Pet Release: An Act Not as Harmless or Merciful as You Think
By Tan Yu Kai
February 2022 FEATURE
THROUGH THE SMOG that hangs perpetually over the Goddess of Mercy Temple on Lebuh Pitt, the last cage of pigeons took to the skies, scattering like frightened dust back to the freedom they once enjoyed as, with self-congratulatory candour, the fellowship of pilgrims who purchased the birds-for-release looked on. A good deed has been done.Furtively glancing around, the bird merchant discreetly muttered into the phone, placing an order for five more cages’ worth to be trapped and delivered the next...
References
- Hadfield, Michael G. (2021). "Extinction in Hawaiian Achatinelline Snails". A natural history of the Hawaiian islands: selected readings II, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 320-334. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824844264-027
- Invasive Alien Species in Malaysia (2018). National Committee on Invasive Alien Species Malaysia, Malaysia. pp. 113.
- Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern (C. Porter, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
- Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1955). “The Critique of Capitalism” in The Marx-Engels Reader (R. Tucker Eds.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- Quah, Evan & Grismer, Larry & Muin, Mohd & Anuar, Shahrul. (2011). “Re-discovery and re-description of Ansonia penangensis Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from Penang Island, Malaysia”. Zootaxa. 2807. 57-64. 10.11646/zootaxa.2807.1.4.
- Tan, Y. K. (2020). Worlds Apart: Being(s) in Place at the Penang Botanic Gardens. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.14418/wes01.1.2343
Tan Yu Kai
is a Penangite biologist-cum-artist passionate about human relationalities with the natural world. He is a triple major in Biology, Earth & Environmental Sciences and Anthropology, and was a Research Fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
