8.12.08 - 11:00AM
- by
Jordan Breindel

Fennec Fox - An Adorable Fox You Can Keep as a Pet So Long as You're Responsible About It

topic:
Cute
Photos
Animals

Ah the Fennec Fox, the only species of fox you can be keep as a pet. Fennecs weigh about about three pounds a piece, and even though they've been known to tire out less energetic pets, they're not big enough, fierce enough, or even energetic enough to harm anything more than a couch.

If you have an especially vicious or dominant couch, a Fennec Fox might be perfect for you.

Plus, they're really affectionate if you socialize them while they're still young.

I can has social skillz?

Come hither

BFFAEAE

ROFL

A new leash on life

photos:// floridapfe's adorable Flickr collection, except the last one which is from tanakawho

*/ tags: fennec foxes - FennecFoxes

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12.27.09

By TSADJATKO

Neutral

yeah, it takes thusands of years to domesticate an animal

Like dogs? A survey by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta ("CDC") concluded that dogs bite nearly 2% of the U.S. population -- more than 4.7 million people annually.

Like cats? A cat bites one in every 170 people in the U.S. each year. This includes children and people who don't even own a cat. So, everyone stands a fairly good chance of experiencing this trauma sometime.

Like cows? .... statistics show that cows have killed 19 people and injured another 481 over the past eight years in the UK." That makes an average of 2.375 deaths per year in earlier years.

I can't find any statistics on people attacked by fennec foxes, but since humans have been "domesticated" I'd say they are the most dangerous of all animals - maybe they should revert to the wild and we will all be safer?

3.11.10

By chuck

Neutral

you are an idiot

3.29.10

By Zach

Neutral

Fuck you, I'm getting one =D

5.23.10

By kurisu7885

Neutral

My only concern for them would be a huge number of them suffering the same fate as many other fad pets. People find them cute, want one so bad, get one, then find out it's not ALL fun and games and that there's actual work, so they take the easy way out and either abandon the poor thing in some random location or take them to a shelter, this making some problems even worse.

Worse part is half those people don't go to a shelter in the first place, they go to pet stores which gives puppy mills even more business that they should never get.

Sorry for ranting. After reading about the fad pet problem, I began to hate animal movies, and I hope these cute critters don't suffer that.

1.25.11

By Mousen

Neutral

There was an experiment in Germany where they started (a good few years ago) to breed foxes, choosing only the friendliest ones as the start of a selective breeding programme. Friendliest being a very loose term, the least terrified/aggressive being the better word(s). Eventually, possibly a few decades later and they are just as tame as dogs. Now, while I don't agree with this it shows that animals will adapt/be bred to be more suitable for lives with humans.

They also did the same with the most aggressive... And they were snarling and growling like hell cats. So while I wouldn't agree with the fennec fox being taken out of the wild in the first place, but many will lead happy lives with humans in the future. Once something is domesticated to a point, it's not like you can just release it back into the wild and expect it not to die. If they become more endangered in the wild, it might be just as well that many have become domesticated or kept in zoos ect. as it means they won't go the same way as the Pinta Island Tortoise, which once poor George dies the species will be extinct. Think about parrots for instance, my 51 year old parrot must have been taken out of the wild, not that I can help that. I'm not his first owner. Now, that parrot is one of the tamest animals I own, some things take to captivity well. Baggins[my parrot]would be on his last legs now if he was in the wild, but instead he's still got many years of life ahead of him.

So while its wrong to take creatures out the wild, once it's been done. Well, it's live and let live. Until some idiot abuses one-- then its war. All pets need to be taken care of, whether like the dog they evolved fairly slowly into what they are, or those domesticated foxes in Germany that were tame in just a few decades.

(Please note: It could be slightly shorter than that and the foxes were extremely wild to begin with. So with something that takes to captivity well, it would be alot shorter than that.)