This is a wild animal. In this picture the wild chimp is eating a wild monkey. They are both wild animals.
I've refrained from writing about the chimp incident because too much has already been said and none of it has added much to the conversation. In addition, lawmakers and politicians frantically are trying to pass monkey legislation on the state and national level. Suffice it to say the woman had an inappropriate relationship with the chimp (a glass of wine, a bath together, then a snuggle in bed). But clearly this was a sad, troubled woman; having lost a daughter the chimp filled a void in her life.
But I am not so much focused on the incident, tragic though it was. I am more concerned with the issue of people keeping inappropriate animals as pets.
Whether we like it or not certain animals at this time are bred primarily as pets. These are domesticated animals who over a period of time came to prefer living inside and being fed over prowling the countryside and finding their own food. In exchange for shelter and food they provide humans with companionship. I don't know what animals experts would consider 'domesticated.' My list doesn't go far beyond dogs and cats.
Other animals are not domesticated; they are wild. This category includes chimpanzees and wolves and alligators and countless other animals that live in cages and terrariums
We have an internal social/professional networking site at my company. I belong to the dog lovers group. Today, in the midst of a heated exchange about pit bull as pet, someone mentioned a friend who had a timber wolf as a house pet. It is 98% wolf and the rest is dog. This person stopped going to the house after the wolf attacked him for the second time. Apparently owning a timber wolf is legal in their state. A wolf is not a dog. A wolf is a wild animal. Wild animals are not suitable as pets.
Most of the folks who keep wild animals as pets probably consider themselves animal lovers. However much they say they love animals, they certainly don't respect them. Respecting an animal involves appreciating it for what it is and where it is most comfortable living according to its own instincts. It does not include forcing an animal into an environment where its natural instincts are stifled. Chimps live in the jungle; they don't wear clothes, they don't drink wine out of stemmed wineglasses. They swing from trees and eat other animals. They attack when they feel threatened. No one can train a wild animal to live apart from its instincts, be it a circus, a Las Vegas nightclub act, or a lonely woman who craves a lost child and have it end well for the animal or the handler.
Respecting animals does not involve taking wild animals into our homes and trying to conform them to our wishes. Respecting animals involves creating conditions where they can live well as what they are. It involves working to save the rain forests, protecting habitats, opposing offshore drilling, avoiding the products of factory fishing and agribusiness as much as possible. It doesn't necessarily mean becoming vegetarian or vegan although some make that choice. It means being responsible for knowing that the steak you just bought at the supermarket came from a cow who was forced, against its nature, to eat corn instead of grass, and then was shot full of antibiotics to keep it from dying from eating the corn instead of the grass it was designed to eat. It means looking for alternatives, buying fresh and locally whenever possible.
Pets are pets. For good or ill that is how they have adapted. Get a dog. Get 10 if you can responsibly care for ten. But for all animals' sakes, don't keep wild animals as pets.
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I can't decide it it looks like we are being driven to dinner or being arrested in some 1930's time warp. We are actually being driven to dinner in a 1939 Cadillac limousine by our very dapper driver, Malcolm. This was part of our weekend package at White Rocks Inn in Vermont last weekend.
