Just shoot me now. I googled AR and there is a similarity between their varying philosophies and mine. Ewwwwwwwww. We need to add a barfing smilie. Let me preface this by confessing that I'm on my 2nd glass of a splendid 2006 Falchino so there may be a few typees, grammatical tics, and outright falsehoods in what follows. LOL.
I have spent time with captive bred exotics, mostly big cats. Had the best time of my life rolling around with a few smallish puddy cats and have even had the pleasure of cavorting with a few tigers and a lion big as a Mack truck who was suspected to be an allegedly extinct Barbary lion or at least a genetic descendant thereof. Most were purchased as "pets" from exotic breeders/traders and surrendered when they became an inconvenience. Others were retired animals used in films and commercials. And a few more were residents of animal parks taught tricks to amuse us. These are the animals who started to solidify changes that were already occurring in my point of view.
I could stay on this soapbox for-Evah but brevity is probably best -- The exotic trade is to me a symptom of a larger issue that is the true thorn in my britches -- We subjugate everything. When we do so, we confer abject disrespect. The absence of wildness that you referred to makes my point better than I could. Who do we serve by breeding the wild out of these animals?
I have spent time with captive bred exotics, mostly big cats. Had the best time of my life rolling around with a few smallish puddy cats and have even had the pleasure of cavorting with a few tigers and a lion big as a Mack truck who was suspected to be an allegedly extinct Barbary lion or at least a genetic descendant thereof. Most were purchased as "pets" from exotic breeders/traders and surrendered when they became an inconvenience. Others were retired animals used in films and commercials. And a few more were residents of animal parks taught tricks to amuse us. These are the animals who started to solidify changes that were already occurring in my point of view.
I could stay on this soapbox for-Evah but brevity is probably best -- The exotic trade is to me a symptom of a larger issue that is the true thorn in my britches -- We subjugate everything. When we do so, we confer abject disrespect. The absence of wildness that you referred to makes my point better than I could. Who do we serve by breeding the wild out of these animals?
Really- the political climate towards exotic pets makes me very very sick. We wouldn't have Savannahs without very dedicated, caring Serval owners! We wouldn't have Serval owners without dedicated, caring exotic breeders.
