Schoolies: You're doing it wrong.

Every year during Schoolies celebrations (which are taking place right now) you hear of people doing some pretty dopey things. But these guys ... these guys take the cake.

Graduating from high school doesn't necessarily mean that you've learned the important things in life. Two students from Newcastle proved that this week while celebrating Schoolies in Bali. Chris and Jeremy decided that it wasn't enough just getting wasted at night and apparently losing all their t-shirts. They decided that buying a monkey and keeping him on a metal chain would be a good idea.

Let's make just a quick list about why that was NOT a good idea.

• Long-tailed macaques prefer to hang out with other macaques, not a bunch of "bros" from NSW; and they often huddle together when sleeping at night to keep warm.
  
• They would normally spend a large part of their day in trees, not on a metal chain on busy Bali streets.
  
• Buying a monkey on the street encourages locals to catch more monkeys, taking them from their natural environment and keeping them confined. As the man who sold this monkey admitted, he has a "house full of monkeys".
  
• Who knows what will happen to the monkey when these guys leave for home?? They're treating him as a novelty party piece which they can just dump and forget about when the party is over. Bali, Australia, wherever ... adopting an animal is a serious commitment, not something you do for a laugh or because "the ladies love it", as Chris puts it.
  

If you want to get your Drapht on and have a Bali Party - go for it. But there's no need to drag a monkey (or any other animal) into the mix. So for all you future schoolies or travellers, try to keep one thing in mind when overseas:

Don't be giving money to anyone who uses animals as part of a street-show! Simple as that. More likely than not the animal will be living a totally unnatural life, being forced to perform with no end in sight. This is the case with elephants on Thai streets, monkeys in Indonesia and bears in Cambodia. The temptation to give money to try and help the animals might be overwhelming, but your money really just encourages the practise to continue.

If you want to make a positive difference for animals when travelling, why not consider volunteering somewhere like Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in northern Thailand? Supported by Animals Australia member society Animal Aid Abroad Inc, ENP provides sanctuary to dozens of elephants rescued from performing on streets or in logging camps. And that's bound to leave better memories than keeping a monkey on a chain for a week!

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