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Chimpanzees As Pets
Has it crossed
your mind that having a chimpanzee for a pet would be pretty cool? A
pet who looks like you would be cool. Chimps may seem like the
ultimate pet but they are not. Unlike cats and dogs that have been
bred purposefully to be our pets for hundreds of years, chimpanzees
are wild animals that don’t belong in human homes. Television has
made us
believe that chimpanzees are cute and cuddly creatures that are well
behaved. This has made chimpanzees a very popular pet choice with
people who can afford
them.
Chimpanzees in
the pet trade are taken away from their mothers at a very young age,
just like in the entertainment industry. Again, this is done so the
young chimpanzees will become dependent on humans for care. This
will often have disastrous effects on the infant chimp. Chimpanzees
will often stay with their mothers for many years, in this time the
chimpanzee will learn many things from its mother, including the
social skills needed to be able to interact with other
chimpanzees. These skills will never be taught to a chimpanzee that
is bought as a pet because they were taken away from their mothers
at such a young age. Even if two chimpanzees are together in the
same house, they may not know how to interact with each other
because they never learned the social skills necessary for
interacting with other chimps. Mother chimpanzees are there with
their young all day, every day, which allows for constant
stimulation. Humans cannot give this amount of care to an infant
chimpanzee because of other obligations. This lack of stimulation
leads to chimps that seek stimulation through any sort of behavior,
including behavior that we consider destructive.
It may seem that
chimpanzees will stay little and cute forever, this is not
true. Many people who have chimpanzees as pets don’t know that they
reach puberty around the age of 6. It is at this age when they grow
stronger and become more independent. It is also at this age when
chimpanzees are subjected to mood swings, in which, one moment they
are calm and the next moment they can become violent. It is during
the mood swings that owners are most likely to be attacked. Just
like in the entertainment industry, when chimpanzees become too big
and dangerous they end up in road side zoos and in laboratories.
These chimps once had a life of dress-up and games but will now
spend the rest of their lives in cages.
People also
don’t realize how expensive pet chimpanzees can actually be. Since
Chimpanzees are wild animals they require a special diet, which you
can’t pick up from the local pet supply store. They also require a
larger living space then the average pet and require special
veterinary care. All of the unique needs of owning a chimpanzee as a
pet can end up costing an average of 50,000 dollars per year! Take
into account that chimps live upwards to 60 years and people are
looking at a multi-million dollar pet.
The next time
you see a chimp and wish you had one as a pet, remember the things
that are written here. Chimpanzees are wild animals, not
domesticated animals such as dogs and cats. They belong in the wild,
free from human interactions. If you can remember only one thing
from this remember: Chimpanzees do not make good pets.
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Message from CAC'ers
While we were in Africa we saw chimpanzees in
their natural habitat, doing natural behaviors. This is
where chimpanzees should be and how they should be acting.
Chimpanzees do not belong in our world, where they are
mistreated and then thrown away like trash. Chimpanzees do
not make good pets or good performers; they belong in the
wild because they are wild animals.
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