Do People in Your Area Keep Wild Animals as Pets?

MonkeyBat

MonkeyBat

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Hello! I’ve lived here in rural Iowa for five years, and I’ve found a lot of people around here keep raccoons as pets (and I think I heard sometimes eat them??). I’m wondering if this is common in other parts of the country or the world to keep wild animals from around your home as pets? I don’t like it from an ethical standpoint, and even if it’s a rescued individual, I’m pretty sure it’s illegal… How those this differ other places? I’d be curious to have a discussion.
 
Another example I randomly thought of was my old middle school on Guam. my school had a fish tank in the front office that had native reef fish in it (Picassso triggerfish, snowflake moray, etc.) I think right before I moved it was replaced with tetras.
 
Legality of keeping exotic pets varies from places to place by species, and at least in the US can vary wildly by state, county, municipality, ect. On what basis are you "pretty sure" these raccoon holdings are illegal? Raccoons are legal to keep in many (probably most, if not all) states.
 
birdsandbats said:
Legality of keeping exotic pets varies from places to place by species, and at least in the US can vary wildly by state, county, municipality, ect. On what basis are you "pretty sure" these raccoon holdings are illegal? Raccoons are legal to keep in many (probably most, if not all) states.
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Iowa’s pretty strict on keeping non domesticated animals, i’ll try to do more research when I get home.
 
MonkeyBat said:
Iowa’s pretty strict on keeping non domesticated animals, i’ll try to do more research when I get home.
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Plenty of states have things that are illegal to keep without a USDA license - but that's so easy to obtain it basically means nothing.
 
They're not wild-caught raccoons, they're from the pet trade (or should be). Like striped skunks and red foxes.
 
According to the DNR, they do not allow the keeping of wild raccoons as pets. From what I've heard around, most raccoons would not be domesticated as @TinoPup mentioned...
 
My dad once met a couple who kept pet lemurs in their house, quite strange but he said they looked well cared for.

There's also a field I often pass that has contained rhea, ostrich, and emu over the years... I think it has rhea currently.

As for people taking in wild animals as pets instead of just "exotic pets" I haven't heard of people keeping them long term except perhaps children taking ants, worms, and other bugs.
 
MonkeyBat said:
According to the DNR, they do not allow the keeping of wild raccoons as pets. From what I've heard around, most raccoons would not be domesticated as @TinoPup mentioned...
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I didn't say domesticated, I said captive bred :) You can find plenty of breeders online, and I've heard various stories of people who had one as a kid, etc. Most (all?) of the albino ones in zoos are from the pet trade, like lavender striped skunks are.
 
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