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Captive Exotics and Wild Animals as Pets
1. Should individuals keep wild or exotic animals as pets?
No. Wild and exotic (non-native) animals are unsuitable for home rearing and handling. They have complex needs that are difficult to meet. Most individuals have neither the finances nor the experience to care for them properly. It has been estimated that 90% are dead within the first two years of captivity. Many wild animals forced into a domestic situation cause injury to humans, especially children. Others, if released into the environment, can cause irreversible and costly damage to our ecosystem.
2. When is captivity justified?
Wild animals should only be kept in captivity by professional zoological facilities. The only individuals who should be allowed to have wild animals are licensed wildlife rehabilitators and certain breeders. In both cases, they should demonstrate a thorough knowledge of their field and an ability to care for the animal humanely.
3. Why are public health and safety a concern?
Every year, privately owned wild animals seriously injure or kill humans. Pet snakes have suffocated babies; raccoons have killed children; and lions have mauled their owners. Individuals legitimately concerned about wild animals being kept in their neighborhoods regularly seek assistance in dealing with this problem.
Animals in traveling acts also present considerable danger to the public. One particularly notorious act involved a wrestling bear that, though muzzled and declawed, managed to bite off fingers and break bones.
Furthermore, wild and exotic animals carry a number of diseases that are transmissible to humans, including rabies, tuberculosis, hepatitis, tularemia, leptospirosis, salmonella, and ringworm, and other parasites.
4. How does the exotic wild animal trade cause environmental damage?
Wild animals often escape; others are abandoned by their owners. If they survive and become established in an environment where they do not belong, they compete with the resident animals for the limited resources of the area, in some cases completely overtaking and displacing the native animals, much to the detriment of the ecosystem. A classic example is the introduction of the Indian mongoose into Hawaii to eradicate rats in the sugar cane fields. The mongoose soon turned to feasting on other crops and on other animals, thereby pushing a number of native species to near-extinction.
These wild animals also bring diseases to which domestic or native wild animals have no immunity, such as deadly Newcastle disease, rabies, and brucellosis.
5. What does the future hold for a wild/exotic animal in captivity?
Most owners are ignorant of
a wild animal's needs. Their local veterinarian can neither properly
diagnose nor effectively treat health problems. The animal's behavior is
usually misunderstood and often radically altered in captivity as a result
of inappropriate care; in order to domesticate the animal, the owner resorts
to such "corrective measures" as defanging, declawing, and castration. When
at last the owner decides to get rid of the animal, it is usually impossible
to find her a new home. Obviously, other individuals are no better equipped
than the original owner to care for her; reputable zoos, for a variety of
reasons, generally do not accept such animals, and facilities that will take
them must be regarded with suspicion. The few sanctuaries that exist are
often stretched to the breaking point, and local animal shelters are
ill-equipped to handle anything other than the occasional raccoon.
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