Makes me wonder what happens to an elephant when its mother rejects it though… I suppose it wouldn’t be able to survive on its own as a baby, so perhaps it’s a semi-good thing that this zookeeper is “keeping” it elsewhere. At least until it can take care of itself. I don’t know…
And I wonder what the Ukraine is like?
(Don’t try this at home. Or anywhere.)
More! This time, a dog with a seeing-eye dog. Now, THIS is a much better idea.
Okay. So I’m kinda bummed, cause I totally forgot to make my daily post yesterday. I got caught up in watching this video and doing a bunch of research about it afterwards:
I found it over at the blog Boing Boing last night and couldn’t resist its cuteness.
At the same time, though, I knew there was something rotten in the state of Denmark. Common sense tells one that animals like this, as ridiculously cute as they are, should not be kept as pets.
In my reading, I uncovered the sad truth about the Slow Loris trade: though people may claim to have acquired them through “breeders,” almost all lorises are simply snatched out of the wild. They have their teeth removed before being sold so that they do not bite their owners, and they are also one of the only mammals which produce a toxin that they can kill you with if they scratch their claws into your skin.
So my disclaimer to you: please, enjoy the video of the loris. The fact that it is an endangered species doesn’t stop it from being the cutest thing ever (after cats). BUT please, please, PLEASE don’t try to get one of your own. Donate to (legitimate) conservation societies to help restore the loris’s natural habitat so that you can go see them in their natural home one day.
For the entertaining bit of the post, I bring you a Yahoo! Answers page on the subject. If you don’t want to read through it (which is quite understandable, because, as a general rule, the responses on Yahoo! Answers are unmoderated and generally not very well informed [which, incidentally, sometimes makes them hilarious]), I will summarize for you. Most of the answers to “How do I get a loris as a pet?” were good, insisting that one should not have a loris as a pet. However, other suggestions for pets included the fennec fox. Another page I found suggested the sugar glider as a pet.
These are both also wild animals and NOT GOOD AS PETS.
Video of a fennec fox that is kept as a pet:
I don’t know. I don’t think this guy is having the best time living here. There are plenty of reasons why fennec foxes are not good pets, which I will not discuss here.
Just use common sense, guys. If you want a pet, a) make sure you have the resources and b) adopt from a shelter because there are plenty of housecats and non-wild dogs who NEED homes and cannot survive in the wild on their own. And if you don’t have the resources for a pet (as they live a long time, aren’t allowed in many rental housing options, and sometimes require extensive veterinary care), think about volunteering at an animal shelter or donating to animal rescue or conservation organizations, because they could sure use everyone’s help.
P.S. Here is one cat you can’t take home – the Scottish Wildcat. Probably the most beautiful “small” cat I’ve ever seen.
The Scottish Wildcat is NOT a domestic cat; is a very endangered species which is being thinned out by cross-breeding with domestic cats. Scottish wildcats cannot be tamed. I haven’t seen the documentary that this clip is promoting, but it’s probably worth a watch.
You can help the Scottish wildcat by learning about them here.
