Animal rights groups have strongly recommended the ACT government ignore a report released in NSW which has suggested more native animals should be allowed into Australian homes.
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A new report from the NSW Independent Biodiversity Legislation Review Panel has recommended their government legislate to allow more native animals, such as birds, reptiles and some mammals, to be kept as pets.
The NSW government has not provided an official response to the recommendation yet, but ACT animal right groups have roundly condemned the idea.
Animal Liberation ACT spokeswoman Carolyn Drew said native animals were wild animals who should be allowed to remain in their habitats.
"To keep them as pets is detrimental to their physical and emotional wellbeing – animals do have emotional lives and it would be like having suburban zoos all over the place and we certainly don't approve of that," she said.
"You have to be very qualified to look after these animals because we've heard pretty horrible stories of people rescuing joeys and then giving them cow's milk, which would kill it.
"So how do you regulate how these people look after these animals once they have them is beyond us."
Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary owner Donna Stepan, based in Queanbeyan, said it was a bad idea given the government was unable to deal with the number of animal cruelty cases as it stood.
"They can't even police the cruelty that happens at the moment, we have to police it," she said. "[There was] a wombat which was being taken to the pub every night and was being given alcohol. There was no authority that went to get the animal, nobody did anything, we had to go and get the animal."
Regional Friends of Wildlife spokesman Philip Machin said even with the current system of licenses and a strict code of conduct there were a number of people getting it wrong.
"People are supposed to buy animals from a licensed breeder but I know of examples where people go out into the wild and grab whatever animal they want. Who knows the difference?" he said.
"The biggest problem with this is that no one's checking and if we allow many more without a licensing system in place how are we to make sure the welfare of the animal is guaranteed?"
A spokesman for Environment Minister Simon Corbell said there were already a range of native animals in the ACT which could be kept without a licence.
"[What] the care required for the species [is] and whether it would be appropriate for it to be kept as a pet [and] where the species would be sourced from as they would need to be bred in captivity, and there are limited options for this," he said.
