The Open Debate Challenge:Winner Announcement

Welcome to Mogool's kids challenge series. Do you have opinions to express? We have this amazing opportunity for you. 

Mogool is presenting an open debate challenge for children.  Submit your stand and arguments in the form below. Entries will be evaluated based on the research, analysis, and originality of arguments presented by participants.

Do you know debating can have many benefits? It makes you confident and improves your brainpower. Are you ready for the challenge? Here we goooooooo….

Topic: Should we adopt a pet or not?

Pets are great friends of humans. They share a special bond with us. They bring joy and fun family time. But they also need special care and love. Adopting a pet is a huge commitment. If a pet is not taken care of properly they often suffer illnesses or end up in dog shelters. What is your opinion about this? 

Who can participate?

Category A: Grade 2nd - Grade 5th

Category B: Grade 6th - Grade 8th

Each category will have 3 winners 

Winners

“Winners don’t wait for chances, they take them.”

And the winners for the open debate challenge are...........

Category A 

1^st   Mehar Mathur  

2^nd  Shaurya Nag  

3^rd  Ansh Gautam 

Category B

1^st  Srikar Vemuri

2^nd  Ayushree Beura

3^rd  Sanaya Gilra

                                                                                                      WHAT WINNERS SAY...

Category A 

Meher Mathur

What is your stand? : We should adopt a pet.

Grabber: Dogs teach us many things, but none is more important than to love unconditionally. ~ Deavita

Intro: Hi my name is Meher Mathur and I am on the side of this debate affirming that you should adopt a pet.

Definition: For this debate, I am setting a definition for a pet from dictionary.com a domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure.

Framework: My framework for this debate will be Utilitarianism or the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people.

Contentions: Our contentions are

1. Pet’s give you company

2. Pets are helpful

3. Pets keep you active..

Contention #1: Now my first contention: Pets give you company. Reasoning: Have you ever felt lonely? Like there's nothing to do or no one to cheer you along hard paths? Well, if you get a pet . . . that will change. Your pet will be there for you at all times no matter what it is. For example, look at dogs. Dogs are some of the most obedient pets on earth. They love you more than they love themselves. You won’t be lonely with them because they will always be there and will always make you feel comforted. Even a fish might be a nice pet. Evidence: according to neswinhealth.nih.gov an estimated 73% of U.S. households have a pet to accompany them through life. Impact: The impact is if people get pets they aren't lonely and depressed. This is a big impact because so far all over America 32% of people are lonely and depressed so if they get pets their life will change.

Now on to our second contention, Pet’s are helpful. Reasoning: Pets have been helpful companies to us for centuries now and still are. They help us in many ways. For example, Dogs help police and blind people find their way. There was a parrot named Griffin that outsmarted students in a memory game and that taught the kids. I know a story of a house pig who lived with an old lady. The lady got a heart attack and the pig went out on the street and asked people for help. Evidence: According to dogonews.com During the middle of Covid -19 dogs became valuable allies sniffing out who had Covid and who didn't. Impact: My impact is : Pets helping us is useful. Without it we would have many problems in life so pets are nice to have.

Now onto our third and last contention: Pets keep you active. Reasoning: Pets keep you active. These days humans are becoming lazy. But when having a pet you will stay active and fit because your pet will have many needs that you will need to do for them. You need to play with it and take it for walks which you can take as your exercise. Evidence: according to heart.org It’s no surprise that people who walk their dogs are more likely to get the recommended amount of physical activity than those who don’t. One study found that pet owners who walk their dogs got up to 30 minutes more exercise a day than non-walkers. Impact: My Impact is Staying fit and healthy is important. If you're not able to get the habit, simply get a pet. Like a dog. Because about 31 million people are not active enough and get a lot of health problems through out the world. Getting pets can fix that.

Before I end this I just want to say that Pets are a lot of work but once you get one it's part of your family so you need to be ready to sacrifice anything.

 Conclusion: Once again my name is Meher Mathur and my contentions were 1. Pet’s give you company 2. Pets are helpful 3. Pets keep you active. Thank you.

Master Shaurya Nag

What is your stand? : We should not adopt a pet.

We should not adopt a pet because animals have their own style of living in nature, they have their own family like us. And we should not separate them from their family and nature.

We use the word pet, which means talking about those animals which are domestic and easily can adopt. So many will answer we should adopt them, I was also thinking so but we just think about our thoughts and feelings for them. But if we think about them so the answer will be we should not adopt them. Because they are not stuff or our entertainment living organisms. Mostly we love puppies and kittens and we take them at home, tight their neck by costly purchase belts and make their pet. It's matter to think, how that 1-month puppy will feel, by separated from his Mother or other newborn brother-sister puppies. I think we should take this on ours. Think if aminal comes to our home and takes one or two kids. How we will live, think for that mother how she will live..

I think we are also living organisms and we have the best civilization in all living beings, we are the most intelligent living beings in this universe. But after all we are also social animal, if we have rights to born our kids and cares them as owner of them or in other words as parents. We should also think the same for animals, if we love animals we should care for them but not make them members of our family because they have their own family and culture of living. Yes in we found and child animal which needs care of us so we should adopt it and cares it out from home without tightening their neck.

My conclusion is we should not adopt animals but we are talking about animals that are named for adopt only as PET, so should adopt because there is no rule to not adopt animals. But it's not correct to take any animal kid from their family. Like birds, we keep parrots in cages and try to make them learn our language and we well qualify people but never think for that animal which living at our home jail. Birds are made to fly in the open sky and in nature. We are here wrong to make them inside jail up to their end of life. Mainly ppl adopt dogs bcz as they say they are good housekeeper, it we ever think why pet dogs are more dangerous from open street dogs bcz they are not happy they are not having freedom of their living.

Ansh Gautam

What is your stand? : We should adopt a pet.

Pets are like your best friends and require care, time, and attention just like human babies they can guard our house, play with us and we shall never feel lonely.

We should adopt a pet from a shelter because it is cheaper and people sometimes kill the dogs because they have no place to keep them so you maybe saving an animal by adopting one.

Pets love us unselfishly and can sometimes even protect our lives. There are many incidents where dogs stopped thieves from breaking in their owners house.

From my point of view, I strongly recommend people to adopt a pet who live alone or have space in their house, pets are our friends and they care for us and we should care for them too. We should never ignore the other animals on earth because mother-earth is for everyone but we humans snatched their home so we will have to share our home with them. Thank You!

Category B

Srikar Vemuri

What is your stand? : We should not adopt a pet.

Adopting a pet of any kind requires proper care, vital to all household animals. This is achieved by providing the responsibility of caring for such a pet to professionals who are trained and capable of handling daily tasks, necessary to these animals. Understanding the specific characteristics of a pet and their behavior takes a great amount of time and specialized skill. "An estimated 70 million dogs and cats are struggling to survive in the United States,... that... continues to climb whenever someone decides to buy a dog or other animal from... pet stores or anywhere," states an Animal rights organization. Additionally, this reflects the importance of supporting animal shelters with substantial funding instead of staying naïve about caring for the pet.

Providing guardianship to a pet may also result in the diversion of extremely important activities to the attention of a pet that results in distractions all throughout. These distractions may be minor or major that would definitely affect a task or any variation of work. A statement from a teacher and pet owner reveals, "For students with attention and focusing needs, class pets can provide too much stimulation and distract them from their work." The idea of work and future necessities may definitely become affected by the adoption of a pet. Concentration plays a vital role at any age which may alter due to a pet involved throughout the home. This is quite related to the inability to communicate to a pet immediately and verbally, requiring more attention than necessary.

The maintenance aspect of adopting a pet is crucial to understand, one of the main factors of shying away from adopting a pet. Supplying the needs for an animal could very much become time-consuming and financially difficult. It would involve often trips to any store to provide any pet with a stimulating activity to food as well. "Pets are entirely dependent upon their owners and can be incredibly high maintenance," says a Pet Helpful article. The idea of dependency surely exists and consumes excessive additional time and energy altogether such as habitat cleansing also. It maintains the overall idea that each and every specific necessity for a pet is needed for fulfillment, resulting in other underlying hardships.

The overall idea of adopting and caring for a pet is immensely important and results in the over consumption of time, attention, energy, and financial views altogether. Helping support animals through funding and other pathways are highly recommended and offered, though, may cause vast hardships for adoption. Since concentration and proper care is necessary, providing help to animal shelters and other organizations for the hospitality of pets is much more understandable and intelligible than caring for one independently. This method will balance both effects of not caring for a pet as well as providing virtual comfort to these pets through money representations and the other various techniques altogether.

Ayushree  Beura

What is your stand? : We should adopt a pet.

If you adopt a pet you help stop animal cruelty. According to hhhstopeka “puppy and kitten mills, these facilities repeatedly impregnate female dogs that spend their entire lives in cages without human companionship. These unfortunate animals are often in intolerable environments, forced to produce litter upon the litter, and are destroyed after they become unprofitable assets.” But if you adopt an animal you help stop animal cruelty. If you adopt not only do you help stop cruelty but you get benefited. For example, most pets are trained, and if they get sick volunteers are ready to help. Therefore you should adopt.

Another reason you should adopt is that you will save a life. According to human society “Each year, it's estimated that more than one million adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized in the United States, simply because many pets come into shelters and too few people consider adoption when looking for a pet. The number of euthanized animals could be reduced dramatically if more people adopted pets” Pets get killed if you don't adopt them and every time a pet dies its population decreases and this can lead to extinction. Therefore adoption can save lives.

Lastly, adopting pets costs less money. According to hhhstopeka “Low adoption fees (which cover a portion of our shelter’s costs) are much less than the cost of purebred puppies or kittens sold for profit.” Adoption costing less money is very beneficial to people who might not be able to afford pets. Adoption animals are taken well care of comares to puppy mills and other places where pets are sold for profit. Pet adoption is safer for animals and is more beneficial than other people who do it for profit. Therefore you should adopt a pet.

Adopting a pet is a very good decision to make. In the reasons I have stated adoption helps by saving lives, stopping animal cruelty and lastly low adoption fees. Adoption has so many benefits in saving animals' lives but when animals are not adopted they are killed every year. Some of the animals are abused and hurt badly. Adoption sells dogs for cheaper prices because with the money they earn they help the adoption shelters unlike breeders who sell for profit. The best part in adoption is animals are well trained, well fed, vaccinated, and have good health compared to breeders who sell for profit. Therefore you should adopt a pet.

 Sanaya  Gilra

What is your stand? : We should adopt a pet.

Opening Statement: During these pandemic times, do you ever feel lonely or bored? Getting a pet is a perfect solution! There are many other reasons why you should get a pet. Pets provide a way to have fun and get some physical exercise. They actually help relieve stress, worries and anxieties. They also help you stay healthy. When people are stuck at home, they don't get enough exercise. Pets can help them stay fit and healthy! A study shows when the pet owner looks into the eyes of their pet, their oxytocin levels increase. This means that owning a pet also helps increase your happiness level!

Argument 1: Stress can cause too much damage to the body. Research shows that 60-80% of health ailments are caused by stress. They can even cause heart attacks! A good way to take off stress is to get a pet. Pets can not only remove stress but also take your mind off sadness and worries. “Pet owners will attest that simply being together with their pet greatly reduces stress, depression and anxiety.” as stated by Pet door products. Being with a fish can actually make you calmer. It's fine to have a little bit of stress as it can make one mentally strong but when stress is not managed properly then it can lead to depression and panic attacks. Pets also increase your happiness and loving level, which is necessary for everyone and specially for kids who are eleven through sixteen.

Staying healthy and fit is important! And owning a pet can help you do that. According to the American Heart Association, walking and playing with a dog does wonders for your body, such as, boosting immunity, improving blood pressure, reduces the risk of heart disease, etc. “As a pet owner you will find yourself often using your arms for holding, hands for pulling, legs for bracing, and feet for chasing.” As said by “5 Ways a Dog Can Keep You Fit” .Pets are a great way to become more healthy. Owning a pet helps you get in shape because you are walking, running, and stretching your muscles!

One of the reasons some people shy away from getting pets is that pets bite too much. This is not always true. Many times pets bite you because they want to play with you, or they want your attention. But young puppies and kittens bite because they are teething and need something to chew. “The reason kittens bite us is simple: they’re natural predators and they want to practice their attack on a moving object. In fact, kittens are biologically wired to attack an object that moves, so it’s important to teach them how to play with toys--not fingers or feet--from a young age.” Once you train your pet it is much easier to manage and they know their boundaries. Then the pets don't bite or become aggressive.

In conclusion, owning a pet is very beneficial for both you and your pet. A few benefits are decreasing stress and helping you stay fit and healthy. They even raise your happiness levels! Some people may think pets bite too much because they are mean and aggressive, but that theory is false. Pets only bite because they are teething, and they need a chew toy, but they grow out of it as they grow older. Pets are a great companion and can keep you out of your boredom state.