As you'd expect, a Fennec Fox should be pretty Fennec-ky. Welcome back to What's
Trending, I'm Martine Beerman. Make sure to subscribe for more social media news
every single day. Vegan YouTuber Sonia Sae has ignited controversy online
after revealing that her Fennec Fox, Jumanji, eats only a plant-based diet.
Let's let Fandar explain this controversy in his best Alvin and the Chipmunks
impression. She does a lot of vegan activism on her channel, and that is great, but what she is doing to her
fox is wrong. Foxes are canines, like dogs and wolves.
This means that they are predominantly carnivores and are not meant to plant
based diets. So the argument is that it's unhealthy for a Fox to eat a plant-based
diet because it's a fox and they eat meat. It's true that in the wild Fennec's
primarily eat insects, snails, lizards, rodents, birds, and eggs though they are
omnivorous like us primates and can eat plants and berries as well.
Sonia defended her decision on Facebook arguing that Jumanji's hairless appearance
is due to a skin allergy and that he's completely healthy on the diet. She wrote:
"Jumanji is in good shape, his blood tests are fine, he's healthy, playful, and hasn't
shown any signs of malnutrition for around three years." In addition to the
vegan diet, she provides Jumanji with taurine and lysine supplements, so he'll
get all the nutrients he would typically get from raw meat. She says all this
despite posting pictures online of Jumanji appearing too many to be
malnourished. And online resources emphasize that a Fennec Fox's diet
should most closely resemble a cat's - that is at least 90% meat. Hmm. Foxes and cats.
They're more alike than we thought. YouTuber an animal lover Taylor
Nicole Dean tweeted: "If you're a vegan and don't want to feed carnivorous pets
meat, here's a big idea: don't own the pet instead of trying to force it to be a
vegan as well." Well said Taylor Nicole Dean. And while we're on it, if you're a
vegan don't you not want to be about animal captivity in the first place?
Never mind if you had a cat that would be you know fine and I guess that's what
people do, but a fox? A wild animal? Really? It's okay with you? @potionsellers says: "I
apologize, as a vegan, for Sonia Sae's actions. Please do NOT let this serve as
a reflection of all vegans: it's actually *more* vegan to support your
animals with its rightful and appropriate diet and to try and force a
death sentence on them." In all honesty, I kind of think anybody that comes into
contact with Sonia has given her thoughts and opinions on veganism no
matter what so fox, cat, dog, cousin, sister, entire YouTube population - we're all
gonna hear it from Sonia no matter what. She's also being criticized for having a
pet Fox in the first place as the Fennec is native to North Africa and the
Arabian Peninsula. @SieShelled is defending Sonia from critics on Twitter arguing
that she rescued Jumanji from a bad breeding situation. Listen I'm not part
of a zoo, nor I'm a zoologist, but it's my understanding that if you rescue a wild
animal from a bad situation, you then take it somewhere to be rehabilitated so
it can potentially be set free in the wild so it can run with its kind, or you
take it somewhere where it has some other animals that are like it so it
can live a wonderful life with other foxes that it knows. You don't keep it in
your home and domesticate a wild animal and then deprive it of meats.
I just, just my thought though. But Sonia doesn't even seem to mind the
controversy. Some of her most popular videos actually aim to get a rise out of
non-vegans.
Why war? How about you do you,
I do me, Kumbaya. And regardless of whether or not Jumanji's
diet is healthy, it's hard to rationalize the sheer number of abusive comments
hurled at Sonia online. Sonia even has a video focusing on the bullying and death
threats she's received on account of her veganism.
I have plenty of people in my life
who stand for veganism and I completely applaud that life choice 100% and I I
personally am omnivorous, but I think that Sonia's way of going about it is
very high and mighty which might rub people the wrong way but that doesn't
give people the right to put death threats out there no matter who you are
or what you're saying. Hate only begets more hate so maybe
throw some love at Sonia, teach her some valuable things say some nice things to
her, maybe she'll chill out a little bit on the whole veganism thing. And all that
being said I will say she is being a little bit extra right here.
My thoughts on her slavery and
Holocaust analogy go back to my idea that as humans we are part of a food
chain that eats meat, so to eat meat and to appreciate that is part of what makes
us us. Now if you make a choice to be vegan - totally fine, your choice, but to
liken that to the Holocaust? Eating meat is a little bit extra. So what do you
guys think? Is Sonia jeopardizing Jumanji's health by making him a vegan Fox? Do
you guys completely disagree with everything I've said, or are you a vegan
and you have a completely different opinion about all this? Let us know in
the comments, and for more trends head to whatstrending (dot) com. And guess what guys.
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