primates

[wolfy-hound]

Just because people don't agree with your opinion doesn't mean they aren't listening.
I wouldn't pull my dog's fangs if they were a biter, or a cat's. It's a lemur, and you're forcing it to interact with people, and now that it's getting older and behaving like a lemur should, you want to pull it's teeth out?
You have a wild exotic. It's not a pet, and now that it's older(about the same age as most primate "pets" that need new homes.. go figure), it's behaving exactly as it should.
Pulling it's fangs is not a answer to modify the behavior. Treat it as a lemur, instead of a pet. You treat your marmosets like wild exotics, right? Or did you pull all their fangs too?

[DSGB]

Would you get a pet cobra and cut its fangs out to modify its behavior?

How would you like it if someone cut out some of your teeth.

[katiadarling]

When I worked at the humane society a majority of the cats that were surrendered for litter box issues were also declawed. My parent's found their cat as a stray and he had been declawed in the most terrible way (just nubs of toes left). He was always very picky about his litterbox usage and disliked having his feet touched.

I used to work at a zoo and we did an interactive presentation in the lemur exhibit (ring tailed and red ruffs) where we'd go out and give the lemurs food and talk to the public about their natural history and behavior. One time the lemurs got too excited about the food and started taking swipes at us to get the food faster. That was the end of those presentations. I really don't think that lemurs are an appropriate animal to expect to behave in a public presentation setting. They are really neat animals, but they're wild animals. If you take their fangs away and it doesn't hurt as much when they bite someone, it doesn't mean that you took their fear or their aggression away, it just means that you lessened impact of their behavior.

[Purrrfect9]

Now that I re-read my post about the defanging, relating it to declawing really wasn't that accurate of an analogy. I was in a hurry and really wasn't thinking about what would be most accurate to compare it to. All in all, it's similar to pulling human teeth. It's not my decision to get the lemurs defanged, it's my boss, who is in charge of our company and she feels like it's an unnecessary risk to kids and people that we show to. The only use that lemurs have for these fangs is to fight, and they leave very nasty cuts that easily get infected. They serve no purpose in their eating habits at all. We get them removed also for the safety of our troop, where the worst damage that they could do is scratch with their fingernails and pull hair out. Can they still bite? Yes, but the wound is much less severe and most likely will not cause a medical emergency for them. All of our lemurs were put under anesthesia (Isoflurine for those who care), and they are pulled at an age where the tooth has not yet fused to the mandible/maxilla, so it literally just pops right out. Their mouth is a little tender for the rest of the day, but after 24-36 hours they are back to eating hard, crunchy solids without any signs of distress (we fed soft fruits during the 24-36 hour period). Now personally I believe that if someone were to wait until the fangs had fully come in and had fused to the jaw, then yes, it would be cruel and very dangerous to attempt to pull them out, mainly due to the risk of breaking their jaw in the process. But if done early enough there is no cutting involved what so ever. On another note, if you are going to do ANYTHING surgical with any pet, you should always research the vet that you are going to take it to. Like human doctors, there are vets that are specialized for surgeries, so specialized in fact that it goes down to the species. We wouldn't choose just any DVM to do any surgery (unless immediate medical emergency). We go to Dr. Kat who's 2 hours east of Denton, TX, who is one of the nations leading vets for all species of lemurs. That's a 5 hour drive from where we are located.

Also, about getting a venomous snake defanged, I would never get one defanged because the venom helps aid in the digestion process. Fangs in lemurs are used for fighting only.

Edit-
Also, I do not keep marmosets, I keep wallabies and red roo's.

[littleindiangirl]

I've seen the effects of declawing on a cat, both psychologically and physically

A declawing done incorrectly will hurt cats, just as many things will do when done incorrectly. Done early enough by a competent surgeon, the cats are fine.

I too have seen declawing on many cats, and have seen them go on to live happy well adjusted lives,(and still manage to bring home dead animals on a daily basis).

Your view of it being barbaric is your opinion, and I respect that. However, I do not agree that every case of declawing, especially when done properly, is going to destroy or diminish the cats quality of life like you imply, my own proof of that is simply all the declawed cats I have come across and owned that were quite happy and healthy.

You could try to say my cats were miserable, but I ask you to present some scrap of evidence besides mere speculation on your part.

[Purrrfect9]

that right there is a cop-out. you come in here and make some blanket statement and when you are called on it you take your ball and go home? never took you for being that immature.

when did i say that i wasn't listening. if you can explain to me how removing the end of a cat's toe at the last knuckle is NOT barbaric, then by all means give it a shot. I've seen the effects of declawing on a cat, both psychologically and physically and like i said there is a reason that Europe has banned the practice. I've seen cats that won't use a litter box because it still hurts their paws years later to try to stand on it with their mutilated paws. i've seen a beautiful gentle cat turn into a vicious biter because its claws were removed and it felt very vulnerable and threatened with its first line of defense get taken from it. When it comes to the procedure, in my experience only about 10% of them don't come out of the procedure screwed up in some way.

I'm sorry if this seems like a cop-out to you, but I sincerely hate arguing just for the sake of arguing. Also, I am not here to discuss in detail the effects pre-and post operation of declawing cats. That was an inaccurate analogy on my part and I apologize for that. By your 'tone' / choice of wording in your posts, you appeal to be very hostile and emotional, which if this discussion were to take place in person, generally leads to the tendency of people defending and advancing their argument, rather than listen to what the original point was (which was not declawing cats in this case). That's how I came to the conclusion of you not listening. If I was wrong, I once again apologize. If you would like to continue a discussion on the negative outcomes of declawing, then let's make a new thread about it instead of taking away from the OP's original intention.

Also, as far as the blanket statement, I NEVER suggested that the OP go and get any of his primates defanged. What I had said was that he needed to watch the behavior of his female lemur towards children, because in my own experience, and as several people in this thread have also agreed out of their own experience or from what they've heard, as lemurs age, they become less and less tolerant of children, aka more aggressive. Ring-Tailed Lemurs are a matriarchal society, and the females are the ones who do all of the actual physical fighting, which is what concerns me the most about having an adult near children. I only shared what my boss/company does with out lemurs when we take them out to do presentations. In Oklahoma, we have very few laws protecting any animal species. If one of our lemurs were to bite a child or adult and if it were severe, which it would be 90% of the time if it had it's fangs, and if the parents were to report it to animal control, animal control would be pretty much obligated to euthanize that animal, especially if the parents made a big enough fuss about the bite. It's as much a safety precaution for the animals from humans as it is a safety precaution for themselves.

[Melicious]

-Shrugs.- I'll stick to herps, and maybe one day, a dog.