Should it be illegal to keep wild animals as exotic pets?
Keeping rare wild animals as exotic pets is a very popular idea around the world and I think people who are trained and have enough resources to keep them as pets must be able to as long as their existence, lifestyle and breeding are closely monitored by a respective agency appointed by the government. The pet owners should also be periodically educated, trained, and be provided with resources to help them take care of their pets. Longtime pet owners should also be invited to educate people interested in owning an exotic pet in the future.
The interest in petting an exotic animal is not uncommon. Most of the people I have met have thought of owning an exotic monkey or a tiger for example. The exotic pet industry is worth about an estimated USD 30.6-42.8 billion annually (Jennah). The infamous Joe Exotic from the tiger king show on Netflix says that he would have cub petting shows in the malls of Oklahoma and Texas, and they would make anywhere between $10,000-$40,000 per show because they would get so many customers (Tiger King). I have been to Dubai and I have seen a leopard in a Lamborghini, and I talked to the locals to find out that it was not new. We don’t even have to go that far. “One of the world’s largest populations of tigers exists not in the wild—but in captivity in the United States. With an estimated 5,000 tigers, the U.S. captive tiger population exceeds the approximately 3,200 tigers in the wild. Only six percent of the US captive tiger population resides in zoos and other facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The rest are found in other private hands—some regulated by the US Department of Agriculture, some under state regulation, and some under virtually no regulation at all” (WWF). We can see from the stats that people have a big interest in keeping an exotic animal in the backyard, so even if there are laws to not let them own them, they will find a way to do it underground and the situation will get much worse.
The current situation and laws regarding their ownership of exotic animals and their protection are nowhere near where it should be. There is no federal law restricting people to buy any exotic animals currently so we have to rely on state and local laws, and it could be perfectly legal and easy to own a tiger for example. Some states have banned tiger possession, some require licensing, but some don’t have any restrictions at all (Bender). People buy cubs easily because there is little to no laws restricting them and they think cubs could make a good pet and gradually they grow very big and they require much more care, time and resources which the owners don’t have and they get tempted with the thousands of dollars offered for their tiger’s skin, fur and teeth and some tigers get killed because of this. And the same thing happens in underground or backyard zoos. According to Alicia Prygoski, the legislative affairs manager at Animal Legal Defense Fund — a group dedicated to furthering animal welfare, “Cubs are bred at a rapid rate in inhumane conditions all over the country to fuel the “cub-petting” industry.” (qtd. in Bender). Those cubs once they get old suddenly are not fit for the industry anymore and the illegal trading starts. And this is not just with big cats. Ball pythons are pretty common exotic pets too. They are a little bit easy to take care of in comparison to other exotic animals but still, they have specific requirements regarding diet, lighting, hygiene, space, temperature, and humidity (Jennah). There was a recent review involving more than 5000 individual Ball pythons in North America and Europe. The survey found that most of the privately-owned ball pythons were not receiving their minimum welfare conditions. The same study also found out that owners were selling the pythons online without providing proper guidance and tips to take care of them (Jennah). It is not just the animals that are getting affected. There has been a case where an employee of an underground zoo in Oklahoma lost his arm because he was attacked by a tiger in their zoo (Heldman). There has been an incident in Zanesville, Ohio where an owner of a backyard zoo deliberately set loose wild animals from his backyard zoo. 49 animals had to be killed by the police because of the threat. It included 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 Lions, 6 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 3 mountain lions, 2 wolves, and a baboon (Caron). There were no humans harmed because of the quick action from the police but if the laws are left how they are right now, this will happen again, and next time hundreds of people will lose their lives. Tigers as well as most exotic animals’ people are interested in might look majestic and beautiful, but they are equally dangerous so petting them without enough knowledge or experience is equally deadly for the animal as well as the owner and getting them in the wrong hands could be very dangerous.
We can see that there is a very big interest in keeping exotic animals as pets and there are very little to no laws to protect them in some parts of the US. This is a problem that requires an immediate solution. The solution can be complex, but it is required. Dutch government addressed this problem in 2014 – 2016 to some extent. 280 types of mammals were identified as privately owned in The Netherlands in 2014. Then in 2015, there was an implementation of a positive list (Hamers). What that means is that the animals listed in the positive list have little to no risk and can be freely owned whereas animals not on that list would have very specific, independent requirements to own them. For example, if you wanted to own a Fennec Fox in the Netherlands, the housing space of this animal must have a substrate depth greater than or equal to 20 cm and it must be loose enough for it to dig. The Netherlands has classified this animal as a low-risk level if the specific housing features are maintained (Hamers). We must also have specific housing requirements for different animals according to their needs and there must be an agency constantly monitoring the owners to make sure that they are meeting the requirements.
People all around the world are very interested in petting exotic animals. I think the government should let them do it if they meet all the conditions. Some of the animals’ people might be interested in petting might be endangered, and any negligence in monitoring them can even lead to their extinction. But banning their ownership is not right either. Joe Exotic, a well-known tiger breeder from the Netflix series tiger king has used tiger cubs to keep the attention of the audience in many anti-drug awareness speeches (Tiger King). I think that is a really great way to give back to the government because it is really hard to convince young people to go to anti-drug awareness speeches for example. But if there is a tiger show with the speech where you can hold tiger while someone educates you, it would increase the participation a lot hence making more people aware about issues. The US government should learn from other countries as well as implement their ideas and I think after a few meetings with a team of animal researchers and lawmakers, I am sure they can come up with a system with specific requirements to own each endangered species and ed an agency to monitor them. The agency as well as other longtime pet owners should also periodically educate new pet owners. Also, there should be a regular mandatory meeting for the registered pet owners which also welcomes people interested to own an exotic animal in the future where they are educated by other longtime pet owners, provided with an opportunity to interact with each other and given pet food, cages, etc. so that they will have more knowledge on their pet ownership and get encouragement to continue their journey. A plan could be formulated that requires interested people to pet an ocelot for example if they are interested in petting a tiger. Then they could be evaluated based on the care that ocelot gets, and that period would train them to actually take care of a wild feline and this would ensure the potential wild cat owners’ interest too since it is not easy to take care of a wild feline. A plan like this should be specifically formulated for all exotic animals. If the owners follow all the rules and ensure the well beings of their pets, I think they are better off as pets than a showpiece in public zoos or a circus and the public should be encouraged to pet an exotic instead of banning their possession.