Animal Animals Vs Domestic Animals

Tamed cats, dogs, hamsters, and other house pets are a big part of a numerous amount of people’s everyday life. Many have a love for animals and create emotional bonds with them; which often causes them to morph their lifestyle around their pet. This is typically not an issue, because most pets kept in households pose no real danger to themselves or anyone around them. However, a controversial topic around the globe today is the idea of exotic animals being kept as pets. Exotic animals refer to any animal that has not been domesticated. Domesticated animals are creatures that “have been selectively bred by humans for many generations” (Association of zoos and aquariums), “thrive in human care”, and therefore have acquired certain tendencies

Examples of this type of creature would be different breeds of dogs, cats, small rodents such as guinea pigs, and some types of farm animals. Exotic animals, on the other hand, have not lived around human beings since their birth or been bred for generations to have these tendencies, and can become quite the opposite. Some types of exotic animals can be aggressive, even fatal, due to their surroundings and natural habitat in the wild. In essence, this is the difference between common household pets and wild animals: domestication. Examples of exotic animals can be anything from armadillos and raccoons to tigers and Gorillas. It becomes a problem, though, when these undomesticated animals enter into homes as pets because of issues they may cause within and outside of themselves. Exotic animals should not be kept as household pets because keeping them as pets has a negative impact on the animals’ and community’s

Dr. Julio Correa, an Extension Animal Scientist at Metro News, says that lots of these wild animals may be “cute and cuddly babies”, but they can “become larger and more aggressive as they reach sexual maturity.” Along with sexual maturity, they can grow to become violent because of natural instincts needed to otherwise live in the wild. These tendencies come out especially if they feel restricted or endangered. These are things people with exotic animals need to be aware of and yet another reason why they shouldn’t be kept as pets; the behavior of a sweet and innocent looking animal they have emotionally connected with can be turned around and cause serious and even deadly damage to anyone it may come in contact with. There have been many incidents like this known to happen today, one being from a monkey, “one of the most common exotic pets”. Owned by Sandra Herold, the Chimpanzee named Travis was 14 years old. He “mauled” one of Sandra’s employee’s, Charla Nash, breaking “most of the bones in Nash’s face” and ripping “off her nose, lips, eyes, and hands.” This traumatic display of harmful behavior portrays the dangerous impact wild animals can have on people around them, and therefore adds to the idea why they should not be kept as