Every year, The Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley rescues wild animals from people who keep them as pets, often in very poor and cruel living conditions. Among the animals that got lucky include a starving great horned owl with clipped wings, an American crow on a diet of Arby's roast beef sandwiches and crackers, an albino crow with broken wings, and a red-tailed hawk kept in a tiny cage.

Animals that have been confiscated by the agency are rehabilitated and released in the wild when they are ready. Those who can't be released because of injuries or tameness are often used to help educate people why wild pets should not be kept as pets. The reasons include:

• Confinement is stressful for the animals and can lead to weakened immune systems and death.
• Wild animals kept as pets may engage in self-mutilation out of boredom.
• Wild animals 'imprint'' on humans as their role models and lose their ability to survive on their own.
  
• Captive wild animals require specialized diets.
• Wild animals can be very destructive to furniture and may attack people.
• Wild animals can transmit a variety of diseases to humans, including rabies and roundworms.
• It is against the law.