The American Animal Hospital Association's Position on Wild Animals as Pets
The American Animal Hospital Association discourages the keeping of wild animals as pets.
When wild animals are kept as pets, the results may often be tragic for the animals and the owners. Wild animals are those not specifically bred over many generations to adapt to human confinement, company, or control. Lack of knowledge about behavioral traits, social needs, and proper nutrition of wild animals as well as inability to provide an appropriate environment that permits normal behavior and association with conspecifics often leads to inadvertent abuse and long term suffering. Furthermore, individuals exposed to captive wild animals may contract transmissible diseases, or suffer injury or death.