Exotic animals smell and carry diseases

The argument

Owning exotic animals can be threatening or even fatal to a person's health, and the objection here is not about the rare attack but about the ordinary, everyday consequences of keeping a wild animal in a house. The first is disease. Exotic animals carry diseases that have the potential to transfer to a person, and the household setting is what makes the risk meaningful: a wild animal encountered outdoors is avoided, while one kept as a pet is handled, cleaned up after and lived alongside every day. Reptiles and amphibians are able to carry salmonella, which is particularly concerning for homes with children, since children are both more likely to handle a pet without washing afterwards and more seriously affected when infected. Many species of small monkeys carry Hepatitis B, which can be fatal for a person. These are not consequences of neglect or mistreatment; a perfectly healthy exotic pet can carry all of them. The second objection is about what these animals do by nature. Many wild animals have stink glands for self-defence, or urinate to mark their territory, and neither behaviour can be trained away because both are functional rather than incidental. The consequence is that the animal and everything around it will have a foul smell. Foxes, an animal frequently domesticated, urinate on everything they believe is theirs; their urine is extremely pungent and putrid and can be smelled from a long way off. Anyone keeping a fox as a pet should expect their entire home to smell, because marking the territory is precisely what the animal is doing when it treats that home as its own. Exotic animals are therefore dangerous to people's health and unpleasant to be around, and both drawbacks come with the animal rather than arising from how it is kept. There is no reason for an average person to have one as a pet.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Exotic pet owners can prevent contracting diseases from their pets by avoiding direct contact with their animals and practicing proper sanitation. Reptiles and amphibians can only spread salmonella if someone comes into contact with their saliva, which is rare. If an owner keeps a regular cleaning schedule for their pet and enclosure and washes their hands after direct contact, then the risk of disease is small.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] There are many ways to circumvent the risk of disease.