#pet ethics

Agreed 100%. Too many people just do not treat animals correctly in all directions.

For some people, dogs would be a bad pet (like me), but parrots are perfect. For others, it's the reverse. The list goes on.

Parrots are fascinating, intelligent, beautiful, and charismatic animals, so it is easy to see why they appeal to the public as companion animals. Unfortunately, an average household environment deprives parrots of things that are absolutely essential to their physical and psychological wellbeing, and many people go into ownership under-informed. Parrots are delicate animals with demanding husbandry, long lifespans, complex social needs, and require a great deal of specialized care.

As a result, many parrots prove overwhelming for their owners, especially if the owner was poorly educated on what they were signing up for, and in the US, a staggering 80-85% of parrots are rehomed in their first five years of ownership. Many parrots will shuffled between multiple homes over the course of their lifespan, becoming increasingly psychologically damaged with each rehoming, and wind up in overburdened sanctuaries when they become difficult to manage. And far too many simply die from improper husbandry along the way.

ACS has rescued a placed a large number of parrots over the years, and we still have numerous sanctuary animals that will spend the remainder of their years here (like Cypress, pictured above). Five years ago, we overhauled our facilities for permanent resident birds by converting to an aviaries-only set up, allowing them to fly, flock with other birds, and to afford them more space for enrichment. We are no longer actively rescuing parrots, but the birds who are with us currently will be here for many years to come.

Even providing a high standard of care, our birds are inarguably not living the life they ought to as wild animals. We have had the privilege of viewing wild native parrots in Aruba, as well as introduced populations in multiple states (the conures pictured above were seen by us in Florida). Seeing them in full flight with flocks of their own kind, foraging, building nests, forming pair bonds, and most importantly being allowed to simply be parrots to their fullest extent, without conforming to the demands of cohabitating with humans, has only firmed our belief that these animals do not belong in the pet trade.

I thought I’d been asked this before, but I couldn’t find it after going 10 months back for “land crab”, so I give up. XD 

For land hermit crab species, no. They’re all wild-caught, and most don’t do fantastic in captivity either (not to mention the awful treatment during capture & shipping). 

As far as other crab species, the only thing I could find was vampire crabs, but I’m not sure how accurate the information is, and I’m not sure how much care info there is available for them at this time. Unfortunately, it sounds like they’re still collected from the wild as well, so you’d have to be very careful with background checking to make sure you were getting captive-bred ones if you wanted to get some.

https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/articles/vampire-crab-geosesarma-sp

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/88-shrimp-other-invertebrates/680217-crab-species-breeding-captivity.html

It sounds like it’s pretty difficult to breed crabs in captivity because almost all of them, even land species, breed in salt water, and the babies are difficult to raise. I know that’s the biggest issue with breeding land hermit crabs - it’s not super unusual to get eggs if you have a good tank set up & large enough crabs, but there’s still not much known about the needs of the hatched babies, and they take a LOT of work to keep alive for any length of time.

Yeeeeeeeeeeep. It's awful. Moral posturing around pets needs to stop. We all need to stop fucking policing each other all the time.

…Oof. Okay, so I have to say first off that I’m really kinda biased here. I’ve worked in wildlife rehab and virginia opossums are firmly in my mind as “wildlife, not pets”. I’ll try to set that aside somewhat though to address it as a possibility, because I know people do keep them as pets. My personal experience with it is bad, but that doesn’t mean it always is, especially with a responsible person. 

First thing you do need to look into - legality. They are NOT legal as pets everywhere, so that’s an important first step. There may also be permits involved, so make sure you’re clear on what’s required. (I’m guessing you may already know this, but still important enough to mention.)

Safety Concerns

Biting - As with any animal, this is pretty possible. Opossums aren’t typically very aggressive & would prefer to run away and/or be left alone. But they do have the most teeth of any North American mammal (50!) & they’ll use them if they have to. Biting might become more of a risk as the opossum gets older & hits reproductive maturity.

Less of an issue, but opossums have some good claws on them too, and they’re very grabby! Nail trims can help with that issue if you’re keeping one as a pet, but scratches may be fairly common too.

Zoonotic diseases - Opossums aren’t very likely to carry rabies (due to lower body temperature, as marsupials), but they can carry other diseases such as leptospirosis, tularemia, and some others. Even though they’re not a common transmitter to humans, there’s still some risk & you’ll want to make sure you get the opossum fully vetted ASAP. Also make sure you quarantine opossum from other pets, especially mammals, until it’s fully vetted.

Parasites - Wild animals are likely to have fleas, lice, mites, etc. on them, and can potentially have internal parasites as well. Again, definitely get full vetting done & make sure you do a good quarantine away from other mammals. On the plus side, ticks are less of an issue with opossums since they eat them!

Ethical Concerns

They’re wild animals - Domestic animals have been largely been altered to be able to coexist with humans better, so they’re less stressed by being in close contact with humans. They cope better with captivity, and in the case of companion animals, they actively enjoy our company. This isn’t typically the case for wild animals, and it can be difficult to establish how that stress may affect them.

Euthanized for self defense - Another big issue is that for many wild “pets”, such as raccoons, foxes, and wolves/wolfdogs, if the animal ever bites someone & that bite gets reported, the animal must be euthanized & sent for rabies testing. This is regardless of any rabies vaccinations because they’re not guaranteed for these animals as they are dogs/cats. So by keeping a wild animal as a pet & in closer contact with people, increasing the likelihood of a bite happening…you are very likely raising their chances of being euthanized for this. 

Ability to provide for needs -  With domestic animals, we have research on most of them to determine their nutritional needs & other care requirements. We don’t really have that with virginia opossums, so there’s still a lot of guesswork in providing care. That’s true of many exotic pets, but is a common ethical issue with those animals. Virginia opossums are nocturnal animals that spend much of their time roaming about for food. Humans are typically diurnal & a house may need to be heavily altered to be appropriate for opossum roaming. If a safe household or room cannot be made, how ethical is it to keep them in an enclosure? The acceptability of that may vary depending on the enclosure size, provision of enrichment, etc.

A Compromise!

So honestly, I don’t think it’s fair to keep a healthy opossum as a pet. But if you’re also having doubts on that, or want to compromise to avoid excessive judging from other people, there IS a compromise - keep a non-releasable opossum. You’ll need to get in contact with a local wildlife rehabber & let them know what you’re thinking of. You could also cast your net wider, to the rehabbers in your entire state, or in neighboring states. 

If a rehab gets an opossum in that isn’t releasable, but isn’t unhealthy enough to warrant euthanasia, well…that might be your chance. These are typically the cases where a rehabber may keep the animal as an educational animal, which is how my rehab got our education opossums. But virginia opossums are fairly common, and most rehabbers aren’t going to keep more than one if they do at all. So it can be a good way to find yourself a pet opossum and for the opossum to get a chance to live a happy relatively cushy life for a couple years.

I’m still really not a fan, but to be honest, I’d definitely rather someone have an opossum over a raccoon or a fox. Comparatively, they’re less dangerous & more easily cared for, so it’s more likely to go well for both the humans & the animal.

A long answer, but lots to discuss when it comes to wildlife as pets! I hope it was helpful. :) Let me know if you have more questions, and here are some links I found while searching:

https://www.opossum.org/

https://www.opossum.org/diet.htm

http://possumlover777.wixsite.com/opossumcare

http://wildliferemovalusa.com/opossum-diseases.html

Rick Rosner: One more topic. Our brown dog—she’s 14 years old—has geriatric vestibular disorder. One or more of her Eustachian tubes gets blocked, which causes dizziness, head tilt, and circular walking. It is concerning and inconvenient to manage. She gets nauseated from the vertigo and has difficulty eating because she cannot properly position her head to reach her food. The entire situation…

Ethics of Keeping Pets; Nature/Nurture; Salmonids - new books

I love the wide diversity of subjects that are present in every new book shipment.  These three books are typical of that spectrum.

“A life shared with pets brings many emotions, but we can’t help but wonder: are we doing the right thing, keeping these independent beings locked up, subject to our control? Is keeping pets actually good for the pets themselves?That’s the question that animates Jessica Pierce’s powerful Run, Spot, Run. Deeply empathetic, yet rigorous and unflinching in her thinking, Pierce has written a book that is sure to help any pet owner, unsettling assumptions but also giving them the knowledge to build deeper, better relationships with the animals with whom they’ve chosen to share their lives with.”

“Following centuries of debate about "nature and nurture" the discovery of DNA established the idea that nature (genes) determines who we are, relegating nurture (environment) to icing on the cake. Anthropologists Margaret Lock and Gisli Palsson outline vituperative arguments in Can Science Resolve the Nature/Nurture Debate? from Classical times about the relationship between nature and nurture, furthered today by epigenetic findings and the demonstration of a "reactive genome." The nature/nurture debate, they show, can never be put to rest, because these concepts are in constant flux in response to the new insights science continually offers.”