Why am I here

For me a "productive discomfort" was seeing the ways domestic animals were treated. Upon first arriving into Costa Rica you cannot help but notice the large number of dogs and cats on the streets. At first, you want to pet every one you see, they are very friendly, but at closer look you see they almost all have fleas, are scratched up, and often times limping around as if a car had ran over their foot. I learned later, that for many families here, the main role of house pets is for pest control. Sure, some dogs are pets that are spoiled and hugged a lot, but this is not always the case. There needs to be some kind of veterinary program that can sterilize the dogs roaming around here because it is a serious problem. They are not always good for the wildlife either, dogs eat Sea Turtle eggs, can kill Coatis, and other small mammals too. Also, for me, in my homestay, my family had a pet parrot. I never really thought about the parrot too much in the beginning, but after a couple weeks more or wildlife biology and ecology classes focused centrally on animal welfare and wildlife conservation I started to be more and more uncomfortable with the parrots living conditions. It was kept in captivity for its entire life in a small metal cage right outside the back door. I only saw it out of its cage once for my entire time in a homestay (4 weeks). Now, I just don't think you should keep parrots in cages.