This week: The plight of the chinchilla We see quite a lot of exotic animals at the clinic compared with 10 years ago. The market for exotics has steadily grown to the point where on some days, 50 per cent of our patients are exotic animals. These include rabbits, turtles, hamsters, birds, fish, lizards, snakes and, last but not least, chinchillas. It was in Hong Kong, of all places, that I saw my first chinchilla. It is native to the Chilean Andes, so it was surprising to find them in humid Hong Kong. They are banned in Australia, so we weren't taught much about them at vet school there. Ten years ago, chinchillas were still fairly rare in Hong Kong, but they were made famous by a notable Japanese cartoon that characterised them as cute. After that, their popularity progressively increased and we vets were suddenly seeing more of them, so I had to learn more about them to be able to treat them effectively. I was surprised to find out about their turbulent and tragic history. As usual in the animal kingdom, their tragedy had a decidedly human element. Their story starts back before Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, in a little-known aboriginal culture called the Chincha. The Chincha prized the chinchilla both as a food source and for their luxurious fur. The Chincha were conquered by the Inca empire and the chinchilla was one of the spoils of war. Chinchilla fur was used extensively and exclusively by the Inca royalty. The pelts were used to decorate the royal chambers and worn during ceremonies. The Spaniards then conquered and annihilated the Inca empire and the chinchilla arrived in Europe, where fur was already a popular commodity. North America had the beaver fur trade, and other furry mammals were hunted to extinction. In the southern continent, the Spaniards named the 'chinchilla' and soon robes of it donned the royalty of Europe. The general populace took to the chinchilla in the 1700s and by the 1800s and 1900s, the animals were being trapped in massive numbers in South America and exported to Europe. To slow down the alarming decline in chinchilla numbers, the South American authorities introduced tariffs on all fur exports and, when these failed to slow the slaughter, a ban was finally imposed on the killing and trapping of wild chinchillas, with captive breeding introduced to supply the fur trade. An American named Mathias Chapman working in Chile in 1918 saw his first chinchilla and was quickly captivated by this beautiful and inquisitive little animal. He got permission to export 11 to California, where he built the world's first chinchilla ranch. Some would say this was a good thing for the wild chinchilla, as breeding them for their fur and meat was cheaper than hunting them in the wild. They even found it was possible to breed them to produce the many colour variations we see today. I would say captive breeding was a very bad thing for the chinchilla because they suffered greatly in captivity. They were put in very crowded and unsanitary conditions and used as breeding machines or killed for their fur. Those past their useful breeding age had their necks snapped and were replaced by another poor beast. Chinchillas select their mates for life and unlike other rodent-like animals, both the mother and father play a role in rearing their young. In these captive environments, the male was forced to lead a polygamous life and never allowed to come into contact with his young. This is cruel and unnatural. In some countries, such as Britain, it is illegal to run a chinchilla ranch for pelts, but there are still many in both the UK and Hong Kong who keep large breeding stocks for the pet market. I consider chinchillas to be exotic. Although they are relatively easy to keep, they have some very specific husbandry requirements. With good living conditions, chinchillas make good pets and, more important, are content and happy. The age of intensively breeding chinchillas for pelts should be consigned to the past. It is also important that breeding for the pet trade be done in a humane and responsible manner. Good selective breeding, not just for colour but also for good dentition, is essential. It has become more common for pet chinchillas to have problems with elongation of the teeth, which end up cutting the mouth, leading to pain, and eventually starvation and death. As with all commonly kept pets, there is a steady stream of irresponsible owners that end up abandoning their animals after becoming bored with them, so there are usually many abandoned chinchillas up for adoption. I have three chinchillas and they are all adopted and dearly loved - all of them would have been euthanised if no one had been there to adopt them.