Bullying is a massive issue in the country and has unfortunately become very common in our schools.
Bullies justify their actions with the pettiest of reasons including the victim having a crush on the same girl as them and even for telling them to stop watching porn.
The government has introduced concepts to deal with bullying in schools but it is far too early to tell if they are even effective.
Recently, there was a heartbreaking story of a 17-year-old animal rescuer in Sabah who attempted suicide after getting bullied by his schoolmates over his love for animals.
Animal Lovers Independent Rescuers (ALIR) shared the story on Facebook about how one of their long-term young animal caretakers was admitted into the hospital after overdosing on pills.
“Dealing with an endless supply of the tragic stories of our rescued animals and dealing with their heartbreaking condition, we are experiencing emotional exhaustion most of the time. This condition can lead to depression and possible suicidal thoughts,” wrote ALIR.
“Yet this time, it was not only just a thought… one of our young animal caretaker was rushed to the ER on the 2nd day of CNY after he was found unconscious in his room by his brother.”
ALIR mentioned that a suicide note and an empty packaging of medicine pills were found next to him.
Ed was in critical condition in the emergency ward for over 50 hours and was accompanied by ALIR’s founder who cried and prayed hard for a miracle from God.
“He was in critical condition and no sign of improvement. We thought we gonna lose him but praise the Lord, he finally showed positive improvements and was transferred to the male ward.”
Constantly being bullied by his schoolmates
According to ALIR, Ed has been taking care of stray animals for more than 10 years, ever since he was 7 years old. Aside from volunteering at ALIR, he also lives at home with around 50 rescued dogs.
However, his love for animals led to him being constantly bullied by his schoolmates.
“Caring for animals is one of his ways to escape from all the traumatising episodes as well as the fact that he has been dealing with severe depression all these years without proper help and treatment,” they wrote.
Apparently, his schoolmates would call him dirty and smelly and some have even thrown away his lunchbox so that he would have nothing to eat.
Ed claimed to have reported these incidents of bullying to his school teachers but was told to deal with it himself.
“Everyone has their limit… instead of hurting others, he ended up ‘hurting’ himself.”
“Bully is never OKAY. Just because we are living under one roof with our rescued animals doesn’t makes us different from any of you. We just want to protect our rescued fur friends and treat them just how we wish people to treat us,” concluded the post.
We hope that more initiatives will be introduced to ensure that bullying meets its end. There is no reasonable justification to bully someone.
Also read: Student From Technical Institute in Melaka Punched For Having Crush on The Same Girl as His Bully
