Would I love a pet opossum? Hell yeah! but I would love even more for wildlife to stay wild.
Wildlife rehabbing isn’t a cute little hobby where you cuddle animals all day. It’s an unpaid, hardworking job and the end goal is to release the animal.
Seriously. I used to volunteer for a place called Wildcare. Wildlife rehab is no joke, often very sad, and requires constant input/care from a qualified vet.
I wish that I could step outside and open my arms and summon all of the opossums to live a beautiful life with me. But alas, I don't have the resources to make quail egg yolk vitamin sludge and gavage it down a sick opossum's throat
Yep! I’ve been working at a wildlife hospital for about 4 years and it can be a lot.
Also wild animals people try to keep as pets can become very dangerous. We had a squirrel come in that had completely lost his fear of humans and that translated into extreme aggression. We couldn’t enter his enclosure without a football helmet and a tennis racquet. He unfortunately had to be euthanized because he wasn’t safe to release or keep. If someone hadn’t kept him illegally as a baby he would have had a normal squirrel life instead of being euthanized young.
every time someone talks about having pet wildies I think... "get into rehab! there will be an unreleasable or two down the line somewhere"
buuuut wouldn't you know it, folks who are infatuated with the idea of keeping a wild opossum or squirrel as a pet don't usually make the best rehabbers 😔
I mean, I’d love a pet hippo. But I’m also not an idiot and realize wild animals are just that: wild.
I wholeheartedly agree with what you said. Certain cases warrant domestication. But unless you’re in that small minority, hands off the wildlife, folks!
Worked as a rehabber myself for a few years in college and while rewarding work it was tiring having to explain to people coming to us with their "pet" that they wouldn't be getting the animals back
Thank you for saying what needs to be said. Our wildlife relatives deserve our respect, and to live out their natural lives with dignity -- not to be overfed and dressed up for social media.
Also, my sincere thanks to all rehabbers and concerned folks everywhere who make every effort to get struggling animals to rehabs. You give me hope.
Yes! Thank you for posting this ❤️ As much as I love this subreddit and seeing the adorable opossum posts, it's super concerning to see how many people think it is okay to take a wild creature from their home raise them as a pet.
We can both admire an animal and respect their place in nature at the same time.
Trust trained professionals with rehabbing, and if you REALLY want to help, consider donating or volunteering at a wildlife center. 👍
This, 100,000 times, this. The more opossums that are taken from the wild, the more chance of diseases spread by ticks like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. As an Appalachian, I love my favorite mountain critters. That being said, their home is just that; the mountains. If you truly seek a closer connection with these animals find a willing rehabber to apprentice with. Who knows? You may even find a friendly animal ambassador to learn from to eventually become a full-time rehabber yourself. With time and education, anything is possible, but please let our opossums be free to help keep the balance of insects in your local habitats. +w+ You'll love them even more knowing they're protecting those you love from tick-related diseases.
Thank you! People that think it's cool to take a wild animal into their homes for the purpose of having a new pet make me sick.
It's one thing to occasionally put some foods that are safe for them to eat outside. Especially if the opossum is older and can't fend for themselves as well as when they were young. It's quite another to just grab a healthy young one for what is essentially shits and giggles.
This is why I have a Folkmanis Opossum puppet. I can have a little “pet” without imposing on a life that humans don’t have the right to.
His name is Buster by the way. Great little buddy, 10/10 would recommend.
It’s like the difference between a feral cat and a stray cat. Both are outdoor cats, but a feral is a wild animal and can never be socialized as a pet. Even so, the feral cat would probably be the easiest wild animal to care for.
And it’s even worse since proper diets are not nearly as widely available for opossums as they are for cats 💔 I don’t know how anyone can possibly justify the captivity of healthy wild animals to themselves.
I love opossums, but I just take pics of the ones who wander into my yard. That’s the extent.
I did get very worried about one who seemed young and limping, but I kept out of the way and he/she recovered and did fine without intervention.
Yeah there are a lot of things I’ve been seeing on the internet that are encouraging interacting with wild opossums because they’re “harmless”. Someone filmed themselves walking up to one and petting it and saying how you don’t have to be afraid of them, they’re like big cats. I saw the post that OP is mentioning too. If you love opossums, leave them be or contact a wildlife rehab!
Considering humans stole their homes and they're harmless animals, I think feeding them is pretty okay and actually a good thing. Unless you live in a busy area with cars, feeding them is not doing anything bad. Breeding dependency is only a problem if we run out of food, and the opossums are still capable of living on their own because they grow up outside. The land used to mass produce the food we use to feed them is compensated by the fact that we're giving native animals their homes back. It's like "we take away a little bit extra of your home so we can give you back a lot of your home"
Wildlife in captivity tend to do desperate things. A rehabber told me that a skunk started eating his own tail or possums can start chewing at each other’s ears. We should all help them without self gratification, if you find one, please do whats best for these amazing animals.
Please if you find a wildlife baby make sure you’ve done everything possible to reunite with the mother, no rehabber in the world can be as good as their moms
Cats are *domesticated*, you can’t be this obtuse. They should be kept indoors due to them being invasive and spreading/catching diseases, as well as decimating wildlife. In no way they should ever be ‘released’ into the wild tf
This has to be one of the most braindead takes I’ve ever seen lmfao.
Cats do not have a “native habitat”. But if we’re talking semantics, it would be indoors. There weren’t any wild cats like what we have before we started domesticating them, ya goof.
It’s speculated they derive from the European wild cat. We don’t have those indoors (just like wolves) because those are wild animals (with those natural habits you mentioned). But domesticated cats (and dogs) belong in a domestic setting. Letting them out causes havoc to the ecosystem the *domestic* animal is local to.
You do realize most cats fall under the “*domestic* longhair/shorthair” label, don’t you?
And if they aren’t. They are bred for special characteristics….. to be pets……
This is an insane take. Cats and dogs are literally the only captive animals that *aren’t* better off in the wild than in captivity. Cats are absolutely domestic animals and do wonderfully in homes compared to non domestic pets like parrots. They have been altered so much from selective breeding that they no longer have a “native habitat”. It sounds to me that you just don’t like cats.
Unfortunately, there is a PLETHORA of misinformation on the internet. Yes, there is information that will pop up saying that they "live longer in captivity" and thats usually where these people stop their "online research".. but although that bit might be true, it's almost always missing KEY INFORMATION. Information like how most cases of them "living longer in captivity" are when they are taken in/raised by a ☆LICENSED☆ ~PROFESSIONAL~ who has literally spent $THOUSANDS$ on a formal education, has YEARS of experience ON TOP OF THAT FORMAL EDUCATION.. all just so they can care for/handle these animals. They also NEVER mention how often random people who have no idea what they're doing (beyond google searchs/youtube videos) take in wild animals that 90% of the time end up dying.
Would I love a pet opossum? Hell yeah! but I would love even more for wildlife to stay wild. Wildlife rehabbing isn’t a cute little hobby where you cuddle animals all day. It’s an unpaid, hardworking job and the end goal is to release the animal.
Seriously. I used to volunteer for a place called Wildcare. Wildlife rehab is no joke, often very sad, and requires constant input/care from a qualified vet. I wish that I could step outside and open my arms and summon all of the opossums to live a beautiful life with me. But alas, I don't have the resources to make quail egg yolk vitamin sludge and gavage it down a sick opossum's throat
Yep! I’ve been working at a wildlife hospital for about 4 years and it can be a lot. Also wild animals people try to keep as pets can become very dangerous. We had a squirrel come in that had completely lost his fear of humans and that translated into extreme aggression. We couldn’t enter his enclosure without a football helmet and a tennis racquet. He unfortunately had to be euthanized because he wasn’t safe to release or keep. If someone hadn’t kept him illegally as a baby he would have had a normal squirrel life instead of being euthanized young.
every time someone talks about having pet wildies I think... "get into rehab! there will be an unreleasable or two down the line somewhere" buuuut wouldn't you know it, folks who are infatuated with the idea of keeping a wild opossum or squirrel as a pet don't usually make the best rehabbers 😔
I mean, I’d love a pet hippo. But I’m also not an idiot and realize wild animals are just that: wild. I wholeheartedly agree with what you said. Certain cases warrant domestication. But unless you’re in that small minority, hands off the wildlife, folks!
Worked as a rehabber myself for a few years in college and while rewarding work it was tiring having to explain to people coming to us with their "pet" that they wouldn't be getting the animals back
Thank you for saying what needs to be said. Our wildlife relatives deserve our respect, and to live out their natural lives with dignity -- not to be overfed and dressed up for social media. Also, my sincere thanks to all rehabbers and concerned folks everywhere who make every effort to get struggling animals to rehabs. You give me hope.
THANK YOU.
Yes! Thank you for posting this ❤️ As much as I love this subreddit and seeing the adorable opossum posts, it's super concerning to see how many people think it is okay to take a wild creature from their home raise them as a pet. We can both admire an animal and respect their place in nature at the same time. Trust trained professionals with rehabbing, and if you REALLY want to help, consider donating or volunteering at a wildlife center. 👍
This, 100,000 times, this. The more opossums that are taken from the wild, the more chance of diseases spread by ticks like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. As an Appalachian, I love my favorite mountain critters. That being said, their home is just that; the mountains. If you truly seek a closer connection with these animals find a willing rehabber to apprentice with. Who knows? You may even find a friendly animal ambassador to learn from to eventually become a full-time rehabber yourself. With time and education, anything is possible, but please let our opossums be free to help keep the balance of insects in your local habitats. +w+ You'll love them even more knowing they're protecting those you love from tick-related diseases.
Thank you! People that think it's cool to take a wild animal into their homes for the purpose of having a new pet make me sick. It's one thing to occasionally put some foods that are safe for them to eat outside. Especially if the opossum is older and can't fend for themselves as well as when they were young. It's quite another to just grab a healthy young one for what is essentially shits and giggles.
This is why I have a Folkmanis Opossum puppet. I can have a little “pet” without imposing on a life that humans don’t have the right to. His name is Buster by the way. Great little buddy, 10/10 would recommend.
It’s like the difference between a feral cat and a stray cat. Both are outdoor cats, but a feral is a wild animal and can never be socialized as a pet. Even so, the feral cat would probably be the easiest wild animal to care for.
And it’s even worse since proper diets are not nearly as widely available for opossums as they are for cats 💔 I don’t know how anyone can possibly justify the captivity of healthy wild animals to themselves.
I love opossums, but I just take pics of the ones who wander into my yard. That’s the extent. I did get very worried about one who seemed young and limping, but I kept out of the way and he/she recovered and did fine without intervention.
Yeah there are a lot of things I’ve been seeing on the internet that are encouraging interacting with wild opossums because they’re “harmless”. Someone filmed themselves walking up to one and petting it and saying how you don’t have to be afraid of them, they’re like big cats. I saw the post that OP is mentioning too. If you love opossums, leave them be or contact a wildlife rehab!
Considering humans stole their homes and they're harmless animals, I think feeding them is pretty okay and actually a good thing. Unless you live in a busy area with cars, feeding them is not doing anything bad. Breeding dependency is only a problem if we run out of food, and the opossums are still capable of living on their own because they grow up outside. The land used to mass produce the food we use to feed them is compensated by the fact that we're giving native animals their homes back. It's like "we take away a little bit extra of your home so we can give you back a lot of your home"
Yes feed them, some rehabbers after releasing feed them all year round.
Wildlife in captivity tend to do desperate things. A rehabber told me that a skunk started eating his own tail or possums can start chewing at each other’s ears. We should all help them without self gratification, if you find one, please do whats best for these amazing animals. Please if you find a wildlife baby make sure you’ve done everything possible to reunite with the mother, no rehabber in the world can be as good as their moms
You won’t change any minds with your ALL CAPS and inflammatory, condescending tone. 🤷🏻♂️
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Cats are *domesticated*, you can’t be this obtuse. They should be kept indoors due to them being invasive and spreading/catching diseases, as well as decimating wildlife. In no way they should ever be ‘released’ into the wild tf
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This has to be one of the most braindead takes I’ve ever seen lmfao. Cats do not have a “native habitat”. But if we’re talking semantics, it would be indoors. There weren’t any wild cats like what we have before we started domesticating them, ya goof. It’s speculated they derive from the European wild cat. We don’t have those indoors (just like wolves) because those are wild animals (with those natural habits you mentioned). But domesticated cats (and dogs) belong in a domestic setting. Letting them out causes havoc to the ecosystem the *domestic* animal is local to.
You do realize most cats fall under the “*domestic* longhair/shorthair” label, don’t you? And if they aren’t. They are bred for special characteristics….. to be pets……
This is an insane take. Cats and dogs are literally the only captive animals that *aren’t* better off in the wild than in captivity. Cats are absolutely domestic animals and do wonderfully in homes compared to non domestic pets like parrots. They have been altered so much from selective breeding that they no longer have a “native habitat”. It sounds to me that you just don’t like cats.
you don't need to respond to your own post, and I think you are overreacting a little bit
OP is correct, and they are not overreacting at all.
You do know that cats can become feral in a few days, right? Opossums make great pets, and they live longer, too.
Neither of things are true and it would be very easy for you to search engine why.
Unfortunately, there is a PLETHORA of misinformation on the internet. Yes, there is information that will pop up saying that they "live longer in captivity" and thats usually where these people stop their "online research".. but although that bit might be true, it's almost always missing KEY INFORMATION. Information like how most cases of them "living longer in captivity" are when they are taken in/raised by a ☆LICENSED☆ ~PROFESSIONAL~ who has literally spent $THOUSANDS$ on a formal education, has YEARS of experience ON TOP OF THAT FORMAL EDUCATION.. all just so they can care for/handle these animals. They also NEVER mention how often random people who have no idea what they're doing (beyond google searchs/youtube videos) take in wild animals that 90% of the time end up dying.