Exotic Pets

After a bring-home discussion from Dad's work, we watched a couple of instructive videos. 

The question was asked:  If you had to choose between having a tiger that you had hand-raised or a hand-raised chimpanzee, which would be more scary?

After some discussion, we watched the National Geographic special, Tigers of the Snow, followed by Michael Webber's award-winning documentary, The Elephant In the Living Room.  The first showed hazards faced by researchers as they try to save the endangered tigers in Asia; the second follows Ohio police officer, Tim Harrison, as he works to keep people safe from the extremely dangerous exotic pets of people in the American subculture, and Terry Brumfield, a man who struggles to keep a pair of African lions.  Both movies eliminated any desire any of us may have had to keep exotic pets -- especially big cats -- even if it may be legal to do so.

"Having dangerous pets just makes people unhappy," Peter commented. "Dangerous animals can be dangerous, either to you or to other people, and it can lead to having them be taken away."

There were some alarming episodes where deadly snakes were loose.  Some had been released and others had escaped.  Some children found a highly venomous snake in their garage and they played with it -- even rode on its back -- for several hours, before calling animal control.  Miraculously, nobody was hurt.

"The most freaky part was when he (Officer Harrison) was holding the Gaboon Viper," Thomas says.  "Another part that scares me is that an old lady in a wheelchair had a snake stuck in her walls."  The boa constrictor was loose for several weeks and nobody could get it out.

Officer Harrison bought a Puff Adder, one of the world's most venomous, at a fair for exotic animals.  It was in a flimsy, clear plastic bin, with a bit of red electrical tape holding it shut.  After a tense moment where he picked up the snake and locked it inside a more substantial container, he took it to a research lab.  "He was probably helping to make antivenin," Peter says.

We were shocked to hear how many hazardous snakes, big cats, bears and primates are kept in the homes of people in the United States.  "There are more tigers in Texas than there are in India," Peter recalls.


Photos from sxc.hu.