CHINA / Odd News
The young opt for reptile pets
(cri)
Updated: 2007-07-24 14:30
A girl plays with a little water snake, twined around her arm, at a night
market on a downtown Yantai market, east China's Shangdong Province on
Sunday night, July 22, 2007. [shm.com.cn]
More and more young people in China have become obsessed with reptile
pets, like little water snakes, mini-crocodiles and lizards, as
traditional pets like cats and dogs are now considered outdated.
According to Tuesday's shm.com.cn reports, over 100-thousand people
across the country have registered as online members of a "strange pets"
forum over the internet.
The website report says that one reason why people adopt reptile pets is
that they love them dearly and just regard them as up-close. What's more,
keeping such a strange pet can satisfy their need to express their own
unique personality and novel take on today's "fashionable" society.
A fashionably dressed girl, for example, was seen playing with a little
water snake, twined around her arm, at a downtown night market in Yantai,
east China's Shangdong Province on Sunday Night, the website reports.
A shopkeeper at the market said most of his customers are young people,
especially girls. Such reptile pets never bite because they are tamed, he
added.
However, a surgeon expert warns that it is dangerous for people who are
unfamiliar with the nature of reptile animals to keep pets like snakes
and lizards, because their innate aggressiveness cannot be gauged from
their appearance. He said such reptile animals may carry pathogens and
helminthes that are harmful to human health.
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