http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...kat-TV-ad.html

if you want one yourself, comparethemerekat.com

seriously though, what are your thoughts on the article?

Would you take a merekat for a stroll to your local park?

I absolutely adore meerkats however keeping one as a pet would be too selfish and cruel. They need to live in big social groups and need lots of space and freedom. I doubt they can ever be truly domesticated.

That story is horrendous ~ espcially the quote from the spokesman from the Cardiff Reptile Centre. Those poor meerkats.

It's always the same when some cute furry creature features in advertising or in a film, everyone jumps on the bandwagon to make money from the unfortunate animals. Why on earth do people want to keep these sort of animals as pets? All I can think of is because for purely selfish reasons, they want to own one because it's certainly not for the welfare of the poor animals!

Though I agree that keeping one meerkat on its own would be cruel, and the conditions many may be sold in may be unsuitable, and some people may be buying them for the wrong reasons, especially if its just because of an advert, I think there should be no reason why responsible people couldnt keep them if they have a genuine interest and enough room for them, lots of species of unconventional "pets" are kept by responsible keepers, all animals kept would have started out as being originally from the wild anyway, and Id suspect all the ones sold are captive bred, maybe from long established zoo stock.

Unfortunately most people don't have the space, knowledge or finances to support a whole meerkat colony (unless they happen to own a zoo!). The Sun article says that they are being sold for up to £1500 each & that most people only want one meerkat because they can't afford anymore.

I have no objection to endangered species being bred by reponsible & knowledgeable people, in the correct conditions with a view to releasing them into the wild, But this is a far cry from the scenarios portrayed in the newspaper article!

Maybe it should be made more difficult to legally own them, sellers should be more responsible who they sell to, but I just think that responsible keepers should be allowed to buy and keep them if they have the resources, zoo's can breed them so I think private keepers should also be allowed.

I cant say for sure, but I would think its very likely dedicated private keepers are able to look after them in the same way a zoo would. Its the same with other animals, not just exotic ones, dogs and cats are bred far more than demand, and end up in shelters and as strays, though they will always be kept. Other exotics are kept, maybe not in ideal conditions by many people, Chinchilla's, Degus, Chipmunks etc.. and are much cheaper and easier to get, though maybe not considered so exotic now.

Don't we already keep enough species as pets though without adding these creatures to the list ?

Zoos has kept them for a long time, exotic keepers are usually persecuted for keeping their animals, especially if theres a news story where one person is not keeping them correctly, when hundreds of dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, chinchillas etc.. are not only being kept wrongly, but also abused and end up at shelters, yet I dont see anyone ever asking for them not to be kept.

I dont keep them, or plan to, but know of an exotic keeper who keeps praire dogs and some other exotics that would be frowned upon by some people.. and houses them better than some zoo enclosures Ive seen.

That sort of makes my point though - we have so many animals in shelters should we really be bringing in yet another species as pets when we have so many already unwanted ?

If the relevant authorities can produce evidence and expert opinion that keeping these animals as pets is cruel then it should be outlawed.

they arent new animals though, they are just being brought to peoples attention more, Ive seen them available for quite a few years now. Theres so many species of exotic small mammals available, though some like hedgehogs and skunks are getting publicity theres lots of different species of mice, giant rats, tenrecs, ground squirrels etc.. that are bred and kept by private keepers, none to my knowledge are recently taken from the wild, all bred from private keepers and zoo's stock, its the same with meerkats.


It can be argued that keeping animals like rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchilla's etc.. is cruel compared to the highly social structure they would experience in the wild and in zoo's, though I have no stats to back it up I would think dogs and cats are maybe the most abused animals, yet theres no effort to outlaw them, and there shouldnt be in my opinion, laws that cover animal cruelty should be applied with these, and other animals.

I may be wrong then, I thought they were a new pet, I haven't seen them here before hadn't even heard of them before the nature series that featured them.

exotic pets are getting more publicity now with the internet making it much easier to buy or view them for sale, but I have seen these advertised by specialist breeders in the UK since at least 2001 or so. The same with African Pygmy Hedgehogs, though I suspect both were available sometime before then as well. Rabbit's are burrowing animals that live in large groups in the wild, yet have been kept in tiny wooden hutches for so long in the UK, the problem with exotic pets I suspect Is much smaller, theres no outcry to make these generation of rabbits the last private keepers keep in the UK. I would hope the majority spending so much money on meerkats, hopefully buying more than one, would then give them proper housing, but with all species of animals kept you will get some not keeping them properly.

That's very true, we used to keep rabbits in large hutches with the run of the garden during the day but even that started to look less than ideal so after Bun bun our last rabbit died we did not replace him with another.

The worry with keeping exotics as pets though is when people see them looking cute on TV & then go & get one but without any knowledge of their needs or how best to look after them. The same sort of thing happened to clown fish after the release of Finding Nemo, then pepole started flushing them down toilets when they found they weren't like the cute fish in the film. And if there's money to be made out of selling exotics for pets, there will always be unscrupulous dealers in the internet.

I appreciate that humans are responsible for a lot of animal cruelty, including to cats, dogs, ponies, rabbits etc. but these species are still kept as pets. But at least they are domesticated species that have been selected for certain characteristics that make them amenable to living alongside humans. With Meerkats, clown fish etc, it is not quite the same. People often want them for selfish reasons ~ not because they have the welfare of these animals at heart.

That's very true anyone remember turtles from the 90's - still far too many suffering even now IMO.

Yes I remember the turtles. I think some were released into the wild & have since bred causing havoc to native species.

Meerkats arent exactly taken from the wild to be pets though, they are from long lines of zoo and privately bred stock, species like hamsters, chinchillas and degu's may not have been kept in captivity as long as them, and hamsters especially are seen as "domesticated"

I wasnt aware of a fad with clownfish, they are marine and far more specialised to keep than other fish, so thats surprising, you would think the initial investment and time needed to set up an aquarium for them would deter this, but they have been kept for a very long time as well, and I would think have suffered far less abuse than goldfish, that are still allowed as prizes in fairs to under 16's.

I understand that people not knowing how to look after them will buy them on impulse, but this is the same with all animals, lots of people will not have the knowledge to care for dogs correctly, yet still buy them.

Also, its not only exotics sellers that are unscrupulous, theres cruel puppy farms in the UK, where they only care about making a profit, even at the detrement of the animals, plus the conditions that many domesticated animals such as mice, rats, gerbils etc.. are intensively bred in for the pet trade is not great either, on a smaller scale exotics are in my opinion cared for much better by shops that sell them. The cleanest, most knowledgable pet shops ive been to has only sold exotics, whereas some ive been in that sell mostly or entirely domesticated animals, including the supermarket sized ones, has been quite poor in terms of knowledge of the animals, and the conditions some are kept in, though this is only my experience.

Turtles were released into the wild in the UK once people got bored of them, and they can cause damage, but so can cats, who may arguably cause more damage to native species, yet they are classed as "domesticated"

I just think that people will always look after animals incorrectly, both exotic and non exotic species, the non exotics' I would think are treated overall much worse by their owners in the UK if you look at rescue centers, news stories etc.. If it would be made possible to ban the keeping of a species because of the potential of it not being kept properly then the ban should extend to a lot more species than the meerkat, including many that would be classed as domesticated, I dont think it works.