Catching and keeping wild critters is both illegal and unwise

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Thursday, January 02, 2003 | Don Hopey

[Willie Green]

Close encounters between people and wild animals are on the increase, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, as are reports of people removing those animals from the woods, fields and roadsides to keep them as pets.

Catching and keeping deer, bears, raccoons, opossums, foxes, rabbits, squirrels and other infant, adult or injured wildlife is not only illegal but also dangerous to the health of animals and people.

[Willie Green]

Wild critters belong in the wild and should not be kept as pets.
While I encourage those place various wildlife feeders on their property to continue to do so, good judgement should be used to avoid overpopulation of vermin and pests. And above all, remember that such critters are indeed wild and need to retain their wildness skills for survival. No attempt should be made to try to tame them. (Besides, that could be dangerous as well.)

[buffyt]

I had a pet squirrel once, not by choice, but because SHE adopted ME. We called her Zipper. She came into the yard, the garage, and tried to come into the house. I would fix myself a glass of ice tea and set it outside and while I wasn't looking she would try to drink some of it and she spilled it every time. We think she must have been raised by humans and returned to the wild. Every time she had babies she brought them to our yard, but only one of them got very tame. One day she didn't come anymore. We don't know what happened to her. She just took a liking to me and came to see me every day for a couple of years. I never tried to hold her or pet her, but she would come right up to me and grab my toe to get my attention. I would jump! She surprised me. I loved that little rascal!

[newcats]

Ellie May didn't have any problem with critters.....

[Willie Green]

Squirrels can be especially cute and "friendly" in their behavior.
However, care and caution should be observed when enjoying their antics, especially by young children who may not be aware of the potential hazzards. Not only are these charming little critters capable of inflicting harmul bites and scratches, they are possible carriers of rabies. Raccoons are even worse.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Any wild rodent in New Mexico is a potential source for the Boubonic plague. A cat tested positive only a couple miles from my house. (Cats usually get it from infected rodents they catch)

[NJ Mountain Goat]

Man has domesticated many animals over time, some for food and some for pets. Hamsters are a relatively recent addition to the list of pets mankind keeps. The domestication of an animal changes its status from wild critter to pet. The deer in the living room is no longer wild, so it is not a wild critter, by definition.

With his logic, we never would have domesticated a single animal species. Every pet species started out as a wild critter. The real issue is this Wildlife officer playing species bigot. Cats and dogs are okay, but squirrels and raccoons are not? On his say so? Some breeds of dog are far more dangerous than a deer or a raccoon. I'm not buying it.

[packrat35]

My wife raised a baby squirrel that fell out of the nest. I guess she should have let it die according to this acticle.

[Willie Green]

Thank-you for that information.
I've only lived in the Southwest for a short time and am much more
aware of common wildlife hazards in the NorthEast and MidWest.

[B-Chan]

Last winter, there was a baby 'possum who kept sneaking into our former house and eating the cat's food. I'd put on the gardening gloves, pick up the hissing creature ('possums hiss for effect -- they don't bite) and deposit her outside. Fifteen minutes later -- she'd be back inside, gnawing happily at the cat food dish. (We never did figure out how he got in). I called the city animal control department to make sure Scamper (our name for the critter) wasn't a health hazard or incapable of fending for itself in the wild. The AC officer told me that 'possums are cleanly little animals that do not bite, scratch, or carry infectious diseases (they are incapable of carrying rabies, for example) and that a baby possum upon leaving Mother's pouch is perfectly capable of living on its own. Her advice was to keep putting Scamper outside and wait for her to move on. We did -- and, sure enough, after a week or so, Scamper disappeared. No harm done.

The entire affair caused me to reconsider my opinion of opossums. Far from being scary, ratlike critters, I now consider them to be kind of cute, in a snaggle-toothed marsupial sort of way. And they are clean -- Scamper was never less than immaculate, with no fleas or ticks or lice. Possums also tend to avoid garbage, preferring pet food, kitchen scraps, and live prey (bugs, mostly) to rooting around in trash cans. Raccoons -- now they're dirty, and can be dangeous to boot, but 'possums? God bless 'em, I say.

[buffyt]

....and that is exactly why I mentioned that we never tried to hold it or pet it, we are older couple and know the dangers. Zipper adopted me and was always gentle. I never tried to touch her, but she wanted to come close to me. I think she was raised by humans and then set free. This was all before we had any children, so there was no danger to our children. We still have photos of Zipper. It is so funny that she always brought her babies to meet us. I think it was because we always had bird seed out. She LOVED it and she loved peanuts. She would even take crackers out of my hand. But like I said, we NEVER ever tried to touch her, hold her, pet her. We always treated her like a wild animal. But she, for some reason, loved me and trusted me....

[buffyt]

One night my husband was pulling into the driveway after dark, and I was out in the garage, chasing a possum out of the garage. I had a broom and I would chase the critter. It would hiss and make noises at me. I made noises right back. There I was in the garage, in my nightgown, making loud hissing noises at a possum as my husband drove up. I asked him if he saw the possum run out. He said "Yes, poor thing was scared to death!" LOL

Another time we had raccons in garage, so we got a cage from the city dog catcher to catch it with. Then THEY take the critter off your hands.

A family of coons once adopted us, but we stopped feeding them. My kids were afraid of them, and my husband was afraid they might attack our cats.

I don't even put bird seed out anymore. I am getting SO LAZY in my OLD age....

[buffyt]

I know a LOT of people who have rescued baby squirrels, then turned them back free. They hang around for a while, they become attached to their rescuers.

A friend of mine adopted an abandoned baby dove. The dove will NOT leave. Fortunately she knows how to take care of it, it lives in a cage in her house. Her parrot says "Where is Baby Dove?"

There was a lady in the news who rescued a hummingbird, it stayed in her green house. Then it later refused to leave!

[piasa]

Good thing you weren't around when humanity domesticated rabbits, dogs, cats, cattle, water buffalo, chickens, guinea fowl, peacocks, turkeys, camels, elephants, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, etc ...

Granted, for most people it's a bad idea to try since wild animals tend to outsmart 'domestic' humans and escape or become unmanageable when people try to treat them like children instead of like animals. On the other hand, as a person who really likes meat and eggs and so forth, I'm glad our ancestors didn't have government and well-meaning but illogical environmentalists in the way of domesticating animal species.

[Porterville]

I had many wild pets growing up on a farm. The lefties are wrong about this one too. My experience is that wild animals make great pets if you get them young enough. I had a squirrel also that was great; caught a muskrat once and decided it was far too mean to keep. My dog is the biggest handful I ever had.

[Willie Green]

I think it was because we always had bird seed out.

I've always been saddened by the myriad, legendary attempts to deny squirrels access to birdfeeders. To me, the obvious solution is to set-out sufficient quantity and variety of food to accommodate all the little critters. (Unless, of course, that one particular type of critter becomes overpopulated and a clear nuisance.)

[B-Chan]

Rock doves (columba livia), aka common pigeons, are among the most interesting of birds. By nature monogamous, rock doves mate for life and carefully raise their broods to full adulthood. Mother pigeons are known to do the hunting and gathering while fathers guard the nest. Interestingly, the chicks are nursed instead of being fed -- the crop of the pigeon produces a milky liquid that the chicks eat during the first week or so of life. In large numbers pigon wastes can be a problem, but in general rock doves are harmless and interesting fowl. Far from being pests, dove populations (properly controlled by natural predation) are part of the fabric of human city life, and I for one enjoy watching them. They're great flyers, too...

[Willie Green]

I don't even put bird seed out anymore. I am getting SO LAZY in my OLD age....

Aaaccckkk!!!

Senior citizens need their exercise.
January 2nd isn't too late to make a New Year's resolution to rectify that!
Surely putting out a little birdseed now and then isn't THAT strenuous.
It's more a matter of developing the habit of remembering to do it now and then.

[Nea Wood]

Can you post any of the pictures of Zipper? :-)

[packrat35]

The squirrel she raised did not leave either. We released it and it ran up the tree next to our house. A couple of hours later, I found it scared to death. My wife went outside and it came home to mama.

We would take it out every Sunday and turn it loose for a couple of hours, and then it would come back.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Catching and keeping wild critters is both illegal and unwise

One of the reasons I never let my ex wife's family stay with us.