Shirley Van May 7, 2012 Professor Robin Lent English 401 Section 33 You Have What As A Pet?!

On February 16, 2009 the news of a chimpanzee rampaging and ruthlessly mauling a woman name Charla Nash was all over the news. Pictures, information, 911 calls, and more were all over the internet news pages as each day passed with updated information on what happened that day and the future of Charla Nash. Even today, there is occasional news on how Charla Nash is healing. The chimpanzee was not an escaped animal from a zoo or anything like that. This chimpanzee has a family, a human family. His name is Travis and his family is the Herolds. The Herolds adopted Travis when he was only three days old and they raised him like he was their son. In 2009, the 14 year old chimpanzee suddenly attacked a family friend, Charla Nash, and mutilated her face and limbs. Travis was then shot by an officer and he died next to his cage in his home (Sandoval, Hutchinson, & Kennedy, 2009). This is a tragic story for everyone involved in this situation. Charla Nash appeared on Oprah once and said, These exotic animals are very dangerous and they shouldn't be around, (Friedman, 2010) that brings up whether or not exotic pets such as chimpanzees should ever be a pet. There have been a lot of arguments whether or not people should be able to keep exotic animals as pets. Many people believe that keeping exotic animals as pets not only harms people but it harms the animal itself too. Humane societies claim that caring for wild animals is difficult or impossible because the wild animals require considerable expertise, specialized facilities, and lifelong dedication which are things that a regular household might not be able to provide for the animals (Should Wild Animals Be Kept as Pets?). They can live for a long time, unlike cats and dogs that usually lives around 14-15 years. Some animals, like chimpanzees

can live up to 60 years (Calabrese, 2010). When animals live up to that long, it is a big commitment to take care of them. Wild animals, even small monkeys, can grow up to be very dangerous and even inflict serious injuries to people when theyre not careful. Large animals, like Travis, can cause even more damage. Travis was a two hundred pound chimpanzee who had ten times the strength of a human (Hare, 2009). Unlike cats and dogs that have been domesticated for many centuries, wild animals do not have behavior like cats and dogs. Although monkeys, chimpanzees, etc. might seem like they are human-like, their temper is different and when they lash out it could be mutilation like Charla Nash, or even worsedeath. There are people that would try to counter that argument by saying that there are more deaths resulting from a dog bite instead of an attack from an undomesticated animal. If there were no regulations on owning exotic animals and more people have ownership over them, the results of deaths have a higher chance of being different (Hare, 2009). There are many laws preventing people from owning exotic animals in many states and so there isnt higher death rate than dogs (Hortobagyi, 2009). Keeping wild animals as pets can harm them because their needs are not met like the way it could be in the wild. Being taken out of the environment the animal is supposed to be in is also an endangerment to the animal itself (Should Wild Animals Be Kept as Pets?). As previously said, wild animals need a specialized habitat to live in and a regular household sometimes cannot provide that kind of habitat for them to live. Some animals need a vast amount of land to explore and travel, unlike a dog where a simple walk in the park would be fine. When they are caged up at all times, they are lonely, neglected, and stressed out (Exotic Animals As Pets). It causes the animal to have behavioral problems and could end up attacking their owner, which leads back to how it could harm not only the owner but also the animals. Most of those animals were born in

their natural habitat, but because of the prices that these animals could be sold for they are forcibly taken away. There are many situations where the mother of the animal is killed just so the poachers can take their young away to be sold. There are not many places that would like to take in the adult because they are more violent due to them trying to protect themselves as they grew up. So the family of the young would be ruthlessly killed and sold off while the young is taken away to be sold as a pet (Should Wild Animals Be Kept as Pets?). The strength of the wild animal is not the only thing that could put harm to humans. There are many animals out there carrying different diseases that could eventually be carried over to humans because of the similarities between them. For example, primates could carry Herpes B, Yellow Fever, Monkeypox, Ebola virus, Marburg virus, SIV, HIV and tuberculosis which could be easily passed to humans (Hare, 2009). Primates are not the only animals that carry bacterial infections and diseases that could be transferred though. Humans are also susceptible to diseases from reptiles and bugs. There are a lot more diseases that could be transferred that are not known (Exotic Animals As Pets). When people purchase animals such as chimps to become their pets, they think they would be able to take care of the animal for the rest of the animals life. After a few years, the owners of the animals realize they are unable to handle the cost of the animal or have the capability of taking care of the animal anymore (Hortobagyi, 2009). The sad part is that the animal would have nowhere to go. They are unable to go back to their natural habitat because since they have not grown up there they would not be able to survive there. Usually zoos would not accept the animals either because they were not trained or raised a specific way for them to live at the zoo. It would be hard to sell the animal to another family, and the person that sold the animal to them in the first place would probably not take back the animal either (Calabrese,

2010). There are only a few places out there that would take the animal but usually those places would not have many spaces or funding (Hortobagyi, 2009). There are some families like the Herolds that usually own the chimps for a very long time. If it was not for the incident where the chimp attacked Charla Nash, the Herolds would probably still own the chimp. There are some families out there that would never want to give up their pets, but there are others that would abandon them easily. Especially after the February 2009 attack, a lot of people have given up their chimpanzees (Hortobagyi, 2009). Now there are many laws making it illegal in many states to keep exotic animals as pets. There are restrictions of to what people are allowed to keep as pets. Every state has different laws about this. Currently, in New Hampshire there are laws that primates, venomous reptiles, bears, and wolves are not allowed as pets. If people are to import animals into New Hampshire, they have to first get a permit to give the permission to do that. Not only those laws are for pets, but it is also for getting animals for the zoos (New Hampshire State Laws Governing Private Possession of Exotic Animals). Although there are laws making it illegal, there are still many people that would still try to sneak the animals in and just try to hide them. Some of the dealers would try to find ways to go around the laws to import the exotic animals in to sell them. (Exotic Animals As Pets) Animals such as primates, lions, wolves, iguanas, or even turtles should be left alone in their own environment and live their way of life. They should not be taken out of their environment and forced to live in a cage where it would be hard for them to survive since families would not know how to properly take care of these animals. These animals are not domesticated and in many states it is illegal for them to be kept in residential homes. People

should not be forcing these animals out of their own environments, especially when a lot of people try so hard to protect their habitat (Exotic Animals As Pets). Back in 2010, Sandra Herold, the owner of Travis has died of aneurysm (Friedman, 2010). Herolds husband has passed away prior to the chimpanzee attack on Charla Nash. Nash is still healing and lately she has been receiving facial transplants to try and form her face again. After the previous face transplant she said that she is starting to be able to have feeling on her face again and she is able to eat again. Although she was able to get a face transplant, the surgery on her hands was unsuccessful. (Stebner, 2012) Even though Nash has to go through all this suffering, Nash is forgiving towards Herold knowing it was only an accident. Sometimes all it takes is one action to make an undomesticated animal snap, and Charla Nash, an innocent bystander took the suffering of it all.

Bibliography
Calabrese, Lori. "PET PRIMATES: Why Not?." Appleseeds 12.7 (2010): 26. Primary Search. Web. 21 April 2012. Exotic Animals As Pets. ASPCA. (n.d.). Web. 21 April 2012. <http://www.aspca.org/Home/ASPCAKids/Real-Issues/exotic-animals-as-pets.aspx>. Friedman, Emily. "Sandra Herold, Owner of Travis, Chimp Who Mauled Charla Nash, Dies." ABC News. ABC News Network, 25 May 2010. Web. 21 April 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/US/sandra-herold-owner-chimp-travis-mauled-charla-nashdies/story?id=10740652>. Hare, Brian. "The Science Behind Why Chimpanzees Are Not Pets." Discover Magazine. Feb. 2009. Web. 21 April 2012. <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/11/13/chimpanzees-are-not-pets-2/>. Hortobagyi, Monica. "People Who Own Chimps Rethink Choice of Pet." USA Today. Gannett, 6 Apr. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-05chimp_N.htm>. New Hampshire State Laws Governing Private Possession of Exotic Animals. Born Free USA. (n.d.). Web. 21 April 2012. < http://www.bornfreeusa.org/b4a2_exotic_animals_state.php?s=nh>. Sandoval, Edgar, Bill Hutchinson, and Helen Kennedy. "Police: Pet Chimpanzee, Travis, Attacks Woman in Stamford." New York Daily News. 16 Feb. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <http://articles.nydailynews.com/2009-02-16/news/17916163_1_charla-nash-travis-cops>. "Should Wild Animals Be Kept as Pets? : The Humane Society of the United States." Should Wild Animals Be Kept as Pets? : The Humane Society of the United States. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/exotic_pets/facts/>. Stebner, Beth. "'I Feel like It's My Face': Astonishing Progress of Chimp Attack Victim Charla Nash, Two Years after Receiving Full-face Transplant." Mail Online. 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 April 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119474/Charla-Nash-Astonishingprogress-chimp-attack-victim-2-years-receiving-face-transplant.html>.