Are Wild Animals Really Able To Be Tamed?

While I was looking for some expert quotes on this topics I came across this in a discussion forum. Judge for yourself if you think this is right or wrong.


Hi,
Speaking from experience, I can give you some helpful information. My dad has always kept exotic animals and I was raised the same way. I'll start with my opossum. My dad got me this opossum one year from a local animal dealer. It was a wild caught opossum and was very mean. I would open his pet carrier everyday with gloves on and pet him. I also fed him treats to gain his trust. The second day I was able to pet him with one bare hand (no glove) while the other gloved hand protected my bare hand. By the third day I could pick him up with gloves. The fourth day he was riding around on my shoulder. 
When my dad was a kid growing up in San Diego, California, he had a weeper capuchin monkey. She was a wild caught juvenile when he got her. It took several days to tame her but he never got bit or had any trouble with her. He said the key to working with primates is to let their curiosity overcome them and wait for them to come to you. A treat or two also helps.
A few years ago I got two small raccoons that could easily take a huge chunk of your finger off. I let them out of the carrier into my bedroom and just let them run around while I sat down in the corner. As they looked around and check the room out, they would come up to me and sniff out of cuiosity. Never did they attempt to bite or show anger. Eventually they would ride on my shoulder. I got them to do that by playing with them in the bathroom. 
I also had a kinkajou for 4 years. It was a bottle raised baby and was always tame. He was bonded mostly to my dad and dad could do anything with him. He loved to climb up to a high piece of furniture and dive bomb onto my bed with me right next to him. 
The key to taming wild animals is patience and confidence. It does help to start with a baby that has its eyes and ears closed and bottle raise it. If you are dealing with an adult than all you can do is just try and tame it. Don't get angry and hit it or anything like that because that will only move your progress back. 
This summer I am building a breeding cage for raccoons. It has two sides and each side is 
4'x4'x4'. It is going to be all wire held together with j-clips and its elevated off the ground. The waste can fall through the wire and I never have to clean the inside of the cage. I plan to put wild raccoons in them so opening the door isn't the wisest thing you can do. Each cage is also going to have a 2'x2'x2' nest box hung on the outside of the cage with a hingable lockable top that way I can remove babies without having to go inside the cage. Its also going to have two feed stations so the animal can eat from the bowls inside the cage but can't flip the bowls over and I can fill the bowls from the outside of the cage without gettting bit. Lastly I am going to make an automatic watering system. 
Drew (17) South Carolina

People Don't Understand Animals Enough To Own Them

Looking up a googled article about an animal doesn't make you an expert on it. Just because a trained monkey at the zoo will dance for you doesn't mean the animal always acts like that. Animals are wild creatures with distinct insticts to survive no matter what it takes. 
Even when thorough research is done, people don't understand that animals aren't meant to be your best friend or a show piece in your home. Dogs, "man's best friend", has been domesticated for over 5,000 years, but yet about 4.7 million dog related attacks are reported each year in the United States alone. Knowing this, why would someone think that an alligator, that is not domesticated, would make a perfect pet?

Not All Exotic Pet Owners Are Wealthy

With the way these animals are treated and transported there's not much money going into handling them, which increases the poacher's profit. Most of the poachers, as mentioned before, are extremely poor people from second and third world countries. These people are looking for a quick buck, so if the animal is bought straight from the source, they aren't that expensive. When pet shop owners purchase these animals from the poachers they hike up the price to make them appealing to those who want to stand out with a pet that no one else has. Anybody could get their hands on these animals. And pets that aren't all that exotic, but just unorthodox like raccoons and squirrels are easily attainable and easily hid from the government. Once these animals act out people will go to drastic measures to "tame" them.