Sad

[admin]

Trish, that lemur is so cute...and your Hubby looks like he is loving having the lemur around his neck - how awesome!

I grew up with a plethora of animals...I loved snakes and lizards and my father bought me an African Rainbow lizard...I had very long hair and used to go to school with my lizard on my shoulder, under my hair! My next door neighbor had reptiles as well - alligators, iguanas, etc. So I spent a lot of time at his house...of course, he was only a year older than me, so maybe I spent much of my time because oft he reptiles and the rest because of him????

We cannot let the HSUS win - I read the notes of someone at the Ohio hearing yesterday and it is not going well for HSUS, so keep your fingers crossed!!!

 

[Kristine]

In California, there is little exotic ownership but in one sense, I think it is good. There are too many loonies here that think they can take proper care of one but really, they can't. I know someone who has an exotic animal permit. She has a friend who wanted a lemur so bad that she said she could come over and she guaranteed that in 5 minutes, she would change her mind. She let the lemur out and the friend changed her mind in 30 seconds. It is too bad there isn't a happy medium. Not saying that it should be outlawed either but that there needs to be some protection for exotics against those who are untrained or ill-equipped to care for them.
I just saw a program about some dumb kid in Florida that tried to raise a hyena in an apartment building? Really? Giving him up was hard on both of them but unfair to the hyena to have ever been put in that situation in the first place.

I agree. My husband was telling me that back in the 1950's in Los Angeles and San Diego, the society type women went through a phase were the chic fashion accessory was small primates. Sort of like small dogs were for movie stars a few years ago. Some of his parents friends had them. Unfortunately the novelty would wear off and the people would get bit or something and the poor primate would just be taken to the vet as ea'd. There needs to be something to stop people from doing stuff like that. Education not legislation has always been my general theory.

 

[Trish Allearz]

Yeah, I'll take education over legislation. Florida used to have a pretty decent permit program in place if memory serves. But then- it angers me that they lump ALL exotics into one big group. Sorry- a raccoon is not the same as a tiger. A fennec fox is not the same as having a grizzly bear. There should be levels of ownership and as long as you do what is required for said permits, I think you should be able to own exotics. Now- on the flip side- I don't think it should be just as easy to bring a fennec fox home as a tiger, but that's where a decent permit system should be in place.

 

[Breheart]

I like your comparisons Trish, It would be neat to see pics of Fennec Fox vs a Tiger as an add. It would make a neat poster, not sure what the words on it should be though I totally agree with you there though

 

[Wyldthingz]

I recently saw the documentary they made about the young men that raised "Christian the Lion." It was worth the watch. I think it was on Nat Geo Wild. They bought the lion *kitten at a London department store and raised him in a London basement and eventually worked with the Kenyan gov. to release him back into the wild. A really heart warming story. That is why I like Savannahs they aren't wild but have that exotic side to them. I don't feel like I need to tame the wild to enjoy the wild. I am fine knowing that the wild is still there.
I would like to be able to own a Savannah tho' and not have someone tell me it is an exotic when it is not. Now that stuff makes me mad. I had to get a Fish and Wildlife permit to export an F6 Savannah. That is stupid. This F6 Savannah isn't going to effect the population of servals in Africa. There is no logic here. Even the F & W officer agreed with me and thought it was silly.

 

[Trish Allearz]

Yeah, I agree with the permits- a bit ridiculous!

If no one owned Servals, we would never have had Savannahs though... I will never forget that fact and therefore shall fight for responsible exotic pet ownership as well as Savannah cat ownership.

 

[WitchyWoman]

We cannot let the HSUS win - I read the notes of someone at the Ohio hearing yesterday and it is not going well for HSUS, so keep your fingers crossed!!!

There are a few approaches that may do them harm.
1. Wait until they shoot themselves in the head which is happening now because they are so extreme in their goals and Pacelle's hubris will be his eventual downfall.
2. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer -- make nice nice with them and ensure your chess game skills are better than theirs.
3. Keep grassroots movements alive through education and more importantly EXAMPLE to show how utterly wrong HSUS is about some things.

Again, I don't necessarily disagree with their intent in some things but their method is flawed. They spend so much money trying to get the world to become vegetarian -- which any sane person knows will not happen short of an act of god -- when the money is better spent ensuring humane conditions for livestock.

More good would come from ensuring exotics have legislated standards of care than from trying to get them banned from private ownership.

And my favorite soapbox -- there's nothing wrong with the world that less people on it won't cure. HSUS would do more humane good putting their money toward human population control. Less of us, more room for the beasties they believe should be set free from human enslavement, nicht wahr?

The one thing HSUS and other extremists refuse to recognize is that humans protect what they value. If we have no up front and personal contact with animals, we will not value them. If we don't value them, they'll go extinct. Haven't we proved that enough already.

 

[Jacq]

VERY well put, Deborah!!!

 

[Kiangagirl]

Yeah, I'll take education over legislation. Florida used to have a pretty decent permit program in place if memory serves. But then- it angers me that they lump ALL exotics into one big group. Sorry- a raccoon is not the same as a tiger. A fennec fox is not the same as having a grizzly bear. There should be levels of ownership and as long as you do what is required for said permits, I think you should be able to own exotics. Now- on the flip side- I don't think it should be just as easy to bring a fennec fox home as a tiger, but that's where a decent permit system should be in place.

So true Trish. It's a tough battle but worth fighting. I agree that a permit system would be much preferable to outright prohibition---which wouldn't work anyway. My conondrum is what do we do about the people out there who either don't know or don't care about proper animal management and care? They are the ones who give agencies like HSUS a lot of fuel for their fires and make it tough for those of us who really care about our animals' health and welfare. It makes me sick every time I see another raid on a puppy or kitten mill where animals live in deplorable conditions. Not sick because the raid happens, but because it needed to happen in the first place.