Reasons Wild Animals Shouldn’t Be Pets

Maybe having a pet tiger or rare bird is a dream that you want to achieve.

Feeding them directly from your hand, petting them from outside their cage, or even playing with these wild animals may all look fun on social media.

By raising these animals, you are not saving them. On the other hand, you are taking a big risk if you decide to keep an endangered animal.

 

You Can’t Meet Their Needs

Despite good intentions, humans are unable to provide the right home for wild animals to have the best quality of life — especially in animal species that are at risk of extinction.

“They have evolved to live in natural, wild habitats and by keeping them as pets, you put them in an unfamiliar and potentially stressful environment where they can’t behave the way they would instinctively in the wild,” Veterinary Experts said, in the Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) program.

Bringing in endangered animals “potentially damages the animals,” he said.

Keeping Endangered Animals Can Reduce Their Population

If you think that keeping endangered animals in your home will help them from extinction, you are very wrong.

Keeping rare animals can create the idea that interest in keeping them increases, creating demand and encouraging a trade in endangered animals that will eliminate them from the wild.

“The unsustainable trade in wild animals as pets is rapidly reducing the populations of many animal species worldwide, pushing them toward extinction.”

You Are Creating More Endangered Species

Even for animals that are not yet threatened with extinction, retrieving them from the wild is a quick way to deplete their population in their natural habitat.

The high demand for these once common species is pushing them towards extinction, and for an already endangered species this could be the final nail in the coffin.

They Can Hurt You

Don’t be fooled that they can be tame.

Placing wild animals in an unfamiliar environment is dangerous for them as well as for you.

According to the Jade Goodall Institute, it’s not just tigers, chimpanzees that are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and poaching for wild animal meat are more powerful animals than most adults at five years old.

The chimpanzee ripped his face and hands — leaving him in need of a face transplant.

They Don’t Have Emotions Like Humans

Brutal attacks that can be fatal can happen at any time even if you think pets already have a good relationship with humans.

Basically, wild animals will not think about their owners even after years without incident.