NATIVE ANIMALS AS PETS?

NATIVE ANIMALS AS PETS ?

t is a question that is asked often, why cant I raise this Kangaroo or Wallaby as a pet? We are living in Australia and surely a native animal would be a better option than a cat or a dog?

The reasons are many, when you see a small joey they are indeed very cute and cuddely, it seems that they would stay that way forever, of course this is not the case, they grow up.

It has taken thousands of years of breeding cats and dogs to what they are today, happily living with humans. But even now we still have problems with our domestic pets not being looked after properly by a small percentage of the population.

Let us look at some of the realities of having these animals in captivity in the average yard.

A "Domestic" Environment

irstly you would have to construct a fence at least 6ft high to eliminate the possibility of your animal escaping, it is a dangerous animal once it is an adult. Also being a social creature it needs the interaction of others of the same species.

You would have to ensure no cats had access to your yard, as the roo or wallaby could contract toxoplasmosis from gracing on the grass the cat may have soiled.

You could not have dogs near your yard as your new "pet" could be chased by a dog running up and down your fence thus your "pet" would end up with myopathy (a situation almost always resulting in the death of the roo or wallaby). Or maybe running franticly into the fence in fright and breaking its neck when a neighbor starts the mower.

The faecies would have to be removed on a daily basis to reduce the risk of coccidiosis. The spraying of any cockroach, fly or ant sprays would be out of the question.

Forget fertilising the pot plants, as most slow release fertiliser pellets contain phosphates, this can kill a wallaby.When your "pet" reaches sexual maturity , it would consider you one of its species, at this stage it is capable of seriously hurting or killing an adult, not to mention a child.

A domesticated native animal cannot be released back into the wild, they would not know where to find food, or what to eat, where to find shelter or how to interact with their own kind. The only answer in that case is to humanely have the animal put down, when the family no longer is able to handle it, or the novelty has worn off.

When we consider the amount of cats and dogs the RSPCA has to put down every day of the week, do you really think it would be any different if not worse for our native wildlife if kept as pets?

"Wild" life

Our native wildlife is exactly what the word implies,"WILD. Let us all do what we can now and in the future to preserve their habitat, enjoy seeing them in the wild where they belong. They do not belong in our lounge rooms, watching television with the kids while they are small, only to be left to an uncertain fate once they are no longer cute and cuddly.