Animals in Captivity

Exotic Pets

The trade in exotic animals is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Across the U.S., millions of exotic animals – including lions, tigers, cougars, wolves, bears, monkeys, alligators, birds, and venomous snakes – are bred, bought, and sold for private possession. They’re kept captive in private homes as “pets,” in roadside zoos, and in menageries.

The exotic pet trade poses grave dangers to the animals, as well as to human health and safety. By their very nature, exotic animals are unpredictable and are incapable of being domesticated and are therefore inappropriate to keep as pets.

• Between 1975 and 2005, an estimated 1.3 million African grey parrots were removed from the wild for the international pet trade. Due to the unreported illegal trade and high mortality rate in trapping and transport, likely twice as many African greys were captured. In just 3 years, from 2013 to 2016, its status went from Vulnerable to Endangered. (Source)
• According to the IUCN Red List, the Javan Slow Loris is often caught for use in the pet trade and is now critically endangered. This species is one of the most common protected animals found in markets in Indonesia and has faced a suspected 80% decline over the last 24 years. SOURCE: IUCN Red List.

What’s Wrong with Keeping Exotic Pets?

Inadequate care and conditions.

Exotic pets are rarely housed in conditions that are suitable and adequate to their needs. Most people cannot provide the special care, housing, diet, and maintenance that exotic animals require. Many animals who have become too difficult for their owners to care for, or who have outgrown their usefulness as “pets” or profit-makers, end up languishing in small pens in backyards, doomed to live in deplorable conditions, or are abandoned or killed. A very few lucky ones are placed in genuine sanctuaries to live out the rest of their lives.

Poses a danger to both people and animals.

Every year, people are attacked and injured by exotic “pets” or exotic animals in roadside zoos; some of the attacks are fatal, and children have too often been the victims. In recent years, people have been mauled by tigers, attacked by monkeys, and bitten by snakes, just to name a few of the tragic incidents involving exotic “pets” and incidents involving exhibited animals. Compounding the risk to the public, many exotic animals are carriers of diseases, such as herpes B, salmonellosis, monkeypox, and rabies, which are communicable – and can be fatal – to humans.

Inadequate and inconsistent laws.

In many states, people are allowed to keep exotic animals in their homes and backyards without restrictions or with only minimal oversight. In Texas alone, there are more tigers in captivity than there are in the wild globally.