A Sims 3 expansion pack was released a couple of days ago, whereby people here in Sunset Valley can now have pet animals. (I will not be getting a pet any time soon – can’t really afford it, as Janet and I are uncomfortably close to eating dog food ourselves.) That same software also allows certain wild animals to roam out in our undeveloped areas. I think it will be a positive thing. Avoiding biosystem contamination from invasive non-native species is a reasonable concern, but the native fauna in Sunset Valley have already somehow been reduced to only fish and insects. Sometimes I see birds overhead, but they do not alight in the Valley. Our ecosystem has some vacant niches, I’m sure.

At just the same time that our world admitted animals, Mr. Terry Thompson of the Outer world, also under financial strain, released a lot of big, big animals that he had kept as pets — and then killed himself. A huge, sickening number of those animals had to be shot by people who hated having to do it, but… suppose you’re a deputy sheriff and there are tigers on the loose right now… it’s all dreadfully screwed up, and the only tool you have for un-screwing it is a shotgun, and people could die if you don’t use it. I would hate that.

I know I’m not the first to say this, but – if Mr. Thompson was worried about who would take care of his Pets after his death, why didn’t he ask someone? We Sims would have been happy to take them. I don’t know what it would require in terms of technology, and life within a computer game has some severe constraints. But my heart tells me to try to offer them some choice better than to be killed in the middle of the night in Zanesville, Ohio by a deputy with tears in his eyes, for no better reason than that somebody screwed up.

Lindsay Wildlife Museum, http://www.wildlife-museum.org, takes an approach I hope you will look at. They are in the States –- in Northern Califonia you can visit them. But even if you are nowhere near there, please look at their fine Web site, and see what they do. Then you will have some good context to understand what your own neighbourhood has, or might need. Quoting from the Lindsay site:

“Lindsay Wildlife Museum’s wildlife hospital is the oldest and one of the largest rehabilitation centers in the United States. It treats more than 5,000 injured and orphaned wild animals each year. The hospital is a pioneer in wildlife rehabilitation and many now-standard protocols across the country were developed here.

“More than 98 percent of the animals treated at our hospital are admitted due to adverse contact with human activity. Animals are brought to the museum by the public and the county animal service agency. All services provided by the wildlife hospital are free of charge, although donations are gratefully accepted. Along with treating animals, the museum educates the public to prevent similar problems in the future.” [emphasis is mine – Ronnie.]