1. Hopefully not (I don't do the teaching, usually, we have an ed. dept. for that); but I get your point. I hear many children outside the fox exhibit whine "I waaant one!"
I think the message is "It is unfortunate that this animal must live in captivity because some human took it out of the wild." Likewise, our mammals are imprinted individual whose mothers were hit by cars or killed by dogs--human-caused, in other words. We also make it plain that these animals would not survive being released, and that we have a special permit and special training that allows us to keep them.
Our mission is to "Protect the Nature of Massachusetts," so we would be educating the children about habitat protection, for the most part. "Why wild animals should not be kept as pets," no doubt comes up, but it isn't the primary message. We are fortunate in Massachusetts to have the law underscoring the point.
2. Besides being illegal, not much. If I had all the time in the world, I'd be sorely tempted to have a crow as a pet, and it is legal to own exotic crows. But they are heinously messy and destructive, and need a lot of space. Most people would not be able to take proper care of a crow--this one was allegedly rescued from a canary cage.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-01-25 04:44 pm (UTC)I think the message is "It is unfortunate that this animal must live in captivity because some human took it out of the wild." Likewise, our mammals are imprinted individual whose mothers were hit by cars or killed by dogs--human-caused, in other words. We also make it plain that these animals would not survive being released, and that we have a special permit and special training that allows us to keep them.
Our mission is to "Protect the Nature of Massachusetts," so we would be educating the children about habitat protection, for the most part. "Why wild animals should not be kept as pets," no doubt comes up, but it isn't the primary message. We are fortunate in Massachusetts to have the law underscoring the point.
2. Besides being illegal, not much. If I had all the time in the world, I'd be sorely tempted to have a crow as a pet, and it is legal to own exotic crows. But they are heinously messy and destructive, and need a lot of space. Most people would not be able to take proper care of a crow--this one was allegedly rescued from a canary cage.