Early in 2018, Born Free USA staff received some questions from a student doing research for her school newspaper. Several weeks later, we received a copy of the newspaper in the mail, and we were blown away by the finished article. The author was Kadria Ademi, age 11, and her article, “Wild Animals Chained and Alone in Your Basement,” is a bold exposé on the inhumane practice of keeping wild animals as pets. I was so impressed by the passion Kadria displayed in her article, that I interviewed her to find out what moved her to stand up for animals.
Suzanne Emerson: Why did you pick this topic for your article?
Kadria Ademi: I really like animals, but it’s also such a big thing where animals are always getting abused and hurt. I knew it was a problem before, but I didn’t know it was happening so intensely.
Suzanne: What did your friends and classmates think about your article?
Kadria: They think it’s really good. My friends also wrote about animals. We’re always talking about animals because we love animals. We always draw animals because it’s the first thing we think of. Most of the kids in my class really care about animals, too.
Suzanne: Why do you think it is so important that we help animals?
Kadria: Because if we don’t then soon there will be all these animals that go extinct, and we’ll be like “Where’d they all go?” It’s just a big problem that I think needs to be solved.
Suzanne: What would you say to other kids who want to help animals?
Kadria: You don’t have to start with something gigantic, like donating a million dollars to a charity. Anything small helps. And then, you can slowly work your way up to making a movement about it.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Suzanne
