Too many all stars, * 4 not Have an idea for a story? M opinions@theotherpress.ca > ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars’ season four is too much, too soon Roshni Riar Staff Writer f you were to stop me in the middle of the street and ask me to blurt out a random fact about RuPaul’s Drag Race, | can confidently say that I would be able to do it. Who went home season five, episode one? Penny Tration. First double eviction? That was season four, to the dismay of both Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay. Was Shangela robbed? Yes, yes she was. All this is to stress that I am a huge fan of the show. So, when it was announced that RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars season four is set to premiere on December 14, you would expect me to be excited. Instead, I was confused and pre-emptively exhausted. I feel this way because just earlier this year in March, the third season of All Stars concluded with Trixie Mattel as the new crowned queen. With season three wrapped up, | anticipated that the next time Drag Race fans would see an All Stars season would be in a couple of years, at least after a few regular Drag Race seasons introduced fans to new drag queens. Instead, here am a mere 10 months after Trixie Mattel’s win, not as excited as I would like to be. It’s way too soon for this season to be happening. The point of All Stars is to show what drag queens have done with their careers after their original seasons. It’s supposed to be about showing growth and bringing back infamous and iconic queens as well as fan favourites. All Stars season one aired in 2012, season two in 2016, and season three in 2018. Spacing them out works because it allows regular seasons to pass and the pool of potential stars to grow. It also gives fans the chance to witness beloved queens’ development outside of the show and be excited to root for them if they do return. Shoehorning another season of All Stars into the end of the year doesn't allow for the same amount of hype to be built up. Sure, it’s exciting to see the cast and have the show to watch again, but the announcement makes me second-guess the meaning of an “all star” in the context of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Not everyone can be an All Star or Exotic animals are not pets » Why you should think twice about owning a dangerous wild animal Jessica Berget Opinions Editor Ferns has at one point entertained the idea of owning an exotic animal. How could you not? Tigers are adorable, monkeys are cool as hell, and bears are so fuzzy! But are they suitable pets? Absolutely not. The thing about owning a wild animal as a pet is that they're wild animals. Some may become accustomed to being or even living indoors, but they're not domesticated by any stretch. They still have their wild instincts and they need specific living conditions, diets, and environments to live comfortably. When these needs are not met, they can get sick, agitated, stressed out, depressed, and even die as a result. In fact, this is the fate of most wild animals that are held in captivity. Often the owner is unaware of their needs, so the animals die because of hypo- or hyperthermia, neglect, dehydration, or starvation—or in other words, because of their owner's ignorance. Most wild animals suffer while living in captivity because they have to express their wild nature and roam around their natural habitat, which is obviously not a suburban backyard. Or if they're big, aggressive animals, like big cats or bears, they can injure, terrorize, and sometimes even kill people because of the stress and trauma from not living in their natural environment. Cats and dogs have been domesticated for millennia. They have gone through many generations of selective breeding so that they can be our furry companions and live in the comfort of our homes. Wild animals have no such genetic coding. No matter what you do, you can’t tame them. Even if people raise wild creatures from newborns, they still have primal instincts and behaviours and it’s in their nature to act on them. I think it’s cruel that some people try to supress these behaviours in their exotic pets in order to try taming them. Some animals just cannot and should not be kept as pets, no matter how cute or enough stars * Too many all stars, not enough stars e Exotic animals are not pets ¢ Take a semester off school ..and more! RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 4' promotional cast photo should be for that matter. There have been over 120 queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race after season 10 ended this summer. This year alone, three seasons of Drag Race will have aired, two of those being All Stars seasons. Maybe it’s harsh, but I wonder if we'll run out of “all stars” at this rate. I’m really happy to see that Drag Race has exploded in the mainstream and is afforded the ability to put out so many seasons so quickly—but I can’t help but feel like the announcement of season four so soon is overkill. I'd rather discover new queens over the course of two or three regular seasons and then happily accept another All Stars in 2020, when the hype and anticipation is nearly unbearable. At least I'd feel it was worth the wait. affectionate someone thinks they are. Another concerning aspect about owning an exotic animal is that often people realize they can’t care for them or get bored and release them into the wild. A nice idea, trying to get the animal back to nature—but if it’s not their natural habitat, or if they're an aggressive species, this actually puts the animal, the public, and the environment in danger. The released animals can hurt or kill people, become invasive species, or even spread diseases like monkeypox, rabies, herpes, salmonella, and many more. I think it’s safer for everyone to keep wild animals where they belong: In the wild and in their natural habitats. I’m glad BC has tough laws about owning exotic pets, but that doesn’t stop people from getting them. I understand wanting an exotic pet because of a love for animals. However, I think it’s better to love them from a distance when they are in their natural environment because that is where they can live happily and healthily.