Monkeys and Prairie Dogs

[Barbie]

What the hell are they doing together...isnt that inter-breeding...

U.S. Slaps ban on Prairie Dogs (http://www.msnbc.com/news/923088.asp?0cv=CB10)

And the hell are people doing handling these things?

They AREN'T pets!

(I know...I read the story)

[Stevo]

dammit... (sorry posted once before but wasn't happening)

Anywho, monkeypox is mostly found in small primates and small wild rodents.

Monkeypox is carried by monkies and the rodents due to the close habitation, and carrier characteristics.

But who the hell has one as a pet? i've never heard of that until now.

I want one...

[MAC]

an addition to this topic (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=679&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/20030612/cm_usatoday/5235848)

I'm afraid that our beurocracy is less than thorough at many things and ridiculously stringent on others.
thats what happens when you ask a group to police a nation and put on the fascade (sp?) of choice and accountablility

Over the last year I've gotten a good look into the fine line between the two opposing sides of the pet trade. Its sadlly undefinable on paper.
But on one hand you have some poor guy in whatever country (or rural US setting) who collects all he can and whole sales them to ppl who use large store fronts and swap meets to pass on animals destined to die in the cramped cages of our childrens bedrooms. On th eothe rhand you have ppl who are quiet serious about selectively breeding and raising representatives of their personal favorite breeds.

The latter is obviously more conscious of disease. The former is obviously too desperate to think about much besides luck. The shades of gray between the two make them indistinguishable in a situation like this.

There are people in this country who would gladly take in a stray dog or get one at the pound, but they also go to the vet and get them checked. meanwhile there are people who feed animals and say "well he doesn't look sick" But dogs and cats are so common place that many of the things we do in other parts of society are designed to dealw ith their problems. There are no inherent firewalls in place to deal with prarie dog diseases, monkey diseases, aardvark diseases, etc. Today I was reading about the balance of parasite load in most herbivorus reptiles. This is something that we don't deal with in dogs and cats. We eliminate their worms and go on with life. You can't do that in reptiles. So taking on a pet such as a praire dog, obviously offers some nuances. Including what disease you may have to deal with.

People seem to have a hard time distinguishing bewteen knowns and unknowns. maybe they need Donald Rumsfeld to explain it.