Student Essay 31: Pets by Shin Tae Min

Should pets be treated like family members? By Shin Tae Min, Year 9, Sayfol.

Do you like your family to be kicked? In the past, many people used dogs for hunting because they are wild, fast and they have sensitive noses so they could track targets easily. Nowadays, not many people hunt and they keep dogs as pets instead. Unfortunately, some owners hit their pets or treat them badly. Pets used to do whatever their owners ordered them to do but now they have rights to be treated as well as a family member. I think pets also have the right to be taken care of like a family member.

Firstly, pets are living things. Even though they are animals and have lower intelligence than we do, they have rights too because they are living things like human beings. They also like to enjoy their life and have fun. I once saw a dog that was abandoned by its owner and it was roaming around a rubbish yard. I was so sad to see that. I do not think that animals should be mistreated this way. In addition, a lot of these animals have lost their natural habitats because of human activity. Therefore, we have the responsibility to take care of them. We must take care of them like a family member because they are also creatures that breathe and live.

Next, pets have feelings, like we do. If we are sad, pets can play with us so that we don’t feel lonely. There is a Korean belief that feeding our pets can help us overcome our depression. Animals, like us, have feelings such as hunger, sadness and happiness. They are very similar to us in that respect. Besides that, they are also very loyal. There is a story about a man who woke up the middle of the night and found that he was surrounded by fire. His dog ran to a nearby river, wet itself, ran back and rolled itself on the fire to put it out. It sacrificed its own life so that its owner could survive. Stories like this abound and they show that animals are not only similar to us in many ways, but they may be better than us in some ways. Thus, we should take good care of them.

Finally, if we respect our pets, they will be more ready to obey us. If we treat them well, they will listen to us because they regard us as family. However, if we don’t respect or ill-treat them, they could harm us. I once saw on television a dog which often bit its mistress. Its master and the children were puzzled. Finally, they found out that she often beat the dog and didn’t feed it whenever she was left alone with it. So, if we treat our pets well, they will do whatever we tell them to do in order to earn our love. We will be able to discipline them if they behave badly like like we discipline our children. Hence, we must treat them well so that they will also treat us well and respect us.

In summary, pets should be treated like family members because they are living creatures with emotions. In my opinion, we should take good care of them because they are very helpful so we must repay their kindness. We should definitely not ill-treat or destroy the habitats of animals.