Hermit Crabs Gone Wild

Last night, an officemate told me about hermit crabs in fancy-painted shells on exhibit at the Robinson's Galleria mall. He said, the moment he saw the poor creatures in the mall, he thought of me and how I would react to such. So, out of curiosity, I chose to do my grocery at the Galleria so I could also see for myself what he was talking about.


The lady in the booth told me that these crustaceans were brought here all the way from Zamboanga. In this wet terrarium, there are lots of shells of various colors. Artificial that is. They have been hand-painted with cartoon characters and even food icons like the friendly bee, Jollibee! Haha!


Each hermit crab is sold at 100 pesos each. 150 pesos for the bigger ones, though.


At some point I felt for these crabs (and against humans). They should be crawling freely on the sea shores and not on some small plastic cage!!! They should be in the wild, living their own lives, and not being sold for profit! Still, a part of me says that there's no harm in turning hermit crabs into pets. They're not in the extinct list anyway.

I do not have a black and white definition of my verdict on this issue. I'm still leaning on the gray area. To me, as long as they are not extinct and they are treated well, they can be pets. And they should be taken VERY good care of.