When a person wants an exotic animal as a pet, they rarely consider how the animal might have arrived here in the first place. Most exotic animals come from an illegal pet trade. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the illegal pet trade is about a 5- 20-billion-dollar industry and it isn’t only for live animals, it’s also where things like pelts from poaching of tigers go the ivory poached from elephants as well. Many of the animals that are taken from their homes to turn into pets for regular people like us, do not survive the long journey, and if they do survive, most will suffer in captivity and die quicker than what they would in the wild due to things like malnutrition, unsuitable environments, or even from the stress of being confined. According to Born Free USA, most exotic species that come from the illegal pet trade are bred until they aren’t able to support themselves or their babies anymore. Its basically the same thing as over breeding dogs to gain money. We don’t think its humane to overbreed our dogs, so why would it be ok to over breed other animals that aren’t as popular as dogs?
Another reason why exotic animals should not be pets is because many people will impulsively buy the animal because its cute, but then forget that the animal has very specific needs that are not like normal domestic pets like our cats and dogs at home. For example, how many of you did research or had extensive knowledge of a pet that you have now? (Cool, exactly) I have a Crested Gecko at home and before I bought him, I did research on their care and habitat types for weeks. Crested geckos are frugivores and can only healthily survive in temperatures ranging from 69-79 degrees. Anything higher or lower can potentially kill them. Now if someone isn’t like most of us in this room, then they just bought this animal and are winging it with very small knowledge of the basic care that is needed for their new pet to thrive and this leads to a lot of exotic animals dying. Another thing it could lead to is the owner not knowing what to do anymore, so they just let the animal go into a park or their back yard. A good scenario of this is with the Burmese python. People love getting these snakes when they are small because you know, who wouldn’t love to say “yeah I have a Burmese python as a pet at home” right? Well everything is normally good, until the snake starts to grow.
Burmese pythons can grow up to six to nine feet says Corrine Henn and then they become more and more expensive to take care of. This is when an average owner who isn’t as invested into this snake as he or she once thought probably realizes they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. The animal now needs; a bigger cage with secure locks, and more expensive food. The owner now might not want to be responsible for the animal because it’s too expensive to care for, so they either; let it go into the wild, stop caring for it and let it suffer and die, or they might try to sell it or give it to a zoo to take care of. We have all heard about how Burmese pythons are wreaking havoc still in the Florida Everglades im assuming. This is just another reason why exotic animals shouldn’t be pets, its been seen that too many people give up after seeing how much time and money are need to be invested in them.
