I feel like in the US we have well-defined categories of what kinds of animals we would consider to be pets and what kinds of animals should be “wild”.
A visit to the Yogyakarta Animal Market will challenge those assumptions.
If you’re in the market for a messenger owl, this little guy is more of a Pigwidgen than a Hedwig
There are a lot of birds for sale.
It seemed like there were a thousand of these little brown ones
Some familiar (pigeons, parakeets), some more exotic.
Is there anything more exotic than a hot pink baby chick?
And lots of beautiful cages.
There is a fish section, which you know was Hugo’s favorite part.
Baby koi
Jars of colorful bettas
There were kittens and puppies and bunnies to pet.
And if you venture to the back part, sometimes you see some monkeys.
Did you know that monkeys like to eat carrots?
Last time I came here, there were two baby monkeys that looked very sad and probably should not have been separated from their mothers. These seemed healthy and calm.
This market leaves me with mixed feelings. Seeing fish in aquariums or many kinds of birds in cages don’t seem unusual, but monkeys, squirrels, bats, and owls are the kinds of things I’d rather see in trees.
