Could There Be a Ban on Hamsters?

Buying animals at many pet stores could soon be a thing of the past. Many small animals including hamsters, rats and chinchillas as well as dogs and cats could soon be banned from being sold in pet stores.

According to abclocal "The Animal Welfare Commission wants to prevent pet stores from selling dogs and cats, as well as smaller animals including hamsters, rats and chinchillas. Banning the sale of dogs and cats in the city is largely symbolic since few stores actually do, but they are selling the small animals and many eventually wind up at city shelters.

Jennifer Grafelman is the manager of Animal Connection in the Sunset District. Her store sells lots of small animals, including hamsters, rats and Chinchillas. She calls the city's proposal "unfortunate" and says it would financially impact her store and would end the first pet experience of many young children. Grafelman supports more rules and regulations but not an outright ban."

While this could be happening in San Francisco, it could also happen in other places across the U.S.

According to Pawnation "The recently introduced Non-Native Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act would ban non-native species not approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A proposal in front of lawmakers today could prevent future purchases of exotic animals, including several fish, snakes, ferrets and some birds, like the African grey parrot, in an effort to control the environmental impact of non-native species."

The news has some pet lover's as well as pet store owners very weary. If pet stores cannot sell small animals or dogs and cats in some areas, this could greatly hinder their business. While most people wouldn't have a problem trying to keep the impact of non-native species of animals from impacting negatively in areas, does a ban on small animals such as hamsters really seem needed?

There could be a problem if people were buying these small animals and then when little Johnny gets tired of having to feed his hamster or rat, mom decides to release these non-native animals into areas where they could start breeding. If these animals have no natural enemies to control their populations or start eating native species of animal in the area, it could become a real problem. But ask yourselves something, when was the last time you heard of someone releasing a hamster, rat or chinchilla into the wild and years later finding a colony of them wreaking havoc in the neighborhood?

Many children will miss out on the fun of owning a hamster, rat or ferret if this bill passes and these animals become banned. That would be a real tragedy.

Sources:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=7463602

http://www.pawnation.com/2009/04/23/congress-to-consider-ban-on-exotics/