Recently I am dealing with several cases of pet sun bear cubs. Among them are Fulung, Bunbun, Mary (we rescued this cub 3 days ago, stay tuned for her story), an unknown sun bear cub in West Malaysia, and this morning a reader from my blog asked me “where can I get one of these bears for myself?”. My answer to him was crystal clear: “No! You cannot get a sun bear for yourself!! It is a serious offense if you do. You will be fined, jailed, and caned if you do! Probably burn in hell too!”
No, no one can keep a sun bear as pet! Absolutely no one!
Sun bear is listed as “vulnerable” in the IUCN Red List of Threaten Animals. They are an endangered species. They are protected species by both national and international laws. In all range countries where sun bears are found, there are local and national wildlife protection laws that prohibit any one from killing, capturing, selling, keeping, harassing, etc., of sun bear. In addition, there are international laws like CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) prohibit any illegal trade of sun bears and their parts between countries. In short, YOU CANNOT OWN A SUN BEAR AS PET!
Why can’t you t own a sun bear as pet, although they are small, so cute, and super cuddly?
This is why YOU CANNOT OWN A SUN BEAR:
1) Protected by Law: Like I mentioned earlier, they are protected by law no matter where you are! In Malaysia, offenders can be fined up to RM100,000, jailed 5 years or both.
2) Dangerous I: Sun bear is a wild carnivore. They are very strong and equip with large canines and sharp claws that can do a lot of damage. In the wild, they use their strong claws and canines to break termite nests, and bee hives, even the bee hives that are found inside iron wood, one of the hardest wood in the world.
3) Dangerous II: They are wildlife that cannot be tame. The domestication of dogs and cats took thousands of years and generations. If you think you can tame a wild caught sun bear (even if it is a cub), I advise you to think again.
4) Sun bear serve important ecological roles such as seed disperser, ecosystem engineer, forest doctors etc., in the forest ecosystem. By removing a sun bear from the forest to captivity, you eliminate the important roles they will play in the forest.
5) Fuel wildlife market: By buying a sun bear as pet, you fuel (encourage) the wildlife pet trade market. You will encourage more people wanting to keep sun bear as pets. There will be more poachers looking for sun bear cubs in the forest. These poachers often have to kill the mother bears in order to capture her cubs. In addition, there will be more middle man to trade sun bears as it is a lucrative business.
6) Ethically and morally wrong: sun bear is part of the forest ecosystem in SE Asia. They evolve and survive in these forests for the past 5 million years. They have every ethical rights, ecstatic and intrinsic values to be part in the forest ecosystem. Any actions that result the killing, extirpation of the bear from these forests are therefore ethically wrong.
Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is set up because of many sun bears being kept as pets. (Read more at http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/05/07/bsbcc-%e2%80%93-how-did-it-all-begin/). At first it was fun to have a super cute sun bear in your house. However, as a bear, they have to grow fast and grow strong quickly to face all the challenges to survive. After several months, they grow big, become so strong and aggressive to a point their “owner” (they like to be called as a bear lovers) cannot handle them because they become too dangerous to be a “pet”. Al this point, there are often 3 options happen to the bears: a) make some money from the bears by killing the bears and sell their body parts, b) continue to keep them in small cage, and c) surrender to the authority. Regardless of what options, the life and the faith of the bears are mean to be doomed and worst them doomed. They are in hell!
Read the 3 parts blogs that I wrote few years ago:
http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/06/09/captive-sun-bears-series-i-because-they-are-cute/
http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/2008/06/20/captive-sun-bear-series-iii-life-in-hell/
After BSBCC was established 3 years ago, we have rescued 26 caged sun bears. Few days ago one of our volunteer asked me if I was happy to have Mary our latest rescued sun bear cub. I do not know how to answer her. I was not happy at all to see these bears being rescue. How can I possibly be happy if I know their mother was killed, habitat being destroyed, although she was so sweet and cute sucking my finger. I am glad we rescued her and she end up under our care in BSBCC. I can only be glad, not happy, that Mary is here. If you notice, my smiley face has long gone after I set up BSBCC because every day I see these rescued bears in BSBCC. Most of them definitely look happier and are definitely are happier than before. To me, I can only be glad but not happy because I know the sad and sorrow stories behind each and every one of our bears.
Please, do not keep sun bear as pet, if you are mentally normal and warm blooded!
Please, report any unlawful of keeping, killing, and trading of sun bears and its parts to the local authorities!
Please, help us spread the words and raise conservation awareness for this little forgotten bear!
~ Siew Te Wong
5 comments:
You are extremely rude. You rescue sun bears and put them in a cage as your pets......... someone who is trained in raising bears can keep bears as pets.... some people keep grizzly bears as pets. Some people even raise bloody lions. Ever heard of the lion whisperer. Just because they arent normally pets that doesn't mean you can't have one as a buddy. You just can't go into it without knowing anything. People say you can't keep foxes as pets. People do. You said you can't keep bears as pets people do. And successfully at that. All you need is the knowledge on how to properly raise one. I do not like you. Plain and simple. If I ever decide to get one as a pet. I would definitely have some training in raising bears first. You just can't treat it like a dog or cat or any other type of pet. It is a much difrent creature.it may be a protected species but that doesn't stop you from putting them in a cage for their own protection you bloody hypocrite.
Dear "Unknown", I think it is YOU who is rude. Not Wong, who has dedicated his life to sun bear conservation.
Pets
AMEN!!! You can say what you want. I lived with a sun bear
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