Nonfiction Article RR #10- Killer Pets

  
    
     In the article "Killer Pets" the author, Blair Rainsford, explains that everyday more and more Americans are owning exotic animals as pets. Felicia Fresco is one of them, she owns a pet tiger, named Will, she says that raising a tiger is like raising a dog. The author also wants the reader to know that at first the animal may be calm and cute but at any moment the animal can attack its own owner. The places where having an animal is allowed is in Idaho, Nevada, Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Albania. They're allowed in many other countries too but you need a license or permit and in other countries some animals aren't allowed.

    There are about 15,000 non-human primates that are living in people's homes and their owners think it's totally normal. According to the article,"exotic-animal owners say they love having pets that surprise people" (Rainsford 1). This shows that the animal owners think that having an exotic animal as a pet is like having a dog, cat, or goldfish as a pet and they also like having the exotic animal as a pet to surprise people. Even though the exotic-animal pet owners not everyone agrees. The article tells us that "A zookeeper, named Jack Hanna, compares owning this type of pet to having a bomb in your home. You never know when it will explode"(Rainsford 1). This shows that having an exotic animal as a pet can be very dangerous, especially if a zookeeper thinks so since they take care of animals every day.

     In other people's point of view having an exotic animal is way cheaper than having any other pet and they also think it's not a bad idea. In the article it says, "It is also surprisingly easy to get an exotic pet. You can buy a tiger cub online for just $300. That's cheaper than some kind of dogs!" (Rainsford 1). This means that one of the reasons that people may buy exotic animals is because it's a better deal than buying any other pets. Although these pets may be cheaper most of them are dangerous and most of them can even kill you. According to the article,"In 2009, a pet chimp attacked his owner's friend. He bit off most of the woman's face. Hundreds of other wild pets have attacked or killed their owners" (Rainsford 2). This shows how much just a chimp can do so imagine what a bison, or a tiger can do.

Choose your Own Focus: RR

        I am recently reading the book The Perks of being a Wallflower.  The focus that I chose is: Is there anything in the book that's unfair? This book is about a kid named Charlie that is writing letters to his friend about his life and what happens everyday. I think that many of the thing that are happening in the book are unfair.
        I feel like the main character, Charlie, wasn't developed very well as he was growing up and he also experienced too many things at an early age so he doesn't really understand how the world works and the things you're not supposed to do/say and the things that you can do/say. The things that are unfair in the book is that I don't think that neither Charlie's mom or dad tried to teach him about things that he might of not understood and that Charlie basically has to try to teach himself everything. Another thing that is unfair is that Charlie gets judged a lot for what he does and what he says but no one actually knows him and they don't try to get to know him they just do and say whatever everyone else does.