Good Children's Pets or "Collectibles"?

In a world of technical marvels, it's no wonder children are attracted to such "pets" as lizards and tarantulas. From the point of view of developing sensitivity towards animals, should they be encouraged in this direction? I would say no for several reasons.

Caring for Unusual Pets

One of the supposed advantages of pets like reptiles is their "ease of care." However, "ease of care" is often simply neglect through ignorance. It's easy to care for a dog too if you shut him in a kennel and throw in food occasionally. We recognize this form of caretaking as neglect, but do we recognize similar neglect of non mammals? The average person does not know what the animal needs or is unable to provide it. Happily, with the increasing popularity of such pets as iguanas, there are a growing number of books and web sites devoted to their care, but how many busy parents will learn enough to adequately supervise their children's pet keeping activities? And what if the animal becomes sick? How do you recognize sickness in a snake? How many vets know how to treat it anyway?

Wild Animals as Pets

Such creatures as snakes, lizards, frogs, and insects not domestic animals. Domestic animals have been selectively bred for centuries to develop individuals used to living with and for humans. Wild animals are genetically programmed to survive on their own, and to deny their nature is a form of cruelty. (It is also illegal in many jurisdictions to keep an indigenous wild animal without a permit.)

Attitude Development

When I was doing school presentations for a humane society, a teacher told me a distressing experience. She had an aquarium in her classroom. Among other inhabitants was an immature salamander. Unfortunately, this creature changed into its mature form over the weekend and the children were upset to find their pet dead on Monday morning. It had nowhere to climb out of the water. That animal was being kept in an unsuitable environment and died because of ignorance. Perhaps, as the teacher said, the children learned they would have to be more careful next time, but they also learned that a salamander is just an object, its death a mistake that could happen to anyone.

Allowing a child to keep a pet he or she cannot properly care for just because the animal is "neat" or even "totally awesome" is encouraging a detached, selfish attitude toward animals. The relationship is completely one sided. Better to encourage interest in unusual animals by reading about them, observing them in zoos that do have proper facilities to meet their needs, or in the case of indigenous animals, observing them in nature.

Good relationships are beneficial to all the parties involved. I would allow children to keep as pets only those animals who derive well-being from the relationship. A suitable pet provides a child with affection that she or he returns. Amphibians, reptiles, and insects are more often regarded as collectibles than living, feeling beings.

©2000 Elizabeth Gredley and animalINK
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