What do you think about when you hear the word pet? You probably don’t think about a large tortoise or a flamingo. Although it may be hard to imagine, these kinds of exotic animals are kept as pets by many different people around the globe. People today can privately own a wide variety of exotic animal species, including everything from peafowl to skunks. But is it good for these kinds of animals to be kept as simple house pets? Although you do see cases where people are able to competently care for exotic animals, you also see many cases where they are unprepared to care for such animals which far too often results in the animals’ death. This is a sad but very true fact, and it supports the idea that we shouldn’t be allowed to own exotic pets. However there is a counter to that argument, which is supported by the fact that some people are prepared for these animals; in the end it all comes down to the fact that we have a lack of information over which exotic animals make suitable pets, and how to properly care for these types of pets. So what is required for us to keep these animals healthy and happy in captivity?
In order for these animals to stay happy in captivity their caretakers need to cover at least three major needs, these are social, habitat, and health. According to an article from the West Texas A and M: Department of Veterinary Medicine titled “Exotic Pets: What To Know Before You Buy” “Exotic pets typically need special caging, specialized diets, and forms of enrichment…” if someone buys an exotic pet without taking this into account they will probably be surprised when a veterinarian says its sick because it didn’t get to roll in some special kind of sand twice a day. Speaking of veterinarians, that’s another part of the previously mentioned health needs, not every vet know to care for exotic pets such as iguanas, porcupines, and sugar gliders. Because of this, one major thing any would be pet owner needs to think about is if there is a vet nearby that can provide the proper medical treatment for this animal. Their next concern is the habitat, which could be both expensive and elaborate. The article states “Setting up the animals housing beforehand and making sure that their habitat’s temperature is right is essential to ensure that your pet is immediately placed into an appropriate environment upon arrival,” and “While the pet itself may be inexpensive, the cost of things such as housing, food, supplies, and veterinary care can quickly add up (“Exotic Pets: What To Know…”).” Everything will begin to add up, not only in how much it will cost, but in how much space it will take up within your home; and if you don’t make sure you’re prepared for the animal you may end up creating an unhealthy and possibly lethal environment for it.
Not every person thinks about taking the time to research the proper care techniques for the animal that they plan on purchasing, instead they just go out and buy some exotic animal after seeing a video or picture on the internet. Impulse purchases like this are a gateway to problems for both the animal and the human. For the human, they now have an animal that they are completely unprepared for, and for the animal they now have an inadequate home that is very likely to cause harm to them due to a lack of preparation on the human’s side. Sadly some people buy a large number of these exotic pets and cram them together in a tight space due to their lack of preparation. In the “Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, Volume 17” the authors provide details of how bad the conditions are for the animals that are unlucky enough to end up in overcrowded and inadequate environments. Within one of the articles the authors provide details from when an international wildlife wholesaler had more than 26,000 animals confiscated from them due to the inhumane conditions they were kept in. The article states that “Approximately 80% of the nonhuman animals were identified as grossly sick, injured, or dead, with the remaining in suspected suboptimal condition, (“Morbidity and Mortality of Invertebrates…”)” the article goes on to state that during a six week period following the confiscation the mortality rate for these animals went up to 72%. Next the article goes on to say that “The Causes of morbidity and mortality included cannibalism, crushing, dehydration, emaciation, hypothermic stress, infection, parasite infestation, starvation, overcrowding, stress/injuries, euthanasia on compassionate grounds, and other undetermined causes. (“Morbidity and Mortality of Invertebrates…”)” This is an extreme example of how bad conditions can become for these animals when no one bothers to take the time to actually make sure they are receiving proper care.
Improper care for exotic animals is just as dangerous for the animal as it is for the owner, this is because animals that are treated improperly tend to become aggressive and even violent towards people. This aggression easily becomes the cause for a pet’s owner to be stung, bitten, or crushed by their pet, and these are far too often fatal to the pet’s owner. There is an article in the “Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine” titled “Injuries, Envenomation’s, and Stings from Exotic Pets” that states “Injuries, envenomation’s and stings from exotic pets constitute a small but important component of emerging medical problems. Greater awareness of relevant injuries and medical sequelae from exotic pet keeping may help medics formulate their clinical assessment and advice to patients. (Warwick and Steedman)” This statement is relevant because of how it promotes the idea that instead of preventing people from procuring exotic pets, the government could simply just provide information on how to care for them and how to deal with problems such as injuries that may be caused by such animals. By providing a proper amount of information to the public about exotic animals they could prevent some of the mistreatment that some of these animals experience each day. Just to prove that it is difficult to find this information, attempt to look online for detailed instructions on how to raise and care for flamingos. It’s hard to find much in the way of official instruction manuals, instead, a person would have to trust in the word of strangers on random message boards online. By providing a comprehensible and accurate guide that clearly shows someone the overall cost and care requirements of the exotic animal that they are looking to make into a pet, on top of that this information can help people take the time to think if they actually want that animal or not.
When talking about what kinds of exotic pets’ people may want, it is important to understand which animals will actually do well in captivity. As one might expect, some animals will be able to thrive in captivity and they will very easily develop a companionship with their owner. While others will simply exist around people due to the fact that they are in captivity and cannot leave for the wild whenever they choose to. Animals such as snakes, spiders, scorpions, alligators, bearded dragons, and piranhas are the type’s animals that a person may want to think twice about getting. This is due to the fact that most of these are predators. These types of animals are not called “cold blooded killers” just because it sounds cool, it is because they will not think about how you feel when they take a chance at attacking you. An article from NCBI titled “ExNOTic: Should We Be Keeping Exotic Pets?” which discusses some different types of animals and whether or not they should be kept in captivity states that “As well as the ethical concerns surrounding the trade of these animals, reptiles and amphibians require specialized care and do not make suitable pets. (Grant)” It goes on to say that they are not suitable due to the species specific temperature requirements that they have. On top of this they also have specific diet and social requirements that a majority of people do not understand. Some exotic pets that may be good instead would be rabbits and rodents, although they do contract diseases easily they have a very simple diet and most of the care is just like the diet. Finally, parrots and macaws are a good middle ground between the two previously mentioned types of animals. Their high intelligence can cause issues if their owner does not provide them with enough social attention. However, due to their high intelligence these types of pets are able to create a meaningful companionship with their owner. Most types of exotic birds have a slightly complex diet and moderately simple care procedures, so as long as a person is able keep them clean and researches the types of food that they need there will be no problems.
In conclusion a majority of the problems with keeping exotic pets come from the lack of knowledge that is available to the public. By providing this knowledge to the people governments could cut back the amount of exotic animals that are being mistreated and can help people avoid animals that could be dangerous to them or their families. Furthermore this knowledge could help reduce the aforementioned overcrowding and abuse that can happen in businesses that sell these kinds of pets due to how people would be able to spot the problems with the animals care and report them to the authorities.
Sources
- Grant, Rachel A., et al. “ExNOTic: Should We Be Keeping Exotic Pets?” Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI, MDPI, June 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483610/.
- Warwick, C, and C Steedman. “Injuries, envenomations and stings from exotic pets.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine., U.S. National Library of Medicine, July 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22843648.
- “Morbidity and Mortality of Invertebrates, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Mammals at a Major Exotic Companion Animal Wholesaler.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888705.2014.918511?journalCode.
- “Exotic Pets: What To Know Before You Buy.” Exotic Pets: What To Know Before You Buy – Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine &BIOMEDICAL Sciences, vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/exotic-pets-what-to-know-before-you-buy,http://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/exotic-pets-what-to-know-before-you-buy.
