Inappropriate pets

The urge to keep animals as pets is a strong one.  Dogs have been living in our homes for at least 15,000 years, and maybe much longer. Cats are more recent companions, becoming domesticated around 10,000 years ago (though some say they aren’t domesticated yet).

Photo credit: Getty

But these solid traditions are not good enough for many. Cats and dogs? So uncool. How about a snake, a ferret or a lion?

Wild animals don’t necessarily make good pets – but if you want to insist that you’re the Dr Dolittle that can tame a wild beast and make it love you, well go right ahead. Keep in mind though there’s a reason this tends to be a hobby of the super-rich, and it’s not just the high cost of feeding and housing a chimp, a wolf or a leopard. I’m talking medical care. Facial reconstruction. And, of course, your funeral.

But let’s not get too smug: we all know the stats on ‘dangerous dog’ maulings in this country, and even the humble Jack Russell has its dark side.

Why are we so weird about animals? One minute they’re our ‘fur-babies’ (shudder), next minute we’re eating them. Cat, dog, lamb, pig. We give our kids books

Jemima Puddleduck: before and after
Image credit: Beatrix Potter/Gordon Ramsay

populated by rabbits in waistcoats and bears eating marmalade (you wish), and wring our hands about pandas, orangutans and the ivory trade while happily supporting an industry that slaughters animals for our dinner tables.

Can’t we appreciate animals without either commodifying them or demanding that they interact with us?

At least in New Zealand biosecurity restrictions are too tight to allow people to import and keep random animals the way they can in America – and our native wildlife is harmless (apart from your katipo). Good luck finding one of them, I spent my whole childhood searching for them and I’ve never seen one yet.

The dangerous species here are all things we’ve brought in ourselves, and it’s not us that’s at risk: it’s the remnant wildlife that we haven’t yet finished driving to extinction. The fairy tern, the kiwi, the pekapeka. The kaka.

In Wellington you’d hardly know that kaka were a threatened species. Fifteen years after their release inside the safety of the Zealandia fence, their population has grown so much that they’ve become a common sight in gardens and parks across the city.

And Wellingtonians are quite besotted (mostly). Many encourage the birds to visit by feeding them in the garden, but this is where it gets tricky, because

kaka are wild birds, not pets, bold and cheeky though they may be. And they’re hugely vulnerable to cats (as well as dogs, and people annoyed about having the bark stripped off their trees).

Cats are a threat anyway outside the safety of Zealandia, without you actually luring birds to their turf – the suburban garden – so please be conscious of this if you set up a kaka feeder at your place. Set it high, and out of reach of cats, and don’t encourage the birds to come to you, or get too hands-on with them.

Kaka are our own native wild parrots, the monkeys of the bird world. As we learn to live with them in an urban environment, we need to remember they’re not our pets. And if you think they’re a nuisance, stripping your trees and nibbling on your guttering, consider what a nuisance we’ve been to them: destroying their habitat and allowing rats, stoats, and cats to nearly wipe them out. Please remember who was here first, and let them be wild.