<<While the intention is so that they will "bond with" their keepers (and
so, I assume, be safer to work with when they are large, toothy animals),
the article also talked about how fast they are growing "on a diet of about
250 ml of milk a day", milk meaning, of course, an artificial milk. >>
And, the problem with an animal "bonding with" their keepers is, they are
more likely to kill the keeper later on, or be involved in some other
tragedy.
In my previous life, I was a mammal keeper, and the most dangerous animals
we had were always the hand-reared ones. Basically, they bond with a human,
believe they look like a human, and when they are placed with a cage full of
"things" that look like monkeys, tigers, bears, whatever, they are certain
they've been placed wrongly. They are humans after all, what are they doing
with animals? They become aggressive, probably because they feel they are
misunderstood, and many of these animals are much larger (and have sharper
teeth) than the people taking care of them.
The public really enjoy seeing abandoned animals being fed bottles, they
like feeding the bottles, and nobody seems to really understand the
consequences of an inferior diet, as well as the danger of humanizing the
creature. I thought it was interesting that the women keepers who later
became mothers were more likely to breastfeed, and continued breastfeeding
for longer periods of time than the "average American." Or at least it was
like that at the facilities I worked.
Best wishes
Sam Doak
who retired to rear her own 4 primates...
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