Pet Channel

Sometime within the last 6 weeks, since DD’s been at her Dad’s the hamster has gotten lethargic, her coat a bit disheveled, she hasn’t eaten as much, etc. First, I contact 2-3 vets offices to find out what I should do with her. Food for thought, hamsters are considered ‘exotic pets’ and have to be treated by a specialized vet. Just an exam will cost you at least $50. The one thing that I was asked by all three of the ‘exotic’ vets’ offices was her age. I didn’t know what to say – I had no idea how old she was.

A British couple managed to capture one of the lead elements of a giant spider invasion. They spotter the monster climbing the garden wall and trapped it in a box.

Slide show with pictures of some of the animals at Exotic Pet Refuge.

As it happens, the scene that we saw being shot was one of only a few minutes of film that shows how the well-off live in this new society. We saw them on the Mall in London, dressed in future-fashionable, 20s-style clothes, walking exotic pets like camels and giraffs in the park. We expected the film to be filled with this weirdness but instead it makes up only about 2% of film time. The rest is harsh and grey, and recommended.

The suspect was arrested after investigators found methamphetamine in his home, and will also be facing charges for possessing the Coatimundi without the required exotic animal license. After being locked up the man was informed that his pet would be given to a zoo or otherwise qualified exotic animal handler, he “was pretty much crying in jail” according to an officer who talked to the media.

Naturally, the trend towards exotic pets as stress-relievers has some folks worried. People like Ruth, Claude, and Morris might be considered "a few sandwiches short of a picnic," as an editorial in the Minneapolis Post and Beam put it. Mental health professionals seem worried, too. "If you notice a common theme here, it's because, more and more, humans are using their relationships with animals as a substitute for learning to live in the real world," according to Dr. Martini Scholes of the University of Southern North Dakota's School of Psychiatry. "Ruth could have taken an anger-management class; instead she adopted a rodent with an attitude. Claude could have built a fence around his garden and installed alarms, but he went with the cheetah. Morris could have sent his son to the Marines, but he got a hippo, which is really a quasi-marine substitute."

Last week, federal agriculture chiefs moved to increase by 20 percent the 115-member force that hunts for smuggled birds and products that could introduce H5N1. Anti-smuggling squads are to patrol agricultural fairs and retail markets where Americans buy exotic pets and delicacies such as chicken feet.

The moors of the British Isles have always been full of stories about gigantic (sometimes panther-sized) black cats. In the old days, these sightings were taken as either devil cats or werecats. Today, people are still reporting these strange animals, but now the favored explanation has switched to escaped exotic pets.

My plan for tonight was to study my ass off for the spanish test but it’s not working oot. I don’t feel like doing anything because I just get a C anyways. My long term plan was to do both tech and tennis but that also failed because by the time tech starts, the tennis season will already be underway. So both my pans failed… for now. But I’ll be back… Anyways my plans were good ideas but failed. Kind’ve like that time I decided to buy rats and decorate them in glitter and sell them as exotic pets. It was a good idea but someone else beat me to it. Bastard.

I saw this photo and thought it was a hoax. It appears to be a real image of a Burmese python that exploded while eating an alligator. In fact, the tenacity of Burmese pythons in the Everglades is, indeed, no hoax as many would-be exotic pet owners discard them. Since one of my mortal fears is alligators…I have a new fear…a python that can attack an alligator!

Where did they come from? Thank you exotic pet shops of America for adding to our natural habitat. You make the guy who released all the birds from Shakespeare’s writings to look like a Mary Poppins. We look with disdain upon all of those English sparrows and starling pests at our bird feeders, yet we don’t fear them. Twenty-foot pythons are another story.

Were it not for the collapse of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), more wildlife would be happily fluttering and leaping through the forests of present-day Russia. At least that’s what the Inter Press Service News Agency reported on July 31st. If your response was like mine, you probably just said “huh?” Apparently, the newly rich citizens of Russian demand exotic pets, including such endangered species as lemurs, rare birds, and Caiman, which are sold along with such domestic animals as cats, guinea pigs, and fish.

And let me tell you, that’s just absolute folly. Where do you think dogs came from? Did heaven send the pink poodle to my mom on her 16th birthday? No, my grandparents did. And where did they get the poodle? From a pet store. And how did the poodle get to the pet store? By breeding it.

Jill and I caught an early train into Seoul, the usual Saturday morning hangover eerily missing and our bodies feeling far too fresh, and went for a wander round Dongdaemun. The whole area is apparently slpit up into sections, so if you want shoes then you’ll find all the shoes stalls together selling exactly the same footwear as the next stallholder. At one point there are lots and lots of pet shops together, each selling a stupid array of animals. Some of mit isn’t very nice, I’ve never been keen on seeing cats stuffed into cages for example, but you do get to see some stuff that you generally wouldn’t see elsewhere.

They might be cute and cuddly, but furry "pocket pets" and docile petting zoo animals can spread deadly bacteria to children just like snakes and exotic pets.

It seems about 35 miles away from where I live this morning a woman was attacked by four tigers when she was cleaning their pen. The victim was flown by Mayo ONE to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester where she reportedly remains in serious condition. Allegedly the property on which she was working has had numerous zoning violations in the past for raising exotic pets. Authorities are now considering additional charges against the property owner in light of this new incident.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are investigating a bizarre death where a woman's body was found inside an apartment, filled with close to 70 exotic pets. According to authorities, cages full of everything from a bird-eating tarantula, to a deadly snake were there. One of the snakes the woman kept is classified as extremely dangerous. Investigators say two of the cages were empty and they are trying to determine what was once in it. An autopsy is scheduled to determine the woman's exact cause of death.