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
Wow Ashley, good reporting. I mean it sounds like this guy might have some experience taming wild animals, but how much of the general public, who have exotic pets, have the same background? Probably not that many right? This guy sounds like he might do well in a zoo; however, it sounds like he's going to breed racoons, but for what? Is he going to sell them? That seems a little more than irrational and impractical but completely irresponsible. If he was a true animal lover, he would not keep raccoons in a cage to possibly breed them or to be "exotically different." It's time for this guy to grow up and be a responsible animal lover and leave the raccoons in the wild where they should defend and take care of themselves. A 4X4X4 cage is no place for wild animals no matter how much water can be automatically delivered or how little of their own filth they have to walk through. I'm troubled by this guys perspectives but impressed with your blog.
ReplyDeleteDon-
Nice strategy to get your audience thinking about it from the ant's eye view and not the human or bird's eye view. Using concrete examples like this is really useful for your audience, and being patient enough to not tear down the kid and allow them to draw the conclusions you do is good. You should go into politics.
ReplyDeleteI like the alternative angles this post has to read. I mean it defenitely makes you think because you can see both sides of an argument here. I'm sure in his mind he is just doing this like how he was raised, but at what cost to the animals? He said that you can raise adult animals with care but its best to have them when they are young, so is that what he is trying to accomplish with breeding the raccoons in cages? Not to make light of the situation but its pretty ironic how you read how he is going to keep them in these cages and how everything will be automated so basically all he has to do is go out there, get the young and have no contact with the adult raccoons. Thats pretty cruel to trap and make them suffer like that and in the end want nothing to do with them! I like how you brought this article in to read, makes you think about what exactly all these people are really doing, good job!
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that i totally agree that patience is the key to pretty much everything. When taking care of a rescue animal this is especially true, but I am not very fond of the idea of raising wild animals. I respect your thoughts on this, but i believe a wild animals place in this world is in the wild, not in a cage. I am an animal lover, but i would prefer them to be where they are most happy.
ReplyDelete-Courtney M