It’s plain madness when teenagers use hedgehogs as soccer balls

I think it’s horrible when people don’t show compassion for animals. Honestly, I can’t understand what some parents are teaching their children since I read that teenage boys use hedgehogs as soccer balls! Here in Sweden many hedgehogs get abused each summer, people kick them around, using them like a ball, and sometimes they get stabbed with a knife. Sometimes the hedgehogs are so severely abused that they can’t be saved by the associations who rescues hedgehogs, and some are abused to death before they get rescued.

I think it is plain madness when young people behave like that! I can’t understand why the adults in their lives don’t teach them to show empathy and compassion for animals. They should teach the teenagers that standing out from the crowd is courageous, that they are brave if they refuse to take part in cruel group activities like that. I think that parents should teach their kids to stand up for the innocent and the weak because that is the right thing to do.

Parents should teach their children to show respect for animals

This got me thinking of another cruel thing I heard about many years ago. A man had rented out a cottage to some tourists. After they had left, he discovered something horrific in the lodge! In the middle of the floor laid two poor vipers. The people had caught and put tape on the snakes in order to stick them to the floor, so they weren’t able to move. The poor vipers died because of the abuse. I felt both sad and angry when I heard it! Sad because I wish that the snakes could have been saved, and angry because I thought the people were cruel.

Viper is a protected species here in Sweden, besides all snakes here, are protected, meaning it’s forbidden to kill, hurt or catch snakes and their eggs and hatchlings. I wish that parents could teach their children to respect that.

Remember that standing out from the crowd is courageous

The world will never be a better place if people don’t start to show compassion for all animals and their fellow humans. If you feel that something isn’t right, if your inner voice tells you not to take part in something, don’t do it. Remember that standing out from the crowd is courageous. The bravest thing of all is to stand up for the innocent and the weak. Please show kindness and respect to every creature on earth!

It’s when you dare to do the right thing and stay true to yourself that you can become as happy as the cow that jumped over the moon 🙂

And here comes my poem that says that standing out from the crowd is courageous 🙂

Standing Out From the Crowd

Stand up for what you believe in
even if it’s hard
even if it means
means you stand out from the crowd

I know that feels lonely
but it’s okay
Being alone makes you strong
strong enough
strong enough to fight for what’s right

Standing out from the crowd
is courageous
It means you’re brave
brave enough
brave enough to stay true to yourself