KEEPING WILDLIFE AS PETS DEFINITELY NOT A GOOD IDEA

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources frequently gets telephone calls about the feeding, housing or care of wild animals as pets, and the standard reply is: "We do not recommend keeping any wild animals as pets."

The caller usually responds "Why not?" While South Carolina law does not specifically prohibit the keeping of most native wild species as pets, many ethical and human health-related issues make this an unadvisable practice, according to Jay Butfiloski, Furbearer Project supervisor with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

"The best advice for someone considering keeping a wild animal as a pet is to not do it!" Butfiloski said. "The risks of disease, injury, or inadequate care are simply too great. The place for wild animals is in the wild, and to remove a wild animal from its natural habitat into captivity to satisfy some need to possess some sort of 'different' kind of pet is to do a great injustice to that animal. Anyone wishing to observe wild animals should observe them in the wild, in their natural habitat, and from a distance."

Once an animal reaches sexual maturity, scratching and biting of humans may occur, according to Butfiloski. Other factors that may lead to attacks on humans include disease, predatory instinct or simply the unpredictability of wild animals. Numerous attacks on infants by ferrets have been documented. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of ferret attacks is that bites from ferrets are most often inflicted on the face, hands and wrists of infants while in their cribs. While it is now legal to sell ferrets as pets in South Carolina, those with young children would be advised against purchasing a ferret.

Diseases and their possible transmission to humans or domestic pets from wild animals should also be considered when contemplating keeping a wild animal as a pet. At least 11 diseases with human health implications have been identified for which wildlife species serve as either a vector or a reservoir, according to Butfiloski. Wildlife species also serve as hosts for numerous parasites that may affect humans.

Among the most serious wildlife diseases or parasitic infections that may affect humans are rabies and toxocariasis. Rabies is fatal if untreated. Also, the incubation period for rabies in wild animals is poorly understood; thus, even though a particular animal does not show any clinical symptoms of disease, there is no guarantee that the animal has not already been infected. Because of the risk of rabies in wild animals, the American Veterinary Medical Association and other public health groups strongly recommend the enactment of state laws prohibiting the importation, distribution, relocation, or keeping of wild animals as pets. Also, many veterinarians are unwilling or untrained in the care of wildlife species, so when injuries or illness occur in a wild pet, finding proper veterinary care may be difficult or impossible.

Toxocariasis is the human infection with the larvae of canine or feline roundworms. An estimated 10,000 new cases of roundworm occur in children every year. Most human infections are mild enough to go unnoticed and apparently produce no permanent damage. However, sometimes infections result in severe and even fatal disease. Likewise the common raccoon roundworm, Baylisacaris procyonis, has been implicated in cases of serious eye disease or central nervous system disorders, and can cause death. There is no curative treatment for raccoon roundworm infection.

In order to be legally kept in captivity, a furbearing animal must have been legally taken, meaning taken in season by a person with either a hunting license or a commercial fur harvester's license. The picking up of young animals in the spring of the year and outside of any legal season for "taking" the animal may be a violation of the law. Furthermore, as part of the state's Rabies Control Act, no carnivore which is not "normally domesticated" may be sold as a pet in South Carolina. The Rabies Control Act also prohibits the transfer of ownership to private individuals in the state, which makes it difficult to legally obtain a wild animal as a pet. The DNR will not issue importation permits allowing people to circumvent the Rabies Control Act by purchasing such animals from other states.

Also, "Feeding of wild animals presents a problem because wild animals in a natural setting consume a wide variety of items," Butfiloski said. "While it may be possible to sustain a wild animal on an artificial diet and vitamin supplements, some necessary component of that animal's dietary requirement will likely be neglected. At the very least, an animal that is hand-fed will rely on humans for food and lose its necessary hunting and foraging skills, relegating it to a life in captivity, or making it unsuitable for release."

For more information, call the DNR Furbearer Project at (803) 734-4024 in Columbia.

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