World Animal Day falls on Oct. 4 every year. It has been started in 1931 to remind everyone on our planet to care about wild animals. Unluckily, many wild animals are facing great danger. Some even became extinct and cannot be seen forever. Recently, China has done much to improve the living condition of endangered wild animals.

The protection of Asian elephants is a good example. Asian elephants in China are mostly found in Yunnan province. These animals have become endangered because some people are killing for their teeth. The government (政府) has been trying to protect them. For example, elephants teeth business is not allowed. This can greatly prevent elephants hunting.

Another example is the protection of the Yangtze finless porpoise (江豚). Because of over-fishing and water pollution, the population of the Yangtze finless porpoise was just 1,012 in 2018. That number is lower than the number of giant pandas. In 2020, the government put a 10-year fishing ban (禁令). This action is very useful and now people can see a group of Yangtze finless porpoises jump and play in the Yangtze River.

With World Animal Day around the corner, we all can think of more ways to better protect our wild friends. As we share this Earth with all living things, we can truly make a difference for all animals.

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Many of us think that all wild (野生的) animals are dangerous. In fact, very few of them will eat a man if he leaves them alone. If you meet a tiger. I’m sure you will run away, but even a tiger doesn’t like eating a man if it isn’t hungry. Tigers only kill and eat a man when they are too old to catch their food, such as sheep and other small animals. Some animals get frightened (害怕) when they only smell a man. Some of them stand and look at a man for a short time before they run away. Wild animals only eat a man when they are afraid that he will try to kill their young ones, or when people try to kill them.

Being a vet (兽医), I was called to examine a ten-year-old dog named Belker this February. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, all liked Belker very much and they were hoping for a miracle (奇迹).

I examined Belker and found he was dying. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure (安乐死程序) for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements (安排), Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to watch the procedure. They thought Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt sad as usual when Belker’s family stayed with him. Shane seemed so calm (镇定), touching the old dog for the last time. I wondered if he understood what was going on. After a few minutes, Belker slipped away peacefully.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s death without any difficulty or doubt. We sat together for a while, talking about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane said suddenly, “I know why.”

We all turned to him. His words surprised me. It was the best explanation (解释) I’d ever heard.

He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life—like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”