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Ten Fast Facts about Captive Exotic Animals

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1. Captive exotic animals are abused and exploited in a variety of settings, including research and product testing, the entertainment industry, fur farms, and the exotic “pet” trade.
2. Keeping wild animals in captivity is inherently cruel, as it deprives them of the ability to freely engage in instinctual behaviors in their natural environment.
3. Even when bred in captivity, exotic animals retain all of their natural instincts. They cannot be considered “domesticated” or “tamed.”
4. Every year, captive exotic animals are involved in incidents in which humans are injured or even killed.
5. Although many industries using captive exotic animals claim to be aiding in conservation, very few captive breeding programs actually address the real threats facing imperiled animals in the wild, such as habitat destruction.
6. The demand for wild animals as “pets” or for use in entertainment harms populations of these animals in the wild by increasing the likelihood of poaching and wild capture.
7. Whether in the zoo or the circus, wild animals produced in captive breeding programs are almost never released into the wild; instead, they are doomed to a life in captivity.
8. It’s a myth that public display of wild animals is necessary to engage people. Many wild animals, including several whale and sea turtle species, enjoy a high degree of public interest and concern despite having never been kept in captivity and put on public display. And many children develop a keen interest in dinosaurs despite having never seen one in the wild.
9. Industries using captive exotic animals also claim that they have educational value — but what they really teach is that it is acceptable to use animals for human amusement. And since captive wild animals often exhibit abnormal behaviors due to captivity-induced stress, they fail to teach audiences about the real nature of wild animals.
10. Industries that use captive wild animals, such as the circus, frequently engage in abusive training methods, such as the use of hooks, chains, whips, electric prods, and blunt instruments.