Natural History

Posted in dog behavior, wild dogs, wildlife | Tagged arctic fox | 10 Comments

10 Responses

1. on March 6, 2011 at 7:13 am tracey

   arent there enough breeds of dog out there for people to have as pets, keeping wild animals as pets is just wrong. it really bugs me things like that.

   
   
   • on March 6, 2011 at 8:27 am retrieverman

     In the US right now, they are trying to domesticate the fennec fox, which is now being bred for its temperament.

     I’d say this arctic fox is actually a fur farm refugee.

     Arctic foxes are very easy to tame, even as adults. Many people living in the arctic have had them show up, and then they don’t leave!

     Here’s an interesting story about one that was the mascot of an arctic expedition:

     http://chestofbooks.com/animals/W-H-G-Kingston/Stories-of-Animal-Sagacity/Birdie-the-Arctic-Fox.html

     I’m not a fan of people keeping animals that can kill people as pets, but if it’s a small, non-endanged animal that is readily tamed and bred in captivity, it doesn’t bother me.

     Otherwise, I’d have to condemn the breeding and keeping of all pet reptiles, which is something I just can’t do.

     
     
     • on March 6, 2011 at 11:58 am Dave

       With me, as long they are able to establish a captive breeding population, I am okay with keeping exotics. Otherwise if you’re harvesting from the wild, it kind of bugs me.

       However the harvest is a catch-22 with me. On the one hand, you’re depleting the population in favour of fanciers. But on the other hand, if the locals don’t make money off of collecting wild animals, they would just raze the land for farming making the environment unsuitable for ANY animal. But I still hold onto the captive-breeding anchorism.

       
       
   • on March 6, 2011 at 11:55 am Dave

     You really don’t want to condemn people who keep exotic pets. Some of them actively participate in anti-dog and anti-cat legislations in vengeance for the dog people backing anti-exotic laws. The exotic people are your allies, but they get really ticked off when people who they once thought they had something in common with encroach on their territory.

     
     
   • on March 30, 2011 at 9:30 pm pdsw

     Foxes are being domesticated here and there for the last fifty years or even longer:
     http://paradoxoff.com/domesticated-foxes.html

     
     
     • on March 30, 2011 at 9:37 pm retrieverman

       The Belyaev foxes are quite domesticated.

       
       
2. on March 6, 2011 at 4:20 pm tracey

   yes but where does it stop. you can keep all sorts of exotic creatures as pets that have no buisness being pets. i think i heard somewhere that there are more tigers kept as pets in the us than are in the wild, and there are all the primates people keep, im sure that woman never thought her pet chimp would rip her friends face of, and where do all these animals come from. they may have been born in captivity but were there parents or grandparents. how many orangs, chimps, parrots, snakes, tortoises, chameleons etc die so people can have an exotic pet. and did we really need the bengal cat to be bred, people imported leopard cats and crossed them with moggies, to create a new breed, why because people want pets that look like a wild creature. yes ok fine if them having a bengal means they dont have a leopard cat that is fine, but they had to start didnt they.
   oh and didnt that russian scientist find that once you start breeding foxes for temprement they change and become something like a dog anyway and are no longer a fox. sorry i know i go on and i am really not someone who thinks we shouldnt have pets but i do believe certain creatures should not ever be forced to live miserable lives or die being imported so we can have them as pets. how many people keep snakes or reptiles or parrots in totaly unsuitable conditions and the poor creatures suffer terrably and often die or are dumped on rescues. i once had a huge argument with a neighbour who wanted a pet tortoise but couldnt have one because “wicked,greedy breeders” charged so much, i tried to say that is because a lot of tortoises are now endangered or extinct in the wild because they were taken as pets in the past, so yes being as there are so few in captivity they will charge for them. no she was adamant it was greed. i just get so cross because we humans think we can do as we like and have control over everything that exsists we dont or atleast we shouldnt. look at all the things we do to our pet dogs because we think we have the right too, chop off there ears or there tails cause of some breed standard, breed them to such extremes they cant breath, move or give birth naturally or declaw cats so they cant scratch the furniture, i could go on as im sure you can tell but i think you get my point.
   this fox maybe having a fun life now but what happens when stupid humans see videos like this and think ooohhh how cute i MUST have one of those and before you know it there is someone breeding them.
   arrggg people.
   tracey

   
   
3. on March 6, 2011 at 6:03 pm Dave

   Stupid is what stupid does. The problem is fish and exotics are usually viewed as “living furnitures” and animal cruelty laws usually only cover cats and dogs.

   But thanks for inspiring a few blog posts for me to write– dispelling the myths of wild-caught imports people like to regurge.

   The root problem isn’t how people treat animals or over harvesting the wild. The problem is: we live in a society where free time is in abundance so the animals become something of a status symbol. Look at how people treat their dogs at the local park.

   
   
4. on March 7, 2011 at 11:27 am jen

   that looks like my cream shiba inu. runs like her too. squee!

   I’m not gonna lie, I want a fennec fox. I’ll never have one, but I want one. And a hedgehog.

   
   
5. on March 10, 2011 at 1:20 pm Lane Batot

   The “no-one-should-keep-wild-animals-as-pets” is way too narrow and biased–the reports the general public sees on wild animal pets attacking, mauling, and eating their owners and neighbors is only a tiny proportion of what is out there–frankly, I’m very suprised there are not MORE such incidents! But though the average Joe is too selfish to commit themselves to doing right by such demanding animals, there are still many dedicated people who give their exotics splendid lives, and I think it rather unfair they should be punished and lumped in with the yahoos-without-a-clue. Everyone SHOULD be judged on their own individual situation. Liscense and control such activity, sure, but don’t condemn it for eveyone for all time. This anti-attitude also doesn’t take into account how many people often get wild pets–rescued orphans and injured animals that if left in the wild, would have had no life at all. I can name a few coons, squirrels, possums, and birds that would happily tell you they were glad as heck I took them in and gave them a home–there is more to this issue than the abusive produce-for-moolah exotic pet trade……..

   
   

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