MM33, you’re a good man starting an new topic like this. Thanks.
From the gut, I say it’s a bad idea to keep wild animals. Fortunately for me, it is illegal in many instances to keep a wild animal without certain permits or paper work. I use that as a fall back position.
But how far do you want this to go? Shouldn’t every kid have a frog or a turtle, or a toad in a box every once in a while? The reptiles and amphibians don’t seem to mind a great deal, but where do you draw the line?
I never let my kids keep any birds or mammals for “pets”. Eli and the neighbor boy caught a fawn one day, when they were about twelve years old, and I made them put it back. It’s illegal, don’t you know.
So, while I dislike seeing wild animals caged as pets, I can help but feel my ancestors looking over my shoulder. Because if folks hadn’t started keeping wild animals for pets 6 or 7 thousand years ago, there would be no “domestic” animals. All the animals would still be wild, and so would we.
I guess times change.
-- Hal