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   We are full of expectations and also afraid of getting hurt before entering the dog cage. According to the senior volunteers, when they are trained as the long-term volunteers, they need to join the activity to experience being in the dog cage for over half an hour without anyone nearby. It is quite different from what we experience today. We only experience the inside space and imagine how dogs see the outside world. We need to express what we think of and what we feel in the dog cage in the final review meeting. They choose a new and high-class dog cage for us. It is just cleaned up and much better than a real one. Thus, we hold playful, not serious, attitudes toward this activity.
Share with others what we think of and how we feel in the dog cage:
In the dog cage, I feel the space is narrow and small and also how lonely dogs feel. I can’t believe this is a place where dogs stay the whole day. I used to think it was natural and right to lock a dog in the cage, but now I have changed my mind. I know how helpless and hopeless dogs feel in the cage. The situation is even worse if there are a crowd of dogs living in the same cage. Bullies may happen among them. The weak and little dogs may feel uneasy, and then disappointed and finally in despair. The dog owners should considerate carefully “what if you were a stray dog and locked in the cage.”
I failed in this activity. In face of the cage, I take a deep breath, but I just couldn’t step in. Even with encouragements from my classmates, I still can’t make it because of my claustrophobia. In my mind, if a dog like me is scared of closed space but it is forced to be there, what might happen to it? It must be mad. This totally violates animal natures. I will tell all dog keepers to be kind and nice to your dog because it is loyal and man’s best friend.
The comments from Ying-Zhi: I never think of this activity when I join the one-day volunteer: to be in the dog cage. In the dog cage, I discover that the space inside is so small that I can’t stretch my arms and legs so that I would like to run out of there. I used to think that locking a dog in the cage was perfectly justified, but now I regret having such a selfish idea. Would you like to be prisoned in the cage if you were a dog?
The comments from Meng-Zhen: Being in the dog cage is a very special experience. At first, I think it is fun and novelty. Gradually I understand the pains dogs suffer from and would like to run away. If I were a dog, I would be scared, and I would either bark loudly and bump violently or lie down on the floor quietly and depressed to express my wordless protest against such an arrangement. That a dog is quiet doesn’t mean that there’s nothing wrong with it. It is a warning. It may mean that it is in depression.
The comments from Zhi-Quan: This activity gives me a fright when I hear of it. The senior volunteers tell us, “You can’t understand how dogs feel unless you enter the dog cage.” They have to stay inside over thirty minutes and we just enter for a few minutes. In the beginning, I feel playful, but after my classmates intentionally leave, I shout for help and still nobody answers me. I begin to feel a little panic and my tears almost drop down. The world is unfair. Wild animals can live in the nature freely, but these stray dogs are closed inside here!
This is what we can’t learn from school. I used to think the cats or dogs were naughty when they ran around in the cage, but now I, in the cage, know their feelings of lack of safety. There are some dogs lying down with their dull eyes in bad spirits because they know nobody will help them and then they are in despair. I think animals need freedom. We should offer them enough space to run freely.
When I am locked in the small and narrow cage, I can’t walk freely and move naturally, just like a criminal put in the jail. But these dogs are not criminals. Their freedom shouldn’t be restricted in such a small cage. They can only take a walk from time to time. Without freedom, their life must be painful.
If they aren’t caught by the catching-up brigade, they may be hungry to die in the wild. They may prefer being closed and eating dogfood in the small cage to dying in the wild, right? What I feel in the cage must be the same as what dogs feel there. Therefore, we shouldn’t desert them. Before we keep them, we need to think carefully about it, Once we decide to adopt and keep them, we can’t litter them and we have to take care of them until they die naturally.
The dog cage we enter is clean and not used, but a real cage is filled with several dogs at the same time. They eat, drink, pee pee, and poo poo inside. The environment they live in is terrible. Separated from the outside world by the iron railings, I feel just like being in the prison. Most of the dogs in the shelter are mercy killed after twelve days in the jail. This makes me sad. The government must take actions to improve this problem.
Senior volunteers say this is one of the experiences when they are trained, so we need to experience being in the dog cage, too. In the cage, I would like to escape. I feel uncomfortable because I can’t stretch my body. I would rather die than being locked here. I feel sad because I can’t play outside. I lose my freedom. Please let me out!!! This is my personal experience. What do you think if we treat dogs in this way?
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