Khareem is a compassionate middle school student who has a story to tell about what happened one Sunday night when he and his friends were playing in their Miami neighborhood.

“Well, with Winnie my friend Janika, Julian, me, and others saw a kid chasing Winnie down the street as she was limping and trying to get away from him. He caught her and shoved her down a storm drain. Janika came to get me while Julian chased kid away.

While Tia climbed down in storm drain to get Winnie out. She had a severely broken leg, which had to be amputated. Grateful Paws was the only rescue that would help so we started volunteering with them. We found a great home for Winnie but decided there were lots more animals out there that needed our help. The main reason why I don’t go to Circuses is because of the hurtful way they train the animals, how they take away the baby from the mother which is very cruel, and wild animals should stay in the wild!

To me what’s wrong with animal acts is its inhumane for us as well as the animal, and the also the wild is supposed to stay in the wild.” – Khareem.