Luckies ...
I think we're all a little confused here. In your first post you said, " I will be getting a new pet this spring," then later on in the thread, after a few people questioned it, you said, "This animal is not going to be a "pet"."
You told me, "I own an exotic animal rescue, this is what the animal will be for", and then later told me, "No this animal is not a rescue."
You also stated, "Unfortunately exotic pets are all too easy to get ahold of," and then later you said, "It is becomming very hard now a days for just anyone to aquire an extic pet. Laws are getting stricter etc." The latter comment is just not true, except in a very few states. Exotic animals are being bred and sold and exploited at a rate never before seen in the country right now. Every humane society and shelter and animals rights organization is very aware of this. There are actually more tigers in private captivity (most of them in tiny cages, some in truck stop parking lots, etc.) than exist in the wild.
The main problem I have with this whole thing is that the general public is - rightfully so - very confused about what constitutes a "rescue". If one is not directly involved in the animal fancy, one really has no clue. This is 90% of the general population. A rescue is a person or an organization that saves unwanted animals from death or a horrible life, provides them veterinary care, etc. and places them in a screened home. A rescue never buys animals, and a rescue most certainly does not ever buy animals from breeders with questionable breeding practices. If a rescue supports a breeder with unethical practices, or buys animals from a mill, the public has no idea what the difference is between a rescue, a mill, a back yard breeder, a shelter, etc. Rescues who don't hold themselves to the highest ethical standards hurt all rescues.
I rescue dogs. As such, my nemesis is the back-yard breeders and puppy mills of the world. They churn out unaltered animals to anyone with the cash. They are the source of the dogs I have to pull from animal control on their last day of life, the puppies that someone finds in a box beside the road, frozen to death, the dogs that live their whole lives chained up in the yard. If there were no back-yard-breeders or puppy mills, there would be no problem in the dog fancy! Only reputable breeders would breed a limited number of dogs, and they would all be pre-sold to screened homes - as it should be. I would cut off my arm before I would put a single penny into the bank accounts of those morally-bankrupt scumbags. I would never buy a puppy from them!! I agree with NoahsMommy - as an exotic rescue, you should despise companies like this one, and be doing everything in your power to get them shut down ... not buying animals from them!!!
Also, there's a couple more things I need to point out:
You said, "My toroise for instance is an engangered species. I hope to get a female next summer and start my breeding program." I'm don't know what kind of tortoise you have, but many, many species of turtles and tortoises are endangered today because of the exotic pet trade. The pet trade did not 'save' these animals, it almost destroyed them, by removing so many young animals from the wild for pets that there were not enough left to produce viable future populations. Yes, I have done research on this.
You also said, "We wouldn't have rats if they weren't eventually domesticated. You can say that about any pet....All animals started out somewhere. All pets were once wild and domesticated at some point. Not all should be but well many are. Our cats, dogs etc." To me, this is the main faulty-logic argument of exotic breeders. Yes, at some point in the distant, distant past ... some pre-Homo Erectus hominid did indeed probably steal a wolf puppy from a den, thereby beginning the domestication of modern dogs. More likely, though, those primitive wolves began to hang around the Neanderthal fires, for the scraps of kills. They were allowed to stay, because they served as alarms, with their keener ears and noses. The relationship probably developed as a mutually beneficial, symbiotic one. This is a far cry from trying to justify to modern exotic pet trade. We have enough domestic animals, animals that have been domesticated for eons ... we don't need any new ones!
I also don't agree with this, necessarily "I like to use animals that are bottle raised or handled from a very young age. Most rescues have been so neglected they are afraid of humans. Not much use for educating the public." Why not? Are you not trying to educate the public as to the horrible things that happen to wild animals when they are kept as "pets" by people who don't have a clue how to care for them? So, why wouldn't a scared, formerly abused mink serve that purpose as well, or better, than a very tame baby that you handfed? Seems to me that if people see how cute, furry, tame and sweet this mink is ... they are not going to be listening to your talk about how abused and miserable mink are in captivity ... they are going to be thinking, "Wow, cool, I'm gonna get me one of them little critters!"
Also, BTW, I did a quick seach on Google.com for "mink rescue" ... and found over twenty pages of results. I didn't research any of the sites, because I'm not wanting a mink, but there are a lot of places the rescue mink and some of them looked very good at quick glance!
I'm sorry to seem like I'm really bashing you, luckies ... but this is a big sore spot for me. Either one is a rescue, or one is not. If one is, one has no use for unethical breeders. One certainly does not support them monetarily.
"We give dogs the time we can spare, the space we can spare and the love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made" - M. Facklam
"We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers - thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams."- P.S. Beagle
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king." - J.R.R. Tolkien
Bookmarks