Exotic Animal As A Pet example essay topic

There are many convincing reasons why exotic animals should not be kept as pets and very few arguments in favor, yet the problem continues to cause headaches for pet owners and veterinarians alike. Modern man's desire for the unusual has made the traffic in exotic pets profitable, and television coverage that emphasizes such an animal's cuteness while sidestepping its negative factors compounds the problem. Veterinarians and animal dealers alike report that after a television special showing a home with a pet lion will be followed by a flood of inquiries regarding the availability of lion cubs. Despite attempts by veterinarians and conservation groups to bring the problem into realistic focus, glamorized distortions of the joys of exotic pet ownership and the profits to be made supplying the demand for these animals continue to dilute their efforts. In the exotic animal business, the word integrity often has little meaning. About twenty years ago a shipment of baby tamandua anteaters made its way into Los Angeles pet shops, where dealers were publicizing them as the latest thing in exotic pets.

Even though the animal's chances of survival are poor, dealers were telling customers that the anteater required little care and could live on a diet of strained baby food. The problem grew to such proportions the Los Angeles newspapers ran stories warning against buying them. None of the anteaters survived. Dealers will sell animals that are impossible to tame, dangerous, and hard to keep alive in captivity, as pets. These animals are transported under inhumane conditions and sold to an uninformed public with misleading statements about care, feeding, and what kind of pet it will be. This making the wild animal imported as a pet to an unnaturally short life before a death due to mishandling.

Pet dealers are opposed to any legislation aimed at preserving endangered animals, complaining that banning these species to the pet trade is systematically destroying the species in the long run. Pet dealers support that instead of banning exotics, dealers step up their sales efforts and attempt to sell them to the public in pairs, for breeding. Pet dealers will also have a new source of supply. For every animal which makes it to the pet shop, up to ten others die. The fact is that the one who captures the animal does it the easiest way he can. This is done usually by killing the parents, destroying the animal's habitat, or both.

Transporting the animals costs many more lives, and animal control officers routinely report cases of young monkeys, jammed 20 or 30 to a cage, huddled in fright with the bodies of non-survivors, after a 36 hour flight, often without food or water. Many animals are captured and shipped before they are weaned, because their capture is easier at that age. Rough handling during transit, frightening noises, extreme temperature changes and the absence of a mother for comfort and protection takes a massive toll on these young animals. Exporters ship many more animals than are expected to arrive, to compensate for the deaths on route. Birds are vulnerable to the stresses of transportation, often being left outside in cold and rain during stopovers. According to the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, exotic animals shipped into this country for pets, about 60% die within a month, 20% of the remainder die within the first year, and at the end of the second year, 10% are alive.

In addition to having requirements as to temperature control, ventilation, space and food, a large number of wild animals die from sheer fright when people attempt to smother them with the same affection they'd give a puppy or kitten. There are many reasons for not having wild animals as pets. First, diseases and parasites, second, venom poisoning, and third, the possibility of physical injury from bites, scratches, kicks, and so on. Most wild animals are capable of carrying infections which are dangerous and transmissible, such as Hepatitis, which passes from one species to another, along with many other diseases. Another growing problem is monkeypox, an illness indistinguishable from smallpox. Monkeypox was first identified in Copenhagen, in 1958, during an outbreak of the disease among the captive primates.

Further outbreaks have occurred among monkeys and apes in Europe and North America. Present indications are that the disease is quite common to primates and it may be a problem in concentrations of animals, not only in the wild but in captivity as well. Members of the cat family can be carriers of anthrax, a fatal bacterial disease of warm-blooded animals. Cats included are the tiger, jaguar, leopard, puma, and bobcat.

Brucellosis can be carried by deer, American buffalo, and many kinds of rabbits. Even seemingly-innocuous pets such as the raccoon, skunk, muskrat, and opossum can be infected with leptospirosis and transmit this disease to their owners. Such diverse species as the chipmunk, the armadillo, the tree squirrel and the chimpanzee all carry endemic relapsing fevers, and ringworm and other fungus diseases transmissible to man are not uncommon among many species of birds and animals. Venom poisoning is a very real danger even among experienced snake handlers, but the person who elects to keep as a pet a poisonous snake or other venomous animal is openly courting death.

Bodily injury is another very real danger in attempting to keep an exotic animal as a pet, one most would-be owner prefers to minimize or ignore. Robert Franklin Leslie, in his book, Wild Pets, warns prospective exotic animal owners that the animal they buy in the pet shop "may not be the sweet, docile creature he appears to be; instead he is often a man-made psychopath ready to explode and die soon after you drag him home and the tranquilizer wears off". No wild cat can be completely trusted as it grows older, and young bears almost always mature into cranky, ill-tempered adults. Once they reach sexual maturity all monkeys and apes bite. A full grown chimp resembles a gorilla and is strong enough to kill a man.

Reflexes and instincts in most exotics are simply too deep-seated to be washed away by the well-meaning pet owner's attempts at domestication. Many animals compete for position in their social pecking order by domination of other members of the pack, and in captivity are apt to regard small children as rivals, inflicting injuries on the child. Would-be animal owners of exotics should be made aware, too, of the property damage an exotic pet can cause. The ocelot is the most commonly purchased middle-sized cat, but a full-grown ocelot can weigh upward of 60 pounds and reduce a houseful of furniture to complete rubble in less time than the owner would believe possible.

Monkeys are virtually impossible to house-break, and many animals are, to their owner's eventual dismay, nocturnal by nature. Many veterinarians, when asked about acquiring an exotic pet, attempt to paint the blackest possible picture in an effort to save both the client and the animal from almost certain problems. Would-be owners should be urged to examine their motives with as much honesty as they can muster. If they have the belief an exotic pet is going to make an interesting "conversation piece" or will somehow enhance their own status or image, they are almost certainly headed for disappointment. Without exception, wild animals are, and will continue to be, unchangeably wild. Exotics in a pet shop are confused, frightened, often abused during capture and shipment, frequently ill, defensive, and at their worst.

Considering the risks, the problems, and the inevitable, cruelty to the animal, there is little excuse for any private citizen to own an exotic animal. There are today over 130 breeds of dogs available in the United States, plus cats, horses, goats, and fully domesticated birds. If the veterinarian can encourage would-be exotic animal owners to consider these tried-and-true species, he " ll be helping in four directions - himself, the owner, the animal, and the environment..