Taman Safari Animal Curator: 'Wild Animals Can't Be Kept as Pets'
Translator
Editor
10 August 2023 20:11 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Keeping wild animals at home has long been a trend among celebrities. In Indonesia, some people are keeping snakes, monkeys, or even rare tigers and bears as pets and breeding them, sparking controversy.
Sharmy Prastiti, an animal curator at Taman Safari Indonesia wildlife park, stressed that wild animals cannot be kept and cared for privately. “Because wild animals are not the same as domestic animals,” Sharmy, familiarly called Amy, said at a discussion forum of Ngopi Safari at Jakarta Aquarium Safari, on Wednesday, August 9, 2023.
She underlined that keeping untamed animals at home is against the rules of caring for wild animals. Unlike zoos or conservation centers that have complied with the regulations of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry or the Indonesian Association of Zoos.
“They (the zoo) already have a permit from the government. There are many requirements that must be met and it is not easy to open a zoo,” she said.
Besides, Amy said that the trend is also happening in hotels. “I don't know why there are [hotels with wild animals] all of a sudden. Actually, it's not allowed,” she said.
Amy, who has worked at the wildlife park for three decades, said that wild animals are uncomfortable when they often come into frequent contact with humans. They can become stressed more easily which affects their overall health.
In caring for animals, both wild and domestic, there are five principles of animal welfare; freedom from thirst and hunger, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury, or disease, freedom to express natural behaviors, and freedom from fear and distress.
These five freedoms are easier to achieve for domestic animals than for wild animals. Therefore, Amy emphasized that there is no need to keep wild animals at home. “Take cute dogs as pets, not wild animals,” she concluded.
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