Category: the Rant Board
I don't know if the rant board is the correct place to post this, but I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since I heard the story.
First off I live near Boston's Logan Airport. Wednesday I read a news story about the CT mom mauled by her "friend"'s 200 POUND CHIMPANZEE. ?!?!
I did some more digging around re this story. Turns out "friend" was also this woman's EMPLOYER. Company of employment was a towing service.
This story is wrong on so many levels it's hard to decide where to start, so first of all WHAT KIND OF MORON KEEPS A CHIMPANZEE AS A PET?! What do these people think such an animal will bring 'em, a sidekick like the '70's show BJ AND THE BEAR?! They grow as big as some humans, and I kind of don't think a beast whose native environment is the wild open spaces of east Africa is going to adapt to a human household in urban CT. The more I read, the owner and her now deceased husband "adopted" the beast from a wildlife sanctuary in MO. ADOPTION?! Do they get an "adoption certificate" like those ridiculous cabbage patch dolls?! Are they not aware of the thousands of DOMESTICATED dogs and cats available in shelters EVERYWHERE?! Even small birds like keets and canaries?!
It gets even more ridiculous. Turns out the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection exempted the couple from registering their ridiculous pet with Animal Control, seeing the chimp named "Travis" as "not a danger to his community." Huh? Several years back there were incidents on record, such as of him getting out of his owner's car and leading police on a chase to get him back to her.
What I also thought when I heard it was, "How could someone go into a friend's home knowing they have such a pet?" I know a woman who keeps snakes as her exotic pet. Would I accept an invite to Thanksgiving dinner at her place? Heck no. Turns out the chimp's owner called her employee to corral the beast back into her home as he had escaped YET AGAIN. ?!?! Employee had already had trouble with him rough playing with her, yet WENT. ?!?! There are courageous female secretaries who tell their bosses, "No, I won't get your coffee or pick up your drycleaning or listen to the latest complaint about your wife", yet this woman went to CORRAL A 200 LB WILD BEAST?!?! Folks I'm afraid I'd have to suck it up, be denied Unemployment Comp for insubordination, and apply for food stamps and housing assistance in a wealthy area (where few people apply, so you don't usually stay on a waiting list long), then look for another job. This woman, the victim, has a teenage daughter to support by herself.
Instead, she went to try and corral the beast and wound up mauled, and now has no eyes, due to her eyelids being ripped off and infection setting in, no lips, a nose that has been replaced by a cosmetic prosthesis, a whole so she can intake liquids through a straw, a trach tube, and no hands. She has unveiled herself on Oprah, and is hoping to get to the point where her only problem is blindness." Google the name Charla Nash for more information.
Here is my opinion on exotic pets: Animals who naturally live in the wild are not pets. Whether it's the rainforests of Central America, or the wilds of Africa, these large animals, some reptilian, some large birds, definitely insects and primates ARE NOT PETS. Whew...
Well, by that definition, even dogs and cats would not be good pets, nor any birds. By those standards, the only pets you could have are goldfish.
Though you may not realize it, even dogs and cats are wild animals, tamed maybe, but the instincts are still there. As much as we breed them and train them, they are still instinctual carniverous animals. Why do you think guide dogs occationally attack?
As for chimps and that kind of thing being kept as a pet, I think its kind of dumb. I lived in florida, and people would release wild animals like that when they were too big to be pets. All kinds of snakes and things that don't live in florida, are now crawling all over that state, and eating household pets.
In Texas however, its legal to own any animal as a pet, from a lab to a grey wolf, from a kitten to a tiger, anything you want. I think that law should be changed, no one needs to own a cougar as a pet.
I've heard of a pet lion. My wife lived near a pet tiger.
Lions and tigers? C'mon ... That's nuts! Not to mention totally selfish and instilling fear into the community!
Silver Lightning, I'm navigating my way around this board and short on time now, so I'm going to reply on the board...what part of Florida did you live? I lived in Tampa for 24 years and went to college near Orlando. I was just sharing with a friend how out of control folks bringing exotics in Florida has gotten. Friend is from Michigan and thinking of relocating there.
Do you remember the story in '89 of whoever brought in a boa from South America or somewhere and dumped it? A poor guy woke up to hear a dreadful screeching sound outside his home in Fort Lauderdale. Went outside to check it out, and a 20 FOOT BOA CONSTRICTOR was strangling some small animal. Turns out the beast had lived under his house for years, and a firm called "Pesky Critters Inc." was dispatched to remove the snake. It took 5 guys to remove it by then, but yeah, I've heard my share of stories there of folks bringing these exotics from outside the U S and dumping 'em.
The gators have gotten so out of control they bang on doors with their snouts and have even been known to enter human homes. As for Texas, I felt welcome in Dallas, and would love to visit again, but this business of any animal at all can be kept as a pet is changing my mind about wanting to move there.
Yes, i've heard that story about that woman who had her face ripped off by that chimp. It's not just their size, but they're stronger than any human. Hell, they'll rip your arm out of its socket if you tried shaking hands. I wonder what possesses these people into thinking they can own a chimpanzee without a friend getting hurt or worse. Nuts.
I want to move to FL but after this I am not quite sure. I have two cats and would go nuts if something ate them! Right now they are inside outside cats, but I know no matter wear I move to next, they would have to be inside cats. I feel aweful to have to do that to them, but what could happen if I don't is so much more worse.
i stroke my lion while feeding a bear and a tiger *smile* na, seriously, i think some exotic pets are just crazy to keep. chimps are crazytime, as are snakes. lions and tigers, hmm, yeah, well, madness too really.
I never understood why I had to register a canary, which weighed in at a whopping 0.85 of an ounce, as an exotic pet once.
And, BTW, he was singing in the apartment manager's office at the time she told me this. I just didn't say anything for a couple seconds while he warbled on ... and she said, "Well that is rather silly, is'nt it?" ... I didn't have to pay for him.
Naturally you have to vaccum up feathers and seeds, but that's easier and less smelly than dog hair and the like ... so they probably should redefine exotics in some places.
the problem with a lot of these "pets" (and I use the term loosely) is that a lot of them look cute as babies, so when you take on your little baby chimp, or bear cub, or lion cub or whatever takes your fancy, the realization doesn't seem to have dawned that said animal is going to grow bigger than you, and stronger than you, with the potential to kill you.
What a lot of people also fail to realize is that a lot of these animals are captured from the wild. So it's not quite the same as nipping down to the local pet shop to buy a baby chimp, more often than not the mother is killed and the baby stolen to be sold for a vast prophit.
The world is indeed full of idiots, but this is not helped by the fact that some countries refuse to legislate against their idiocy. If only countries would make it illegal for certain animals to be kept as pets, or at best for there to be a licence requirement for the keeping of certain animals (such as reptiles which people often purchase without the necessary expertees) then perhaps we A wouldn't have this problem of people being harmed by animals they shouldn't have had access to in the first place, and B, this massive prophiteering in animals that should rightly still be in the wild.
A pit bull can kill humans and other animals. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to keep them as pets. It all depends how you train the pet. Of course, I don't know why someone would want to keep a cougar as a pet, and I'm not a trainer, but I don't know if all animals even have the possibility of being trained. Such animals should not be kept as pets. Still, all animals have their instincts, and nothing guarantees they won't lash out. That's just the risk you run when you get a pet. This is why some apartment complexes don't allow pets at all.
I'm part of a tiny minority group in Massachusetts...the minority of people who CAN'T STAND N E Patriot Tom Brady. I lost respect for this man when he donated a sperm to Bridget Moynihan, then stayed here rather than getting traded to a California team. It's not just that...the social pages of the local paper constantly print "news" of him and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen. I have more respect for her than him. What really gets my goat about him is the stories of how he vacationed in western Europe with his gal pal while his ex announced her pregnancy, and how they flew off to L A to spend ONE NIGHT visiting his son, then jetted off to Costa Rica or someplace else to her family home. Um, when you have a baby, your priority should be that baby, not fun and friends and exotic vacations.
So now, Massachusetts has a law regarding pit bulls. Anyone choosing to own this breed needs to register it with animal control, send pictures of both themselves and the pet, and muzzle it in public. Owners have to be at least 18. Mr Brady has AN INFANT UNDER THE AGE OF ONE in the house with his wife. ?!?!?! What kind of loon wants a pit bull in the house with a baby? I realize they were nice dogs until idiots got a hold of 'em and started cruely training them as attack dogs. However the last I dealt with one that was just a big, friendly old thing, Buster was a mix, not just pit bull but boxer and dalmation. Brady's is pure pit bull, and he fancies himself above the rest of us peons as far as complying with the local law. He claims he has a household in another state, so he doesn't register the dog here. Um, I guess visiting dogs don't bite, and as far as I know he still resides here for at least part of the year. There was a song about six years ago, hip hop, where part of the lyrics were "I know you like to think your s* don't stink..." Reminds totally of him.
Here in the UK, you have to have a licence for reptiles and a licence for terrapins. I can't remember if you need one for turtles any more but I'd assume so, seeing as they are classes as reptiles, but I know you can just go and buy a tortoise from a pet shop if you know where to look.
Terrapins are turtles / tortoises.
you don't have to have a licence for reptiles in the UK.
you have to have a licence to import certain reptiles such as certain breeds of tertles and tortoises based on the fact many of them are endangered, but in terms of common lizzards and most non venimous snakes you can buy one from any petshop (and yes, such animals are readily found for sale in pet shops) or from any breeder.
Similarly you don't have to have a licence to keep certain types of monkeys as pets, even though again most people who keep these animals as pets do not have the knowledge to do so appropriately.
Breeding of pitbuls is banned in the UK though.
aww i want a bird
The sad thing is, from pet adoption (unless you're talking one that's full grown), to becoming a parent, I think entirely too many people only like at cute little babies and not the adult dog that might be too big for a one bedroom apartment, or, with kids, the smart mouthed four year old or the teenager yearning for independence, and you wind up with many unwanted pets destroyed in shelters, and neglected kids.
One woman...veering off topic a little...on Federal Death Row in the U S, Lisa Montgomery, every time her kids were past the attention getting baby stage she would get pregnant with another to get the attention lavished on her and gifts, etc. It took Doofus ex husband FOUR KIDS to realize that hey, this woman was more interested in the attention the cute little babies brought her than in actual parenting. When she remarried, she hid her tubal ligation, instead killing her friend in another state and crudely taking her pregnant friend's baby and trying to pass it off as hers. Doofus new husband...I'm sorry, guys, but even man friendly Dr.Laura Schlessinger has a men's companion book to the 10 STUPID THINGS WOMEN DO TO MESS UP THEIR LIVES...anyway, this is really stupid, new doofus thought she was really pregnant. No ultrasound photo or insurance records showing prenatal visits, or feeling of kicks to back it up, he really believed her when she said the baby was born that day, come meet her in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant to take her home. Baby was found and returned to father, Ms Montgomery traced through e mail records to the dead woman, captured, convicted, and sentenced to death.
Long post I know, one guy in a long time former apartment told me he wasn't sure his shepherd mix pup would fit in his apartment once grown and he might not be able to keep it. Um, shouldn't we have asked a vet on average how big such a dog gets? Or researched it when picking a dog? Honestly, I hate to not be able to keep a dog or cat because of my health problem, so I would have to have blood allergy tests and favorable results BEFORE making the commitment. Some folks I guess will always only look at the baby and not think past that quick stage and wind up with an adult pet that literally doesn't fit into their lives. Sad sad sad...
there are some turtles you cant have as pets either here in the states. because of the turtles being endangered or what have you. this is speaking from someone who does volunteer at an aquarium. haha plus i know someone in MA had a turtle of some kind and the state or someone had to take a certain kind of turtles ( cant remember) but there is one i think at the aquarium where i am. there are some dogs that are just mean and not fun to be around. i dont like pit bulls they are just dont like but i did have a neighbor who's pit bull was friendly so i guess only one was friendly hah
I think there should be possibly stricter laws surrounding pets, just because some idiots like to keep pets for the purpose of destroying things or people, but I could see how it would be difficult to pass such laws, because those who keep pets for the sake of having pets would probably think this is unfair. I'm sorry....my post is probably making little sense. It's just that I see how some people do take advantage of the right to keep pets, damaging the reputation of those who have no alternative motive, and of pet owners in general.
I think what it comes down to is this; If you have the facilities to keep a pet and do so safely, together with the expertese to give that animal a good, rewarding, fulfilled life, go right ahead. If you don't, and have no chance of learning what you need to know, leave the animals alone. This goes from tigers right down to little kittens. It's just as wrong to keep a biting, scratching, unhappy full-grown cat as it is to keep a biting, scratching, full-grown tiger. The only difference is that there's more risk with one. Let's not lose sight of the fact that we should consider the animal's well-being here too.
Adding to that, I believe you must have a vet's liscence in order to have a large animal such as a chimp or a tiger. I could be wrong but thought I saw that somewhere.
If an animal is a danger to your home, and to your neighbourhood, chances are that the animal is trying to tell you, in their own way, that they would rather be in the wild.
I agree.
As do I, but remember that there have been cases where large animals have been kept safely and successfully. They're few and far between, granted, but they do exist.
oh absolutely.
I know of some people that could be classed that way. Can we send them back into the wild somehow? <g>
haha.
I want a fifty-pound nodule of magnetite - a King Kong-sized seventies-style pet rock.
You know, I actually had one once.
I've seen this aww cute baby thing happen with chicks, the fluffy yellow kind. This happens round easter time and when the chicks become roosters and hens folks don't know what to do. Sad really chickens can be rewarding for eggs and an afternoon entertainment watching them run round the backyard. I knew people who successfully kept big snakes and an african gray parrot. Mike would take the snake to the park for sunshine and fresh air. He got quite large, 10 feet last I heard. It took 3 people to get him from cage to park. He never tried eating anyone animal or human. More on the cute baby thing it happens with bunnies too. We kept a rabbit until she discovered the neighbors garden, it became Perdy's salad bar. We think Perdy became dinner.You should know what your getting before you think of adopting a pet. Why don't people check what they're buying. There should be stricter laws regarding exotic pets. The only reason Mike kept a snake was because he did the research. It helped that he worked at a zoo before getting the snake.
I agree 100% about knowing in advance what you're getting into before you decide on a pet. That's why I haven't taken in any animals at this point. Though people don't think about it that way, it can be like parenting a child. It's another mouth to feed, it's something to potty train, it's medical expenses. It's also hair cleanup with dogs and cats, grooming to prevent massive shedding in the first place, behavioral control...I'm going to wait until Mimi's past the preschool years so I'm more likely to have the time commitment to one pet, and most likely it won't be a "cute baby", as, like humans, baby animals are more time consuming & high maintenance than adults.
Here is all the county council says on "dangerous" wild animals.
If a person wishes to keep a dangerous wild animal (e.g. lions, monkeys, spiders, lizards etc) on their premises, an application for a licence must be made.