Have you ever come across a wild animal and had the distinct urge to catch it and keep it as a pet? People all across the globe face this dilemma on a daily basis. Oftentimes they see an injured animal and want to take it home to care for it. This could be the worst thing to do to an injured animal. Wild animals, everything from a wounded squirrel to an endangered tiger, pose a serious threat to the health of any humans that surround them.
Wild animals are exactly that – wild. They do not always understand what you are trying to do, even when you are trying to care for them. Even a cute little chipmunk or furry little animal in need of assistance can carry an unseen disease. A bite from a poisonous, diseased or rabid animal can also be fatal if medical intervention is not sought immediately.
Wild animals have to rely on their fight or flight instincts to survive, and even the tamest can turn on their human caretakers. For instance, just recently a 66 year old man in Toronto, Canada was mauled by his pet tiger. The man had kept exotic, wild animals as pets for most of his life, and even though he took excellent care of all his animals, that day did not end well. While doing his rounds and feeding the wild animals, he was attacked in the cage of a tiger he’d had for years. The man did not survive the attack.
This is just one example of how a wild animal can prove to be unpredictable, even after being handled by the same person every day for years on end. As in most cases, this wild animal likely acted out of character as a result of being kept in confinement for so long. Tigers are used to hundreds of acres of grassy plains to roam, hunt and play at will. Their only predators are humans. It would be extremely difficult for a tiger to adjust to living in a small cage day in and day out; no longer able to follow its instincts, and far from the company of its streak and dependant not on its own abilities, but on the handouts of a human. It is no surprise that wild animals often do not do well in captivity. The stress of all of this, added to all of that pent up frustration can not only pose a threat to their human captors, but also to themselves. Some animals have been known to start acting irrationally; beating themselves up, and attacking their mates and offspring. Both mental and physical health problems unseen in the wild plague those captured and held in captivity.
Whether they be caught in the wild or bred in captivity, wild animals tend to have extreme difficulty when released back into their native habitats. In captivity, they do not have the ability or need to rely on their instincts – instincts that mean life or death in the wild. As such, they are often unable to fend for themselves when reintroduced to the wild, and die quickly. These are but some of the reasons why wild animals should never be kept as pets.