Don't flick off another person's pet

IT DOESN'T SURPRISE ME THAT SOME PEOPLE KEEP COCKROACHES AS PETS. AFTER ALL, IF YOU CAN’T GET RID OF THEM, YOU MIGHT AS WELL BEFRIEND THEM

- Melvin Durai

There's an old saying that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Another version of this saying is just as true: "One man's pest is another man's pet.

Nothing illustrates this more than a video that went viral recently. Taken in Thailand, it shows a male tourist standing in a marketplace, wearing a ski mask. A woman passing by spots a large cockroach on the man's head and decides to do him a favor by flicking the insect away. The man jumps up and down in anger, pulls off his mask and shouts, “That’s my pet!” He finds the cockroach on the ground, bends down and allows it to climb onto his hand.

It doesn't surprise me that some people keep cockroaches as pets. After all, if you can't get rid of them, you might as well befriend them. But even if you've grown attached to a cockroach, adopted it and given it a name, why would you feel the need to take it for a walk?