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This factsheet was completed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Please direct any questions or comments to PETA directly at 757-622-7382 or info@peta.org.
Inside the Exotic Animal Trade
Every year, countless people succumb to the temptation to purchase “exotic” animals like hedgehogs, macaws, lizards, monkeys—even tigers and bears—from stores, auctions, or the Internet to keep as “pets.” But life in captivity often leads rapidly to suffering and death for these animals, who can easily suffer from malnutrition, an unnatural and uncomfortable environment, loneliness, and the overwhelming stress of confinement. The exotic animal trade is deadly for animals we don’t see, too: For every animal who makes it to the store or auction, countless others die along the way.
Animals Suffer from Capture and Transport
The journey for many of these animals begins in places like Australia, Africa, and in the jungles of Brazil. Closer to home, 20,000 prairie dogs are yanked from their homes in Texas every year and shipped off to “pet” stores.1
What few laws and penalties exist hardly dissuade dealers when compared to the kind of money to be made from smuggling: Prices on animals’ heads range from tens of thousands of dollars for a hyacinth macaw to a few bucks for a giant cockroach.2,3
Taken from their natural habitats by trappers, animals may change hands several times, through intermediaries and/or exporters, and throughout must endure grueling transport.4 Parrots have their beaks and feet taped and are stuffed into plastic tubes that can easily be hidden in luggage, and stolen bird and reptile eggs are concealed in special vests so that couriers can bypass x-ray machines at airports.5 Baby turtles have been taped so that they are trapped inside their shells and shoved by the dozen into tube socks, and infant pythons have been shipped in CD cases.6 Their chances of survival? “We have a mortality of about 80 or 90 per cent,” says a German Customs agent.7 Goliath frogs smuggled into California from Cameroon were so overcrowded in their cardboard boxes that their skin absorbed their feces and poisoned them to death.8 Four exotic birds died when a California man tried to smuggle them in his suitcase.9 Japanese tourists had 1,000 stag beetles and other insects hidden in cereal and biscuit packets, and a third of them had already died when authorities opened the luggage.10
Ignorance Breeds Misery
Those animals who arrive alive are often subject to inadequate care from people who are so unprepared or unable to provide for the needs of species that are so far from their natural habitat that they will, in all likelihood, die or be abandoned by their caretakers. For instance, Virginia Reptile Rescue estimates that of the millions of iguanas imported annually, 75 percent are dead within a year.11 Animal control authorities confiscated a crippled cougar cub from a Buffalo, N.Y., basement: The animal, kept by a teenager, had not been fed a diet sufficiently high in calcium and suffered from deformed legs.12 Hedgehogs, who roll themselves into tight balls, can easily become injured if children try to “uncurl” them or if cats roll them across floors. Sugar gliders are very social animals and, if not given enough attention, may self-mutilate or die of loneliness.13
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association says that “zoos are being asked by irresponsible owners to relocate displaced and unwanted animals . . . [but] because most zoos do not accept donations—there are literally thousands of exotic animals that remain in unsuitable conditions.”14 Some people sneak animals into exhibits—and risk infecting zoo populations with diseases—or leave animals in front of zoo gates; usually these animals are euthanized. Jack Cover, a curator at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, says, “We’d have to have two or three warehouses to handle the donations we get calls on.”15
Others try to return unwanted animals to their natural homes—or simply abandon them along rural roads—but without appropriate rehabilitation, these animals will starve or fall victim to the elements or predators.
Disease Threat
The monkeypox outbreak that affected dozens of people in the Midwest was traced to a Gambian rat from Africa, who was housed with prairie dogs in an Illinois animal dealer’s shed.16 Prairie dogs also have been known to carry the plague and tularemia.17
The herpes B virus can be transferred from macaques to humans; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that “this risk makes macaques unsuitable as pets.”18
Human contact with reptiles and other exotic animals accounts for 90,000 cases of salmonellosis a year.19 One Minnesota infectious disease expert had his son’s African dwarf hedgehog tested for diseases: The lab found three strains of salmonella that had not previously been seen in the state.20
Parrots can transfer potentially deadly psittacosis to humans.21 Exotic Newcastle disease (END), which devastated whole flocks of chickens and turkeys in the ’70s, was believed to have been brought to this country from South American parrots smuggled in for the “pet” trade.22 An outbreak of END in Florida resulted in the deaths of 8,000 parrots in 1980.23 More recently, Mexican parrots smuggled into California are suspected to have caused an outbreak of END, leading to the government-sponsored slaughter of more than 3 million chickens and turkeys.24 “We’re not trained to detect diseases,” says a U.S. Fish and Wildlife inspection officer.25
Reverse zoonosis, or the transfer of human diseases to animals, can be a threat as well. Measles, tuberculosis, and hepatitis A and B are believed to be of human origin, but can infect nonhuman primates who come into contact with humans.26
Few Government Regulations
The racket in buying and selling protected wildlife is now suspected to be larger than arms smuggling and second only to drug trafficking.27 The United States is the main destination for exotic and endangered wildlife.28 One report estimates that the reptile trade alone has jumped by 2000 percent since the early ’90s.29 National, state, and local governments are passing laws that prohibit the capture and selling of certain species, but most of these regulations are poorly enforced and are designed to protect humans from disease, not ensure the humane handling of the animals.
There are thousands of tigers, lions, and other big cats held captive in the U.S.30 “A 600-pound tiger will do what it wants, when it wants to,” says Tippi Hedren, the former actor who now runs a big-cat sanctuary in California, “You buy this cute creature at 8 weeks old. After six months, it’s torn your house apart and taken a good chunk out of you.”31 There have been dozens of captive big-cat attacks on humans in the past decade, including the killing of a 3-year-old boy by his grandfather’s tiger, a lion who killed several dogs and trapped a child in his room, and a Bengal tiger who tore off the arm of a 4-year-old boy.32 Such attacks have spurred a dozen states to ban exotic cats, yet the federal government does not regulate large cats as companions.33
It can be difficult to sort out what government regulations exist to control the obvious influx of exotic animals into the U.S. The CDC handles importation of animals that may pose a disease threat to humans, specifically cats, dogs, turtles, and nonhuman primates.34 Unfortunately, according to one of its officers, “there are all kinds of exotic species that may be unknown vectors of human disease.”35
Endangered species are supposed to be monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), but smugglers find ways around inspections. Protected species may be hidden among legal animals or in with dangerous species so that an officer might not want to thoroughly hand-inspect a shipment.36 The USFWS also suffers from a lack of resources: “With the number of inspectors, we are able to physically inspect 25% of wildlife shipments,” says one federal wildlife inspector.37 Penalties for violations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are stipulated by individual countries, and the punishments range from short jail sentences to fines. “People simply pay it and continue to break the law,” according to one CITES representative.38
Once animals reach the U.S., there are no federal regulations over private “ownership” of wild animals. Such laws are left up to state and county governments but are rarely enforced.39 New York City, for instance, has had restrictions on wild companion animals (such as porcupines, ferrets, and iguanas) for years, “[but] it appears the law is frequently skirted or ignored,” according to The New York Daily News.40,41
Consider a More Suitable Companion
Never buy exotic animals from dealers or pet shops. Animal shelters and rescue groups are filled with dogs and cats who need good homes. Support legislation that would make owning exotic animals illegal in your community and prohibit the interstate sale of exotic animals.
If you are concerned about the welfare of an exotic animal in your community, contact the local humane society. Sometimes animal control officials conduct investigations only after receiving complaints from neighbors.
References
1Jodi Wilgoren, “Monkeypox Casts Light on Rule Gap for Exotic Pets,” The New York Times, 10 Jun. 2003.
2Kevin G. Hall, “Trafficking of Animals Becoming Big Business,” The Virginian-Pilot, 16 Aug. 2001: A1.
3“Feeling Lonely? Snuggle Up to a Pet Cockroach,” China Daily, 20 May 2003.
4Dilys Roe, Teresa Mulliken, et al., “Making a Killing or Making a Living? Wildlife Trade, Trade Controls and Rural Livelihoods,” Biodiversity and Livelihoods Issues, IIED and TRAFFIC, 6(2002): 18-19.
5Hall.
6“Animal Underworld,” Panorama, narr. Tom Mangold, BBC, 25 Feb. 2001.
7Ibid.
8Ibid.
9“Man Sentenced for Monkeys in Pants,” Reuters, 19 Dec. 2002.
10John Wright, “Animal Attraction,” Courier Mail, 8 Feb. 2003.
11Don Oldenburg, “Born to Be Wild,” The Washington Post, 30 Jul. 2003: C01.
12“Sickly Baby Cougar Taken From Suburban Basement,” Buffalo News, 9 Nov. 1995: A11.
13Christina Mehra, “Going Sweet on Sugar Gliders,” VetCentric, 11 Jan. 2001 <>.
14Vicki L. Duckett, “Call of the Wild,” Communiqué, May 2001: 40.
15Douglas Birch, “Zoos Slam Door on Exotic Pets Looking for Homes,” The Baltimore Sun, 17 Jul. 1995: 1B.
16Wilgoren.
17“Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals,” The Baltimore Sun, 11 Jun. 2003.
18Stephanie R. Ostrowski et al., “B-Virus From Pet Macaque Monkeys: An Emerging Threat in the United States?” Emerging Infectious Diseases 1(1998).
19Wayne Pacelle, “Why Take Risks With Exotic Pets?” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 15 Jun. 2003.
20Lauran Neergaard, “Growing Number of Diseases Jump From Animals to Humans,” Associated Press, 9 Jun. 2003.
21David T. Roen, “Newcastle Disease Again Threatens Poultry, Pet Birds, Too,” Lewiston Morning Tribune, 20 Jan. 2003.
22“Exotic Newcastle’s Disease,” Animal Health and Food Safety Services Fact Sheet No.7, Oct. 2002.
23Dr. H.L. Shivaprasad, “Exotic Newcastle Disease in Caged (Exotic) Birds,” Oct. 2002.
24Pacelle.
25“Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals.”
26Daniel S. Shapiro, Boston University School of Medicine, 23 Dec. 2001.
27 “Animal Underworld.”
28Hall.
29“Animal Underworld.”
30Pacelle.
31Tom Vanden Brook, “Exotic Pets Growing More Accessible in USA; So Is Concern to Protect Humans as Well as Beasts,” USA Today, 6 Dec. 2002.
32Erin Kelly, “Attacks on Humans by Wildcats Kept as Pets,” Gannett News Service, 30 Nov. 2002.
33Brook.
34“Importation of Pets and Other Animals Into the United States,” National Center for Infectious Diseases, 16 Aug. 2001.
35 “Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals.”
36“Animal Underworld.”
37Michael Blood, “Critter Crackdown Has No Bite,” New York Daily News, 23 Jun. 2003.
38Hall.
39Nancy Imperiale, “Monkeypox Gives Wake-up Call About Exotic Pets Brought Into Country,” Orlando Sentinel, 1 Jul. 2003.
40Blood.
41Ibid.
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