Besides dogs and cats, various other animals are more or less popular as pets in the Netherlands. It is importance to the veterinary practitioner to know which diseases may be transmitted to man by these animals. Of the viral zoonoses. rabies constitutes a menace to man, in which dogs and, to a less extent, cats supply a link between man and free-living wild animals. Another viral zoonosis in which interest was centered in recent years, is lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM) caused by a virus which often is latent in mice but which may also be detected in young hamsters. A human disease caused by a pathogenic agent which should not be classified with the viruses, is chlamydiosis (psittacosis, ornithosis), which disease is usually transmitted to man by psittacine birds or pigeons. Of the above disease, the pathogenic agents, the clinical pictures in man and animals, the mode of transmission and possible preventive and therapeutic measures are discussed. Finally, the risk of transmission of viral zoonoses by less current "pets" is stressed.