It’s undeniable-baby wild animals are adorable. It’s understandable why you might think that raising a wild animal as a pet is a tempting and exciting idea. However, when wild animals grow up they can become dangerous and very unpredictable. Stories about wild animals who have been kept as pets attacking and injuring people, often fatally, are frequently in the news. Even small animals such as squirrels can deliver a nasty bite or scratch when their natural instincts kick in.
Physical injury is just one of the risks of keeping a wild animal. Many wild animals carry zoonotic diseases (illnesses that can be transferred from animals to humans), such as Brucellosis, Salmonella and Ringworm. They often carry parasites, as well, that can be transmitted to humans or other pets. Any way you look at it, keeping a wild animal as a pet is a dangerous proposition.
Wild animals have evolved over the course of millions of years as independent, free-living beings. They have needs, instincts and behaviors that are inseparably tied both to their appropriate habitat, and to a free-living state. It is inappropriate and inhumane to force a wild animal to live the captive life of a pet.
Reasons Why Exotic Pets Are Illegal And Why They Shouldn't Be
No matter how well designed a captive habitat may be, it can never replicate the freedom that wild animals require to be complete beings. A permanently captive wild animal is doomed to a life of confusion and stress as he attempts to reconcile instinctual urges with foreign surroundings. Wild animals belong in the wild.
Habituation is a process by which animals gradually get used to situations they would normally avoid. Many animals are easily habituated if they are not handled and managed properly during rehabilitation. Coupled with the unpredictable nature of wild animals, habituation is dangerous for humans and wild animals. Habituated animals cannot be returned to the wild, because they are likely to become nuisances or an outright danger to humans, which in turn jeopardizes the animals.
If they are strongly habituated to humans, wild animals may not be able to survive on their own. and other wildlife rehabilitators go to great lengths to avoid habituating the animals in their care. If you try to rehabilitate a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal without the proper training, skills, permits and knowledge of how to avoid habituating that animal, you may ruin the animal’s chance for being released back to the wild.
The Exotic Animal Trade Tragedy
What if I have been caring for a wild animal and now I need to bring the animal to for rehabilitation?
Sometimes well-meaning people bring wild animals to after they have illegally kept the animals for a period of time. This occurs when someone is not aware of wildlife rehabilitation or the law, and is just trying to help a wild animal in distress. Regardless of how long you have been caring for the animal, it is best to take him to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator right away. The sooner the animal can be evaluated and given the proper care by experienced, professional personnel, the greater the chance the animal may be returned to the wild.
Calculating the Cost of an Animal Companion How much will it cost to care for a new animal companion? It’s important to... Read moreHundreds of millions of birds, mammals, fish and reptiles are kept as exotic pets around the world. Most owners buy them because they love animals – but sadly a wild animal’s needs and natural behaviours cannot be met in our homes
We Must Stop The Exotic Pet Trade ... And You Can Do Your Part
An exotic pet is a pet that’s wild and not domesticated. Domestication is a selective breeding process that takes place over thousands of years. Snakes, parrots, iguanas, tortoises, and even otters – these are just some of the species suffering as pets around the world. Domesticated species include dogs, cats, and farm animals like horses, pigs and chickens.
There are legal and illegal sides to the exotic pet trade. But legality doesn’t matter; captive-bred or wild caught – it’s all cruel. And this trade is growing fast.
The journey for an animal in the exotic pet trade is cruel – and often deadly. Either poached from the wild or bred in captivity on a farm, exotic pets are often shipped huge distances before reaching their final destination. Sadly, as many as four out of five animals caught in the illegal wildlife trade will die in transit, or within a year in captivity.
Wild Or Exotic Animals
It limits the natural behaviour of an animal and places both their mental and physical wellbeing at risk. They often lack adequate shelter, food, room to roam, and environment control to keep their body at the temperature it needs to be.
We believe that wild animals belong in the wild, not as pets. The reality is that a life in captivity is a world away from a life in the wild.
We know that most people buy exotic pets because they love animals. Animals bring joy to our lives, so why wouldn't we want them to be a part of our lives every day at home? Sadly, the truth is any wild animal that finds itself caught in the exotic pet trade experiences suffering.
Animals That Are Surprisingly Legal To Own As Pets In The Us
Despite our best efforts we are just not equipped to provide wild animals with the care necessary to fulfil all their intrinsic needs. While keeping some exotic pets may be less cruel than others, no wild animal can have its needs met entirely in captivity.
If you already own an exotic animal, it’s important to seek expert advice from a veterinarian who specialises in the care of your animal to ensure you’re meeting as many of its welfare needs as possible.
What we uncovered in our research is that when breeders or pet stores sell exotics to the public, in most cases very little, if any at all, information about the best way to care for the animal is given out.
Wild Animals At Uk Homes Include Lions, Zebras And Crocodiles
We encourage you to continue to give your pet the best life possible, for as long as you can. We also ask you to commit to not purchasing another exotic pet in the future or breeding the one you own.
Make sure you thoroughly investigate it and find out if the rescue centre is managed responsibly and in a transparent manner. This is to ensure none of the wild animals under their care are re-entering the commercial exotic pet or entertainment trade.
Many of these animals are not native to our ecosystems and will become invasive, resulting in a disruption in the biodiversity, and most likely the death of many other animals.
The Fight To Bring A Deadly Illegal Industry To Justice
Even with a quick glance through Instagram, YouTube Weibo or Facebook you’ll find hundreds of photos and videos showcasing everything from tigers and sugar gliders, to ball pythons and turtles, with thousands of likes on each post.
Our research shows that the ‘cute’ videos prospective purchasers see shared across social media influences their decision to buy a wild animal: a full 15% of surveyed exotic pet owners found inspiration for their purchase via YouTube videos.
We know that social media is a largely unregulated marketplace. Many platforms lack policies against the live trade and, in some countries, openly sell wild-caught animals.
Legal Exotic Pets That Pose No Threat To Public Safety
By allowing the trade legally, they have opened the door to unregulated illegal trade in wildlife. Searching online, we found lovebirds for sale as low as USD $3 each, green iguanas for $12, macaws for $19, 000 and even a giraffe for $50, 000.
Wildlife trade is increasing the risks to human and animal health, compromising animal welfare, and placing biodiversity under immense and unsustainable pressure.
You can stand up for wildlife by making a promise to keep wild animals in the wild and not buy them as pets. A wildlife trader cuts the canines of a slow loris with a nail clipper so the animal, which was taken from a forest, will not be able to bite in self-defense. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Owning Wild Animals: Stats On Exotic Pets (infographic)
People often do the wrong things for the right reasons. They may seek the companionship of pets, yet rather than settle for domesticated animals like cats and dogs, they may decide to own members of more exotic species –especially “cute” creatures like slow lorises and binturongs. Wishing to have pets may well be a good thing; opting for exotic pets almost never is.
Even with the best of intentions, most owners of exotic pets simply cannot provide adequate environmental enrichment for captive wild animals that are unsuited for being pets. Arboreal creatures like gibbons that love to roam far and wide in forest canopies end up being confined to small cages. Nocturnal animals like slow lorises and sugar gliders that come truly alive only at night are petted all day long and carried around in bags as if they were inanimate toys. Winged birds like hornbills that love to take to the skies in the wild wind up spending all their time tethered to a post.
Routinely, wild animals owned as pets are also reduced to surviving on inadequate or substandard diets. Insectivores like lorises are often fed only fruit and cereals, or even worse, sugary treats that rot their teeth and damage their health. Many exotic pets slowly waste away or die of preventable diseases. Many others are abandoned to their fate in a nearby forest or dumped at animal shelters after their owners tire of them, since exotic animals rarely make good pets.
Walking Dogs Off Leash And Owning Wild Animals Now Illegal In Uae
Then again, many animals poached from forests never even make it to illegal exotic pet markets in the first place. That’s because their captors frequently treat them with callous brutality,
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