Wild animals, Not pets

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association publishes a brochure entitled “Wild Animals Do Not Make Good Pets”. Download it here! 
 
What Is A Wild Animal?
A wild animal lives in natural environments and requires definite periods of conditioning and learning in the presence of its parents and peers. It has certain inborn behavior patterns and also requires learned behavior to survive in competitive natural environments.

Why Can’t Humans Substitute For Natural Parents?
It is virtually impossible for a wild animal to adapt to traditional household living. It is also impossible for pet owners to influence behavior patterns of wild animals or to predict when wild and often destructive behavior will occur.

Do Wild Animals Transmit Disease?
A wild animal is especially dangerous in this regard since an owner would have no way of knowing what diseases the animal had been exposed to in its natural environment. Diseases such as rabies can have extremely lengthy incubation periods lasting several weeks or even several months. Wild animals harbor parasites which can be lethal especially to infants and young children. Internal parasites such as ascarid worms, tape worms, flukes, and protozoa can cause debilitating and often fatal diseases in humans while external parasites such as ticks and fleas transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, bubonic plague, and other serious diseases. Primates can get and transmit tuberculosis, the common cold, measles, chicken pox and parasites; they bite and the bites become infected. They are all potentially aggressive.

What Animals Do Make Good Pets?
A pet is a domesticated animal that is kept for pleasure rather than utility. Domesticated animals make good pets because they have been bred, many for thousands of years, to coexist with humans in a household setting. In fact, behavior patterns which are especially appropriate for the domestic animal’s existence in a human household are consciously selected by breeders. The following animals are recommended as pets: dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, domestic mice, domestic rats, budgies (parakeets), canaries, cockatiels, doves, pigeons, and some common forms of captive-raised tropical fish.

But I really want a monkey!
While primates (prosimians, monkeys, and apes) are thought of as cute and cuddly, they can be unpredictable and even dangerous as pets. While lemurs, squirrel monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and even chimpanzees are regarded as attractive and intelligent, they are inappropriate as pets. They can catch and transmit diseases, they all bite once they become adults, and many are endangered species. The best way to appreciate primates is to avoid encouraging the pet trade: visit them at the zoo or even in the wild!

What About Zoos And Aquariums?
Zoos and aquariums were once places where disenchanted pet owners could unload their problem pets.  Today, zoos and aquariums, through the American Zoo and Aquarium (AZA) Association, have established wildlife conservation as their highest priority.  One way of increasing their efforts to discourage the taking of animals from the wild is by not accepting donations of pets.
Captive wild animals should be managed in a zoological park or aquarium by professional biologists and other specially trained persons.

Members of AZA invite you to join them and learn about wild animals and the care provided them in zoological parks and aquariums.