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[quote=Anonymous]Just because your daughter loves animals does not mean you should indulge her with exotic animals that were never meant to be pets. It doesn't matter if you get a captive-bred parrot (or parrotlet) -- you cannot provide the conditions the animal needs to thrive, because it's not meant to be a domestic animal in the first place.

Since your daughter wants to be a zoologist, she should start learning about what animals need to thrive in their natural environments. She should also learn about the terrible effects of the pet trade, both on wild-caught populations and the habitats that exotic animals get released into, either on purpose or accidentally, and the ecosystemic harm that results from those releases. See, e.g., Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades or the 30+ species of wild parrots in Florida, all of which were established as a result of the pet trade. Birds don't scare people like pythons do, but that doesn't mean they're environmentally harmless.

I work in wildlife conservation and it makes me angry every day at how much environmental destruction is wrought by people who just want to satisfy their urges to own an animal that doesn't belong in the house as a pet. As an individual, your choices to support the exotic animal trade may not seem like a big deal. But the exotic animal trade, whether wild-capture driven or captive-breeding driven (which also feeds the wild-capture industry, don't kid yourself) has led to the decimation of innumerable populations of everything from fish to birds to reptiles and amphibians in their native habitats as well as the decimation of native habitats in places where those animals are released or escape and can establish breeding populations.

If your daughter is mature enough to care for an animal, she's mature enough to learn and understand the bigger issues behind the exotic pet trade and decide that her wants are not the same as needs.[/quote]

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