After hearing from PETA about how sugar gliders often suffer and die prematurely when purchased on a whim, mall management company CBL & Associates Properties agreed that these fragile marsupials should not be sold in its buildings.
© iStock.com/David Callan
A company called Pocket Pets sells sugar gliders at mall kiosks around the country. These tiny animals are nocturnal tree dwellers who spend their lives frolicking with their families and foraging for sap and insects. Kiosks and pet stores acquire sugar gliders from hellish breeding facilities similar to puppy mills. The animals are then peddled as cheap trinkets.
Countless people impulsively buy exotic animals as “pets,” but very few of them have the knowledge required to meet the specialized husbandry needs of these animals or the inclination to commit to a lifetime of care. Confined to small cages, overly or roughly handled, fed improper diets, and forgotten when the novelty wears off, sugar gliders are doomed from the moment that they’re born into the pet trade.
What You Can Do
Ask mall operator Cafaro Company to follow CBL’s example and ban the sale of sugar gliders.
