Austin Lee
11/03/2011
For those of us that have pets, particularly dogs, we know the love and affection that they share with us. When we have a bad day, just coming home and seeing a wagging tail as our dogs slips on the hardwood floor running as fast as it can to greet us can instantly change our mood; but how would you feel if it were a fox? In March 2011 National Geographic ran an article entitled “Taming the Wild.” There was an experiment conducted in Siberia starting in 1959 and is still ongoing. The original purpose of this experiment was an attempt to recreate man’s domestication of animals, specifically dogs. Research showed that after the 6th generation fox offspring of selected tame parents would follow humans and lick them, previous generations would already wag their tails when seeing their human owners, and allow themselves to be picked up and carried.
When under the right conditions and selective breeding is involved, this research shows that domestication of animals was much faster and easier than expected. The actual domestication of animals such as dogs, cattle and chickens most likely took place over a much longer time frame because it was a natural process of co-evolution and not selective as in the study.
With the knowledge we have gained though this research of selective breeding, I think that owning a fox is an awesome idea. Some researchers in Russia have agreed that tame foxes make a great pet, similar to dogs in behavior, and many of the researchers are bringing them home as pets. Also, they are very cooperative with other pets that the researchers have. One fox, Alisa, gets along very well with her owners’ kids and their pet yellow Labrador. Another advantage to having a fox is that you still get the qualities of a pet dog but, because they don’t get as big as most dog breeds they would make great lap pets. I would also imagine that they would make great bird hunting dogs, especially when hunting birds such as pheasants or quail, because they are lower to the ground than most common bird hunting dogs, allowing them to get under and into thicker cover easier. Wild foxes already have a great sense of smell and hearing, so using a tame fox wouldn’t be out of the question. While the domesticated foxes are not as aggressive as wild foxes, neither are Labradors when compared to a wolf; and yet they still make great hunting companions.
After the initial study was published, the research facility in Russia received a lot of mail from people interested in owning foxes. With this kind of interest the article did mention that the possibility of owning foxes might not be far off. Considering how tame and friendly foxes have proven to be to the researchers; I know I would highly consider owning a fox if given the chance.
3 comments:
I think this a great topic that I never would have considered discussing. While I think it would be really cool to have a pet fox, I feel the negative consequences certainly outweigh the positive ones.
The only reason I see to own a fox would be for the social status or curiosity of owning a different kind of pet. The reality is that owning a fox as a pet requires extensive and careful breeding (needed a lot of time and money) to domesticate the fox, leaves some of these breeders (parents or grandparents of the final product) as potentially unusable for pets and incapable of living in the wild (what would happen to those foxes?), and the behaviors of an animal that is only a few generations of being completely wild are relatively unpredictable and risky. And one disconcerting trait of foxes is that they tend to be one of the least social of the canid species, a behavior risk for training and socializing with humans and other animals alike.
And what benefits are there to owning a fox over the thousands of dog breeds that a person has to choose from? If you’re looking for a small canid, buy a small terrier. Looking for a good hunter? There are so many dogs that are great at specializing at rabbits, bears, upland birds, waterfowl, and many more types of hunting. If you want a canid that can get low in the brush, there are several breeds of dogs that can be easily trained to be great hunters.
I certainly think it would be cool to own a fox, but wonder if the risks of owning a nearly-wild animal are worth it.
This is a very interesting topic of discussion that I have never heard about or considered until reading this blog. I agree with Ashley that this would be very cool to have a pet fox, bit I feel that there would be many negatives and misconceptions to owning a fox as a pet.
I defiantly feel that this is very unusual proposition to own a pet fox because of the perception people have on fox in general. Most people are scared of fox or at least do not want them coming near them or their pets. I feel that owning a fox as a pet would bring about an uprising of negative feedback from your neighbors and the community in general. Their seems to be to many unknowns about owning a fox like how would they act around other dogs, how would they respond to people, would they be able to live in a urban setting, and could you break them of their natural hunting and survival techniques that fox use to survive in the wild. Along with the comments Ashley made I don’t see many benefits from owning a fox compared to owning a typical dog that people are accustom to seeing people own as pets.
I agree it would be very interesting and different to own a fox as a pet but I just don’t see the benefits out weighing the negatives and issues that will arise from owning a fox.
Interesting article, great feedback! (I'm not going to get a fox as a pet.)
Post a Comment