Chinchillas Pros & Cons

Cons:
- Chinchillas can't sweat - Because Chinchillas cannot sweat, they are sensitive to heat. This will raise their core body temperature, and raising it too high will cause cardiac arrest and failure. As such, Chinchillas need to be in a place where the temperature will always be temperate and not near a place where they are exposed to light for long periods or places where it's too cold. Also, because chinchillas can't sweat, fans are useless to chinchillas. If you need to cool a chinchilla down and fast, you need to cool down his environment. If you suspect he's overheating or getting too cold, remove him from the environment to a place that's more temperate and alter where the original place is.
- Chinchillas have a limited diet - Feeding chinchillas anything with too much water in it is a bad idea. This can give the chinchilla painful indigestion. Although you'd love to feed him a bajillion raisins (and he'll love you for it), it's not good for them to eat too many. Do not feed him food that has dessert pellets in it. The chinchilla will just eat the dessert pellets and beg for more food.
- Chinchillas cannot get wet - You should never, ever let a chinchilla get wet unless you have a damn good reason for it. Chinchillas cannot get rid of the water, so the water acts as an insulator which raises the core body temperature and kills the chinchilla. It's also a bad idea to use a hair dryer to take away the water as this will raise his core temperature as well. Use a towel to brush through his fur rigorously every five minutes until you get all of it out. Continue to monitor his fur for possible infections arising from the hair. Do not give the chinchilla a dust bath until he's completely dry. Giving him a dust bath will make things messy and will make it 10x harder to get all the water out.
- Chinchillas need the right kind of wood - Chinchillas have very long teeth that they need to wear down by chewing on wood. The wrong kind of wood is poisonous to them, so you have to watch out which kind of wood to give them.
- Chinchillas need time to become familiar with you - Many people get a chinchilla thinking that they can love them as they would love a dog. This is simply not true. Until the chinchilla becomes accustomed to you, it's a very hands off kind of pet. Many chinchillas as they get older also get more docile, then you can pet him as you want.
- They can be a pain to catch - Trying to catch a chinchilla, while possible, also requires you to think strategically about how to trap him. He'll get really scared when you try to pick him up. Picking him up overhand triggers his natural instincts (as if he's being picked up by a bird). Picking him up underhand is totally cool with him.

Pros:
- Chinchillas know who their owner is - Many chinchillas will look outside of their cage to see if its their owner and, if so, will greet them enthusiastically. Often they can recognize that their owner is coming by his or her gait alone.
- Chinchillas are damn cute - Watching a chinchilla in a dust bath is like watching a little kid eating a snickers bar for the first time. This is how a chinchilla reacts to dust baths. Yes, that's one happy motherf'ucker.
- Chinchillas are extremely resourceful - You cannot let a chinchilla know where his dust bath is! I put my chinchilla's dust bath on my dresser, and I put the chinchilla's cage and stuff in the closet (chinchillas are nocturnal - they love the dark - just make sure they can at least see the sunlight so they can be regular). So, anyway, my chinchilla knew that the dust bath was on the dresser, so while I was letting him run around my room (make sure to chin proof it from things he could get into), he went behind the dresser and scaled the wall with his back against the dresser, then jumped in the dust bath and took a bath. Once I heard him taking the bath, I simply could not stop laughing.
- Chinchillas make you a man - And all the ladies want a man with a cute pet. It's also a good conversation starter with strangers. Saying you have a cat or a dog is boring. Who doesn't? So now you can say you have a chinchilla!

AWESOME...
but...
That's not exactly what I meant.
I meant Pros & Cons for the environment, biodiversity and other species...

I haven't contemplated the existential reason for chinchillas nor their genocide from the planet. Why would anyone?

That's the point...
Chinchillas don't have any really important existential reason.
They don't have any reason to be permanently erased from the planet, also.
They're just fuckin' cute, like it or not.