Potenial Problems with Exotic Pets
(from 88-19972@usb.ve [ Romari Alejandra Martinez Montano ])
Hello to all! My name is Romary Martinez, and I've been on PT for a
while . I wanted to say and to all of you who ever thought of
having a wild animal as a pet, that there are tons of good reasons for
not doing so. I could start by saying what you've surely heard many
times that buying wild animals as pets encourages dealers to go on
taking them out of their natural enviroment, which is already pretty
bad itself (without thinking of the consecuences for the individuals,
the populations and the communities involved). But, for non
scientists, these reasons might seem unimportant, so I will give you
several "practical reasons"why not to purchase a capuchin, or any
other wild animal:
1) Believe me, they will NEVER adapt to homelife. They're not
like dogs, which have evolved for thousands of years with men, and
who understand orders, and learn household tricks. A wild animal will
always be a stranger in your house, unless you apply the Konrad Lorenz
technique (make the animal believe you're one of his species), which
is TERRIBLY hard, and seldom works (if you're not devoted to the
animal).
==> this means that the monkey will piss all over, eat whatever
is edible, and play with whatever looks interesting during ALL its
life, and they're good with their hands, so watch your computer, your
books, your telephone, your private articles, your stoneware, etc.
2) The animal will be LONELY without your express company (and
even with it), so it will likely get sick, and "die of loneliness" (if
it doesn't die of indigestion cuz of eating your pens, or your hot
pepper)
3) They get nervous in public, so forget about taking it to the
mall, or to school with you, or maybe even inside the car, if you don't
keep it inside a CAGE (and what's the use of it if you can't show it
to people??)...it could bite anyone, or bother any person anytime.
4) They're not good with kids, cuz usually their games are too
rude, and the bite, scratch, and hit you in a playfull way (kids hate
this).
5) You'll spend a lot of money in vitamins and dietary
supplements, cuz you can't give the monkey a balanced food with just
fruits, or monkey chow (well, you can, but if you feed it with monkey
chow while the animal sees you devoure a ham and cheese sandwich,
you're lost)
Romary Martinez
Simon Bolivar University
Caracas, Venezuela
PS: please forgive my english, for I'm not a native speaker.
