Wild Animals Are NOT Pets!

Someone left a ping back on my site, which was very sweet of him. But I couldn’t approve it because him and his girlfriend have bought a baby sloth as a pet. This breaks my heart, that this little innocent was likely ripped away from his mother and will never be allowed to be a sloth in the forest where thousands of years of evolution has designed him for. What is hard is that they obviously have big hearts that don’t have the big picture. The following is what I posted on his web site:

I want to thank you for the ping but I couldn’t in all conscious approve it for my site. I absolutely “get” why you are smitten with sloths but the bottom line is that they are wild animals – they are not pets and shouldn’t be. Baby sloths are amazingly cuddly, especially when they have been ripped away from their mothers and they are desperate for her. Do you know where your sloth came from? Wild animals are not “things” for us to acquire like an accessory. As adults they are not so cute and cuddly, trust me. The adolescents have drawn their share of blood from the staff and volunteers. Sorry, I know this is coming off as a lecture but this is important stuff that needs to be heard. Please go to http://www.jaguarrescue.com/jag_site/Home.html, email them and ask them about taking on a sloth as a pet. I know that I was incredibly lucky to have been able to cuddle a sloth but I only did it because I knew we were doing everything we could to ensure they would be able to go back to the forest. Please, wild animals are not pets.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/exotic_pets/

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/wildlife_trade/

http://www.peta.org/issues/Companion-Animals/inside-the-exotic-animal-trade.aspx