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My parents had a zebra when I was growing up in Northern California. He was skittish, to the point that this animal lover never got closer than 10 feet until it wound bolt. He brayed at sunrise, easily drowning out the roosters. He sadly ingested part of a mat in his stall which ended up killing him.
After my parents moved once I left home, they got 2 more of these fancy donkeys.
Pro life tip to people like them: Use non-toxic, specialized decor when sheltering animals.
The best shelters and zoos never have issues like the carpet incident because every big or small aspect and nook and cranny is catered. They don't buy generic room brands for example.
I saw someone bring their bobcat into a Lowes once. It was on a leash, and you bet I did not trust that leash. It looked overwhelmed.
They were allowed to do that?
Are you gonna stop them?
If I was in that Lowe's, I would at least ask a manager about them and say "hey, is that alright to be here". Even if it's not a safety risk, if it's in a Lowe's, it's probably an allergy risk.
Oh another post, my friend's parents had a kinkajou that lived in the couch and pooped from high shelves at night.
There's a guy on Instagram who has two absolutely massive pythons, like 16 feet long and thick as tires. They drape themselves across his young daughter very casually, and she spends time playing Barbies with the big one. The owner is very educated about snakes and obviously takes very good care of them, and isn't some trash person who just wants violent animals, but much like pit bulls all it takes is one wrong turn and that child could die in a terrible way. I know some pet snakes are very docile, but something that could take it into its head to strangle me for dinner is not a pet to me.
People's pit bull apologia is bad enough, we had a person in my ER one night who had been walking their friend's pit bull who they walked often, who yanked the leash when he saw another dog, and when they tried to grip it the dog turned around and began mauling them, and ripped their arm right off. Someone called 911 and the cops showed up and had to shoot the dog and kill it to get it off them, and they took both them and the arm to our hospital but couldn't save it. My niece is also missing part of her lip because of a pit bull. Those are exotic animals that are extremely dangerous to me, fuck that nanny dog bullshit.
More importantly, with a pitbull it's mostly about training and handling. But snakes - even the intelligent ones - are very different from dogs. They are way more controlled by instinct and are natural predators of monkeys and young great apes. They are not intelligent in the same way mammals are, their internal machinery can at any point in time simply click with the wrong situation and that toddler is gone.
They do look benign and just curious with the child, I won't be unfair, and he's really well versed in their care. I don't want to make him sound bad or anything, he's really a nice guy and I've asked him some questions he has good answers for. But who wants to run that risk? Those kids in Nova Scotia who died because a pet python escaped its enclosure and climbed into the air vent, fell through the ceiling because it was 100 pounds,and reacted to the screaming kids it fell on top of? That's terrifying.
The guys yard was 4 lots so fairly nice sized (1 acre?)... Underground tunnels that lead to "satellite" cages for the prairie dogs to keep an eye on the yard. Venomous snake shed(cobras and rattlesnakes) and to top it off a pair of breeding crocodile monitors. A true Florida man.
When I was a kid back in the 70's there was a woman with a spider monkey who lived in the same trailer park as my grandfather. She rode around on a bike with it on her shoulder and would stop when my sister and I were visiting. We were never allowed to pet it, we'd watch while the lady fed it clovers.
I'm not an animal expert, but I'm fairly certain clovers are not a good diet for spider monkeys.
Used to have around 50 tarantuals (and some other spiders).
Why fifty?
No reason, that was just the number at wich it steadied out. I guess the room was full, no more space for more terrrariums.
My bestie has an iguana. Not that exotic in the grand scheme of things, even if pretty cool.
So I'm also internet acquainted with a guy that cares for tiger cubs. Except the big kitties aren't his, he just works at a zoo.
This isn't that exotic I guess but I had a customer at the restaurant that would smuggle in his pet rat (I worked the graveyard so usually nobody was around). Its name was Gizmo and it would sit on his shoulder under his sweater and he would feed it French toast. Sweetest little thing.
Did it also use its owner as a marionette to cook linguini?
saw someone with a big ass snake.
Also, I owned a hedgehog once, dude had some serious trauma from his 5 previous owners. Yeah, 5.
He was always angry, but I still played with him anyways trying to get him to warm up to people. Never did, but he did like exploring all the books and crannies of the room. Wish I could've had him before all his previous owners :(
ass snake
Oh man, those are the worst!
They need to regulate ownership better if he went through five bad owners, like was the person managing those transactions Dr. Eggman?
Half dog, half wolf hybrid. That thing made a Great Dane look small. I mean, his head was slightly lower than mine at 5’8”. I could’ve easily ridden him. Beautiful animal. Wish I had a picture.
My aunt worked as a zoo vet, and was one of the people animal control would call if they found an exotic animal and didn’t know what to do with it. As a result I grew up being able to casually play with several different species of monkeys, as well as an asshole African grey parrot. When I was in high school she even fostered a serval cat for a short time till they could find a more permanent facility.
I too want to to know about the asshole African grey parrot
He was old, and didn’t have an easy life before being rescued. I don’t blame him, but it was kind of funny that his standard response was “fuck you”.
Oh no, what did the parrot do?
Cheated at cards.
My kids' elementary biology teacher had a zoo in his classroom, all these snakes and lizards and spiders, all sorts of animals, so in the Christmas break he had to farm them out. We got the tarantula once, and once a boa.
Also twice raised abandoned baby squirrels we saw kids walking around with. Like my ex just said "dude, you know how to take care of that?" And the kid shook their head no. Yes, twice. One was Earl, one was Pearl. They were sweet, and very sharp.
One of my kids' swim coaches had a friend with a pet crow, too. A sailor with a pet crow; in fact a creepy sailor with a pet crow
I am sure you can guess what state I live in.
