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Monkeypox and exotic pets

As a person horrendously allergic to all things cute and fuzzy, and also one quite taken with the darker side of life, I have always kept what I have referred to as "exotic pets" right now I have a ( http://www.key-net.net/users/swb/pet_arthropod/mill.htm ) giant african millepede named Zoella. IMHO, the problem is not so much with the pets themselves as with irresponsible owners. If you are going to keep a strange animal as a pet, you must take responsibility for preventing it from affecting the local ecosystem. The best way to do so? Keep it in a terrarium, seperate from other animals, and only take it out when you've got your eye on it. Simple enough, but as they say, you'll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
 
well honestly I think they should lay back on SOME exotic pets like the endangered ones like tigers and stuff leave that to the zoos but some of the exotic pets are ok like an octopus or something but not the stuff you would find in the jungle like a monkey or something because I've seen pet stores selling tigers and chimps but luckily they were shut down :smile:
 
No, some topics deseve to be revived...and this may be one of them.

It was interesting to read my comments from years ago...since I have totally changed my opinion on exotic pets.
 
Greg, will you tell us what you think now? You are pretty informed about this stuff.

There was a moment of insanity (inanity?) here in New York a while back when the mayor released a list of animals that were not to be kept as pets in NYC. My favorites on the list were bears and whales. I should find that just for TONMO. Of course, the difference between the rules on paper and what is actually permitted is vast. That was about the time I was looking for an apartment and asked a building superintendent if pets were allowed. His response was, "You could keep a yak with suppurating sores if you could it up the stairs."

Melissa
 
Well, I worked as an animal importer, breeder, and salesperson for quite a long time... I don't know what the breaking straw was for me, but I just sick of the death.
Most (almost 75%) of the animals imported for us to enjoy as "pets" die in transit or due to complications from transit...it is disgusting if you actually like animals.

Captive breeding knocks that down to about 40%, but even so, that is still a lot of dead animals for our pleasure...I guess I just don't feel that I am so superior that I can order things about.

No, I am not going all "animal rights" on allyaall...I just don't want to support the bulk of the pet trade anymore.
 
While I disagree with Greg's numbers, I agree completely with his sentiment. :biggrin2:
The death is abbhorrent, but the people who don't care about the death are even worse. Marine Ornamentals is currently a volume business, and even though that is good for some of the people trying to make money, it is just not good for the animals.
 
This reminds me of the occasional story you see about someone being discovered to have been keeping pet lions/tigers/etc in apaartments or suburban homes. I always wonder how they got the damn things in the first place (do dodgy pet importers sidle up to people in bars and whisper "Pssst, I heard you were looking to score some panther.") and how it's even possible for noone to notice. I mean how many people do you now who buy about half a cow a week...what does the butcher say, "Man, that Bob sure likes his meat!" ?
 
Go take a look at Kingsnake.com...see how many importers there are? Double it for mammals, and triple it for fish.
Thales may disagree with my numbers, but I stand by them...I've seen the dead bodies in little bags at the airport.
 
I disagree with your numbers in regards to Marine Ornamentals. If you were talking about all imported animals, I can't comment because its been too long since I was involved in anything that wasn't wet. :biggrin2:
 
you guys seem to be being vague enough that you could both be right, but just talking about different things.

It sounds like the point is that there is a disturbingly high rate of fatality before imported exotic animals even get to the final customer, and that fatality rate may be different depending on what animals are considered, and probably even which importer is discussed, but in the aggregate, it's a horrific thing for anyone who cares about animals, but it's often "behind the scenes" so the end consumers aren't aware of the problem.

Do you guys both agree on that version (or want to :tomato: me for botching both your views at once?) Of course, maybe I should be inciting controversy instead, so that the postponed Thunderdome WWF Match ethics roundtable at the next TONMOCON will be more entertaining...
 
Pretty much. In marine ornamentals (MO), the death can start at the collection facility. In general, I don't think its just behind the scenes its more intentionally hidden from the consumers. It absolutely varies from importer to importer, which is part of the reason getting accurate numbers is so very hard.

I think controversy is too much work, and am much more interested in having a discussion. :biggrin2:
 
Anyone who actually likes animals would be horrified at the numbers of dead caused by the pet trade....from parrots to blue damsels.

Captive breeding? Sure, it tries to keep up...but can't, there isn't enough money in it. A few people have made a serious amount of coin dealing in captive bred animals, but it is paltry to the amount of cash that trades hands in the overall animal importation business.

very disturbing.
 
Worst of all are the unscrupulous dealers who try to introduce a species so they can have a cheap local supply. The biggest problem is reptiles (brown basilisks, burmese pythons, and nile monitors in florida), but i wouldn't be surprised if the lionfish problem on the east coast stems, at least in part, from this.
 

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