Pet wallaby confiscated

[KBCraig]

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Confiscated+wallaby+now+living+at+zoo&articleId=f2d1ed9e-9bc4-4760-aeab-1ede7a021071

Confiscated wallaby now living at zoo

By MICHAEL COUSINEAU
Union Leader Staff

Candia ? Plucked from her mother, Lucy Roo settled in New Hampshire, only to be separated from her new family a week later.

At seven months and 3? pounds, she had quite a spring in her step. The wallaby, a smaller version of the kangaroo, cost her owner $1,700 ? and ultimately the animal herself because the Manchester woman didn?t have special licenses to keep such an exotic animal in the house.

?She thought she was buying her daughter a cool graduation gift,? said John Pyteraf, president of Charmingfare Farm, Lucy Roo?s latest home.

Starting next week, the animal will be on public display at the Candia zoo and later this year will get a permanent house with an estimated $30,000 price tag.

The story began when Manchester resident Robin Thompson ordered the animal over the Internet, paying $1,500 plus $200 in shipping to get the animal from a man in Illinois, according to Manchester police. The animal flew into Boston?s Logan International Airport before arriving at Thompson?s home at 133 Harriman St. last month.

Last Sunday, someone called Manchester police to report ?a kangaroo? at the Harriman Street house. Police phoned Fish & Game and the wallaby was confiscated and taken to Charmingfare Farm, said Manchester police Sgt. Mark Fowke.

The animal tale offers a warning about buying exotic animals from a Web site without considering the consequences.

?I think fueled by the Internet, people are becoming more interested because they?re seeing these on the Internet and they think it would be a good pet,? said state Fish & Game Sgt. Dave Eskeland. ?I searched for wallaby on the Internet. I found hundreds of sites that offered them for sale.?

Eskeland said many sites don?t warn potential buyers to check to see if they can legally house the animals.

?My experience has been that wild animals should be left in the wild and not be made pets,? Eskeland said.

New Hampshire and federal law require anyone owning an exotic animal be licensed as an exhibitor.

Thompson could face a fine of perhaps $1,000 or more from the state and additional penalties from the feds, but no final determination has been made.

?It?s still under investigation,? Eskeland said. ?We have to measure intent and we have to measure that she?s already out the $1,500 she paid for this animal because it?s been taken from her.?

Thompson couldn?t be reached for comment yesterday.

While Thompson?s family won?t have the animal as a household pet, Lucy Roo will be enjoyed by those visiting Charmingfare Farm. She now has close to 200 new neighbors ? including mountain lions, reindeer, black bears and even a camel.

Not that she has anything to worry about.

The wallaby will get an enclosed home built this summer.

She will get a shelter with some heat for the winter and roughly a 50-foot-by-75-foot fenced-in area with a second fence to keep people back.

Charmingfare hopes to raise an estimated $30,000 to fund a permanent home.

For the next two months, Lucy Roo will enjoy a bottle of wallaby formula to replace nursing she would have done inside her birth mother?s pouch.

?When we give her a bottle, we cover her eyes to think she?s in a pouch,? Pyteraf said.

She won?t be on a liquid-only diet, having already devoured hay, lettuce and carrots during her first 24 hours at her new home.

?They need a lot of contact at this age to feel secure,? Pyteraf said. ?They need to feel that heartbeat. That?s why she?s with Zac all the time.?

Zac is Zac Curtis, the animal keeper. The wallaby nuzzled against his chest and around his arms yesterday afternoon.

The wallaby also likes to follow people around indoors.

?She?s under foot. She?s real attached,? Curtis said.

And when she moves around, he said, ?It?s like a big rat hopping.?

A wallaby can weigh between 25 and 45 pounds when grown and live between 12 and 15 years, Pyteraf said.

Thompson brought some items for Lucy Roo to Charmingfare Farm yesterday.

?She was more than willing to do whatever to support the wallaby,? Pyteraf said. ?I don?t think she realized how much she thinks it will cost to keep her correctly.?

[KBCraig]

Last Sunday, someone called Manchester police to report ?a kangaroo? at the Harriman Street house. Police phoned Fish & Game and the wallaby was confiscated and taken to Charmingfare Farm, said Manchester police Sgt. Mark Fowke.

What kind of busybody would call the police over a non-threatening, well cared for pet?

?I think fueled by the Internet, people are becoming more interested because they?re seeing these on the Internet and they think it would be a good pet,? said state Fish & Game Sgt. Dave Eskeland.

?My experience has been that wild animals should be left in the wild and not be made pets,? Eskeland said.

And so he took this "wild animal" to a zoo. Where it's being treated like, and behaves like, a pet.

?They need a lot of contact at this age to feel secure,? Pyteraf said. ?They need to feel that heartbeat. That?s why she?s with Zac all the time.?

Zac is Zac Curtis, the animal keeper. The wallaby nuzzled against his chest and around his arms yesterday afternoon.

The wallaby also likes to follow people around indoors.

?She?s under foot. She?s real attached,? Curtis said.

Yep, that's a real wild beast there. 

Kevin

[AlanM]

Tie me Kangaroo down, sport. Oops, I mean wallaby

[ravelkinbow]

Taken from a home where it would have been loved and cuddled to be stuck in a cage ok ya that makes sense to me

[John]

Have you ever listened to interveiws with these "loving" animal control types?

They sound as though they think they are better (and smarter) than others and somehow have some Right to keep these animals - which others are FORCED to hand over to them.

They enjoy these animals, and so they encourage laws against "ownership" so that they may then take custody.  Sound familiar?

Why don't they just go get their own animals and leave the rest alone?
They make me sick.

[ravelkinbow]

maybe they will leave people alone....right after they all have forced chip implants

[John]

Methinks that they intend to chip everything - including all of us.
And they will certainly not leave people alone then, because then they will claim ownership of people to.

Maybe they will "just" start with "the children."  Noone has a right to own children, right?

[aries]

I read this article in the UL at work today and I couldn't help but think... what a load of BS.

Obviously she had no idea what she was doing, so I guess the animal is in better hands, but there should definitely not be any legal mandate that she give it up. If I were her I'd demand compensation.

[Dreepa]

This wallaby is alive and kicking!

He is a the charming fair farm.  The 'farm' was at the Hopkinton State Fair.  I saw the stolen wallaby with my own eyes.

(they also have a bison, a bobcat, and some tiny ponies. and a shitload of goats and sheep)

[tracysaboe]

Oh no!

Tracy

[aries]

I thought those massholes were complaining (some time ago) about exotic pets making their way down to the bay state, yet we can't even have Wallabees?

What the hell were people "smuggling" down then? Turtles and ferrets?