Buying exotic pets? What are people thinking?

I don't get the "exotic pet" thing.

Many of them aren't pets at all. They're wild animals held captive. If you get too close, you're liable to get bitten or sick from the bacteria, viruses or parasites they carry.

Still, many people are undeterred by the cautionary tales. They stroll into a pet store, seek out the exotic animal du jour and faster than you can say "How much is that prairie doggie in the window?" they're the proud owner of a wild rodent. Or perhaps they purchase an "imported" rodent, such as a Gambian pouched rat, which must be considerably more cosmopolitan than the Norwegian rats I've seen in my back yard on occasion, right?

Why anyone would buy vermin absolutely confounds me. What are these people thinking when they say, "Honey, I'll be back in about 20 minutes. I'm running down to the pet store to pick up a Gambian rat. If they don't have one, I might get a prairie dog. I'm on my cell. 'Bye."

Some misguided souls in the Midwest have done just that. They've purchased prairie dogs that contracted a virus from a Gambian rat, and now some humans are sicker than a dog with "monkeypox."

There was no known monkeypox in North America until recently. It is now believed to have spread from ill patients to two health care workers, the first known human transmission of the disease in the United States. All of a sudden, this virus with the funny name isn't such a laughing matter.

While no self-respecting Westerner would purchase a prairie dog (for that matter, it's illegal in many parts of the West), it's maddening to me that people elsewhere would spend cold, hard cash on a creature that they probably don't know a great deal about and that could be harboring any number of diseases.

You see, the importation of cats and dogs is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but there are, incredibly, no restrictions on rats, reptiles, lions, tigers, bears or monkeys, among others critters. What a nifty way to introduce a biological threat, deliberately or by accident. One would think, in the interest of homeland security, the import of exotic pets would be banned.

No such luck. And for that lapse in judgment, we have monkeypox in North America. Monkeypox is in the same family of viruses as smallpox. It has long occurred in West or Central Africa, which exports Gambian rats as pets. In Africa, squirrels are the main carriers of monkeypox, but it is named after monkeys because it often kills them.