:: living on the brink ::

Have Your Say | Debate | Submission | Survey

The main purpose of this section was to invite children from several countries to openly express their views about endangered animals and our environment. For this, we held debates that lasted several weeks on the topics of conservation cloning, animals used in entertainment, animals used in research, and animals captured, bred, or stolen for exotic trade. We also requested children to submit free writing on the topic of endangered animals. In addition, we also conducted two multi-national surveys.

Overall, this section provides international perspectives from children on endangered animals and the various issues causing their endangerment. Please navigate through the pages for authentic, genuine, and realistic expressions from 831 children from 31 countries.

Animals in research
Over 100 million animals die in the name of research, education, and testing every year. This is a conservative estimate because in the U.S., the Animal Welfare Act, the law that requires keeping track of animals in labs, does not count mice and rats. It is estimated that an alarming 100 million mice alone are used in U.S. labs.

Exotic animals
Every year, millions of exotic animals are exchanged in trade for cruel human amusement. They are snatched from their natural habitats, stolen, or bred in captivity for wrong purposes. If the exotic pets become difficult to control, the owners abandon them, lock them up, or euthanize them.

Meet Noelle
Noelle is a female vervet. Our team adopted her this year from API. She is five years old. With her former owner, Noelle was treated like a human child. She wore diapers and was always in harness. She is emotionally disturbed as a result and always clutches a stuffed toy. She now stays with three other vervets in a larger vervet enclosure and is very vocal. She enjoys watching other monkeys play.