By: Cindy and Eileen Guo
Keychains have always been a major trend in Asian countries, whether it’s hung on purses, backpacks, phones, etc. Most people love Asian countries for their cute animal keychains: stuffed animals. However, it’s not just fake animals that people are carrying now. A recent uproaring trend would be the living animal keychain. Vendors put the little animal in a small plastic bag with colored water in order to make a keychain. These animals include a huge variety such as baby sea turtles, salamanders, goldfish, and other types of baby sea life. The bags cannot be opened, so the poor animal either starves to death or dies from the lack of oxygen. These keychains are priced at a cheap American equivalent of $1.50. The animals die extremely fast, and people just go back and purchase some more because of the affordable price.
Destroying lives of defenseless animals to reel in profit is completely unethical and sickening. We have been raising awareness to keep our polluted oceans clean, but now people are going beyond borders by kidnapping animals and hanging them on their backpacks! No matter how bad the economy can get, we shouldn’t be destroying lives of other creatures to improve our well being. There are many different ways to earn money, not just by hurting innocent animals. Profit-thirsty vendors need to stop this, for it is unnecessary and morally disturbing.
