Keeping wild creatures as pets is stupid

It is probably an urban myth that has been around for many years. I am speaking of the fool who allegedly bought a pair of man-eating South American piranhas as pets and when he didn’t want them any more, he flushed them down the toilet and the fish and their offspring are now in the lakes of North America. So far, I have never heard of anyone being eaten by Piranhas in any bodies of water in North America.

But it isn’t an urban myth that there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of equally stupid people in North America who keep dangerous pets in their homes and on their property.

A bear is only one of the many kinds of potentially dangerous animals you can legally buy and keep as pets in Ohio although at the time of this writing, there is legislation pending in Ohio that will prohibit people from buying and keeping bears and other wild animals as pets. What these people who keep bears as pets don’t know is that all bears are potentially dangerous. They are unpredictable and can inflict serious injuries.

Since 1990, there have been documented multiple incidents of injury and escape that have resulted from bears kept as pets. For example, a 2-year-old boy in Ohio required reconstructive surgery after being bitten and clawed by his grandfather’s pet black bear; in another incident a 600-pound pet black bear kept in a 15 x 15 foot cage in Missouri bit and nearly severed the hand of a 6 year old boy when he tried to pet it; and in Oklahoma an 8-year-old girl suffered a broken arm and other injuries when she tried to pet the neighbor’s 6 foot tall, 300-pound pet black bear. I knew a man in Ontario who kept a bear as a pet on his property. One day his girlfriend tried to feed it and the bear killed her.

Jim Stinebaugh, a longtime U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent stationed in San Antonio, Texas said it best in 1997 when he said; “There is hardly anything good that can happen from having a big cat in private hands. Even if you don’t care about the animals, it could end up in a tragedy where a human gets hurt.”

He was mindful of what had happened in a 30-day period in his state and elsewhere when people kept wild cats as pets. For example;

In March 12, 1997, a 13-year-old boy was attacked by a tiger and lion kept in a cage built onto the side of his grandfather’s home near Caldwell, Texas “My son was not mauled,” Jodie Grubbs Jr. told the Bryan-College Station Eagle. “He was being eaten alive.” The boy spent a week in the hospital, but did not suffer permanent damage. In April 3, 1997, two-year-old James Ramos was rushed to a hospital after he was attacked by a male bobcat, one of two in violation of city ordinance in a north Dallas, Texas home of his mother’s boyfriend. Animal control workers investigating the attack said the boy – who was bitten on the cheek, finger and heel. He recovered. On April 28, 1997, the mother of an animal care worker at a Luther, Oklahoma cat breeding farm was killed and partially eaten by a rare Persian leopard. The woman, who was visiting her son and not a trained worker, was alone at the facility and was attempting to feed the cat. On May 8, 1997, big cat owner Gene Light of Lubbock, Texas was seriously injured when he entered the cage to work with one of his tigers. Light’s son and a friend had to shoot the tiger – while his owner’s head was still in the big cat’s jaws.

A 10-year-old boy in Wilkes County, North Carolina was mauled and killed by a relative's pet tiger in December 2003. Less than two months after that, a 14-year-old girl was attacked by a tiger in Surry County, North Carolina and severely injured.

Snakes are equally dangerous. In just the last four years in Ohio, Dayton fireman Michael Peterman died after his pet African rhino viper bit him. Alexandria Hall of North College Hill was killed when her pet Urutu viper struck her on the hand. And just this past December, Ted Dres of Camp Denison, was found by his girlfriend with his pet Boa constrictor wrapped around him. He died from strangulation. These events took place in just one of 50 states.

Here is a snake story that should get your attention. For a week-and-a-half, an escaped spitting cobra had been slithering through a local townhouse in 2006 in Toronto, causing two families to leave their homes and giving animal control officials headaches because of its elusive ways. The venomous reptile had been enjoying its vacation away from captivity by hiding out in the walls of the home, well away from the grasping hands that would gladly take it back into custody. Who the snake belonged to, how it got loose, and even what species it was are unknown, but neighbours have said the creature belonged to one of the building's tenants. To make a long story short, the owner of the house lost thousands of dollars in lost income and expenses and finally he had to have the house enclosed in plastic wrap so that poisonous gas could be pumped through the house to kill the snake. The snake was never found.

Spiders and scorpions are probably some of the most feared arthropods and a cause of entomophobia (fear of insects), arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and delusory parasitosis (the feeling that insects or arthropods are crawling, biting or burrowing in the skin when no arthropod is involved).

What kind of fool keeps poisonous spiders and scorpions as pets? Some people believe that spiders and scorpions can make fascinating pets and are ideal for some people since they are quiet, compact, and do not demand attention.

Unfortunately, years ago, my wife and I rented a room to a young fool who kept a tarantula spider as a pet. He assured me that it wouldn’t climb out of the glass container. Well, one day it did. I not only hate spiders, I fear them immensely as do the majority of people on this planet. I can’t begin to tell you of how nervous I was, all the time, thinking about that huge poisonous spider (as big as my hand) crawling around my house unseen with me waiting for it to crawl into my bed while I was asleep. Two weeks later, I saw it crawling up the basement stairs. I threw a newspaper over it and hit it with a hammer. If my roomer was still in the house at that time, I probably would have thrown a newspaper over him and hit him with the hammer also.

The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is the most abundant poisonous spider of public health importance in Kansas. A bite of this spider in some cases can cause a necrotic lesion where the skin and flesh around the bite break down. This creates an open sore for several days and often leaves a scarred pit that is typically ½ inch in diameter. In a very small number of cases, poison from a brown recluse causes life-threatening systemic illness involving various internal organs. Why would anyone want one of these things as a pet?

A black widow spider has venom that contains a neurotoxin, and the bite usually causes an immediate, sharp pain followed by a burning sensation, localized swelling and redness. Pain may become intense after an hour or two and last for up to two days. The victim may experience aching cramps in the abdomen, shoulders, back, chest and limbs. Abdominal muscles may become rigid. Other symptoms may include headache, nausea, tremors, weakness, salivation, difficulty speaking, swollen eyelids, breathing problems and a slight rise in temperature. The degree of severity depends on the sensitivity, health and size of the victim. Small children and the elderly are often the most severely affected. Do you know any fool who wants to keep a spider like this as a pet in his or her house?

Various species of large scorpions are imported from other continents and sold in pet stores as novelty pets. Often, they are given frightening-sounding names such as “Death Stalker” or “Black Death” while the pet store personnel may claim that the scorpion is harmless. In fact, such personnel and their suppliers are seldom knowledgeable about scorpions. The novelty pets may indeed include some species whose venom is lethal to humans.

What kinds of people keep dangerous pets as I have described in this article? In my opinion, they are the kinds of people who like taking risks and they are also show offs. They take great pride in showing their friends the dangerous pets they keep in their home and on their property because it is a way to convince their friends that they are brave and not afraid of anything.

Well they may be brave but they are also foolhardy and that should be apparent to anyone who sees these dangerous creatures in someone’s home or on their property. And you will be pretty stupid also if you believe these fools when they say to you, “Relax. It won’t hurt you.”