the environment, and she cares about animals, and that is her reasoning for no longer consuming meat.
Is it unethical to use animals for human gain? Yay or neighhhh?