Inside the Exotic Animal Trade

Every year, people succumb to the temptation to purchase “exotic” animals like hedgehogs, macaws, lizards, and monkeys—even tigers and bears—from stores, auctions, or the Internet to keep them as “pets.” But often, life in captivity rapidly leads to pain 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 also deadly for animals we don’t see: For every animal who makes it to the store or the auction, countless others die along the way.

Animals Suffer During Capture and Transport
The journey for many of these animals begins in places like Australia, Africa, and the jungles of Brazil. The few laws and penalties that do exist hardly dissuade dealers in light of the money that can 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.(1,2)

Taken from their natural habitats by trappers, animals may change hands several times, through intermediaries and exporters, and endure grueling transport conditions. Parrots may have their beaks and feet taped and be 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.(3) 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.(4) Their chances of survival? “We have a mortality of about 80 or 90 percent,” says a German customs agent.(5) Goliath frogs smuggled into California from Cameroon were so severely crowded in their cardboard boxes that their skin absorbed their feces and poisoned them to death.(6) Four exotic birds died when a California man tried to smuggle them in his suitcase.(7)

Ignorance Breeds Misery
Animals who arrive alive are often subject to inadequate care. Because caretakers are often unprepared or unable to provide for the needs of species that are so far removed from their natural habitats, the animals will likely die or be abandoned by their caretakers. For instance, the head of the Western Cape of Africa’s Environmental Crime Investigation unit estimates that 90 percent of exported reptiles die within a year.(8) Animal control authorities confiscated a crippled cougar cub from a Buffalo, New York, basement: The animal, kept by a teenager, had not been fed a diet sufficiently high in calcium and, as a result, suffered from deformed legs.(9) Hedgehogs, who roll themselves into tight balls, can easily become injured if children try to “uncurl” them or if cats attack them. Sugar gliders are very social animals and, if they are not given enough attention, may self-mutilate or die from the stress of loneliness.(10)

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 [who] remain in unsuitable conditions.”(11) 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.”(12)

Other people try to return unwanted animals to their natural homes or simply abandon them along rural roads. Without appropriate habitats or rehabilitation, these animals will starve or fall victim to the elements or predators. If they do survive, they may overpopulate and wreak havoc within the ecosystem, killing native species.

Disease Threat
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) handles the importation of animals—specifically cats, dogs, turtles, and nonhuman primates—that may pose a disease threat to humans.(13) Unfortunately, according to one CDC officer, “[T]here are all kinds of exotic species that may be unknown vectors of human disease.”(14) Seventy-five percent of all new infectious diseases originate from nonhuman animals.(15) The monkeypox outbreak that affected dozens of people in the Midwest in 2003 was traced to a Gambian rat from Africa; the animal had been 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 CDC warns that “this risk makes macaques unsuitable as pets.”(18) Human contact with reptiles and other exotic animals accounts for 70,000 cases of salmonellosis each 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 psittacosis, which can be deadly, to humans.(21) Exotic Newcastle disease (END), which devastated whole flocks of chickens and turkeys in the 1970s, 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) “We’re not trained to detect diseases,” says a U.S. Fish and Wildlife inspection officer.(24)

Reverse zoonosis, or the transfer of human diseases to animals, can be a threat as well. Mumps, tuberculosis, and hepatitis are only a few of the diseases that can be transferred from humans to other animals and back to humans.(25)

Few Government Regulations
The multibillion-dollar business of buying and selling protected wildlife is one of the largest sources of criminal earnings, behind only arms smuggling and drug trafficking.(26) The United States is the main destination for exotic and endangered wild animals.(27) National, state, and local governments are passing laws that prohibit the capture and sale of certain species, but most of these regulations are poorly enforced and are designed to protect humans from disease rather than ensure that animals are handled humanely.

It can be difficult to sort out what government regulations exist to control the influx of exotic animals into the U.S. Endangered species are supposed to be monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), but smugglers find ways around inspections. Protected species may be hidden among legal animals or dangerous species of animals so that officers are less likely to thoroughly hand-inspect shipments.(28) The FWS 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.(29) 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 [the fine] and continue to break the law,” according to one CITES representative.(30)

There are thousands of tigers, lions, and other big cats held captive in the U.S.(31) “A 600-pound tiger will do what it wants, when it wants to,” says Tippi Hedren, a 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.”(32) There have been dozens of captive big-cat attacks on humans in the past decade, including incidents in which a tiger mauled his guardian’s 3-year-old grandson, a lion killed several dogs and trapped a child in his room, and a Bengal tiger tore off the arm of a 4-year-old boy.(33) Wolf hybrids have also increased in popularity—it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of them live in homes across the country—and since 2000, at least four people have been mauled to death by these offspring of wolves and domesticated dogs. One veterinarian and animal behaviorist says that “people who breed these animals and sell them as pets are playing Russian roulette. It’s a gross misrepresentation to sell these animals as pets.”(34)

In the United States, 23 states have banned the ownership of big cats and 15 do not permit nonhuman primates to be kept as pets. Thanks to a law signed by the governor of Maryland in 2006, state residents can no longer own, sell, breed, or transport animals such as foxes, poisonous snakes, alligators, or chimpanzees.(35,36,37)

What You Can Do
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 your local humane society. Sometimes animal control officials only conduct investigations after they receive complaints from neighbors.

References
1) Kevin G. Hall, "Trafficking of Animals Becoming Big Business," The Virginian-Pilot 16 Aug. 2001.
2) "Feeling Lonely? Snuggle Up to a Pet Cockroach," China Daily 20 May 2003.                
3) Hall.
4) "Animal Underworld," Panorama, narr. Tom Mangold, BBC, 25 Feb. 2001.
5) "Animal Underworld."
6) "Animal Underworld."
7) "Man Sentenced for Monkeys in Pants," Reuters, 19 Dec. 2002.
8) Business Day, "South Africa; Wily Smugglers Give Mother Nature a Raw Deal," Africa News 28 Jan. 2004.
9) "Sickly Baby Cougar Taken From Suburban Basement," Buffalo News 9 Nov. 1995.
10) Christina Mehra, "Going Sweet on Sugar Gliders " VetCentric, 11 Jan. 2001.
11) Vicki L. Duckett, "Call of the Wild," Communiqué May 2001: 40.
12) Douglas Birch, "Zoos Slam Door on Exotic Pets Looking for Homes," The Baltimore Sun 17 Jul. 1995: 1B.
13) U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases, "Importation of Pets and Other Animals Into the United States," 24 Aug. 2006.
14) "Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals," The Baltimore Sun 11 Jun. 2003.      
15) "Veterinarians on Front Lines of Human Diseases ," Associated Press, 9 Apr. 2004.
16) Jodi Wilgoren, "Monkeypox Casts Light on Rule Gap for Exotic Pets," The New York Times 10 Jun. 2003.
17) "Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals," The Baltimore Sun 11 Jun. 2003.
18) Stephanie R. Ostrowski et al., "B-Virus From Pet Macaque Monkeys: An Emerging Threat in the United States? " Emerging Infectious Diseases 4 (1998): 117-21.
19) U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Infectious Diseases, "Diseases From Reptiles," 9 May 2006.
20) Lauran Neergaard, "Growing Number of Diseases Jump From Animals to Humans," Associated Press, 9 Jun. 2003.
21) David T. Roen, "Newcastle Disease Again Threatens Poultry, Pet Birds, Too," Lewiston Morning Tribune 20 Jan. 2003.
22) California Department of Food and Agriculture, "’Exotic Newcastles Diseases," Animal Health and Food Safety Services Fact Sheet No. 7, Oct. 2002.
23) H.L. Shivaprasad, "Exotic Newcastle Disease in Caged (Exotic) Birds," Oct. 2002.
24) "Weak Regulation Allows Import of Exotic Animals."
25) Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Veterinary Public Health, "Overview of Zoonoses," LAPublicHealth.org, 6 Sep. 2006.
26) Clifford Coonan, "Illegal Wildlife Trade is Worth £6bn a Year," The Independent 23 Aug. 2006.
27) Kris Axtman, "After Exotic Pets Are Rescued, What Next?" The Christian Science Monitor 26 Jul. 2006.
28) Michael Blood, "Critter Crackdown Has No Bite," New York Daily News 23 Jun. 2003.
29) Hall.
30) Nancy Imperiale, "Monkeypox Gives Wake-Up Call About Exotic Pets Brought Into Country," Orlando Sentinel 1 Jul. 2003.
31) "Animal Underworld."
32) Tom Vanden Brook, "Exotic Pets Growing More Accessible in USA; So Is Concern to Protect Humans as Well as Beasts," USA Today 6 Dec. 2002.
33) Erin Kelly, "Attacks on Humans by Wildcats Kept as Pets," Gannett News Service, 30 Nov. 2002.
34) Dan Nephin, "Fatal Mauling Shows Dangers of Wolf-Dog Hybrids," Associated Press, 5 Aug. 2006.
35) Erin Kelly, "Picking Primate Pet Not Monkey Business," Tuscon Citizen 18 Aug. 2006.
36) Andrea Fanta, "Tiger Owner Sparks Debate in Florida," Associated Press, 4 Jun. 2006.
37) Maryland General Assembly, "Criminal Law-Prohibition Against Wild Animals," House Bill 704, 16 May 2006.