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For some people, keeping exotic animals as pets is a status symbol. Imagine the costs that one has to invest from poaching, intercontinental shipping, and storage before it reaches the black market. Despite the seemingly adorable videos of owners hugging their pet tigers or lions, owning an exotic pet remains illegal in most countries worldwide.
Felines such as tigers and lions, carnivores such as wolves, and reptiles should stay in their natural habitat, not in private individuals' cozy bedrooms. These animals are not wild and not like our household dogs or cats. They always have the potential to wreak havoc in our homes. To elucidate further, consider these three reasons before you decide to have an exotic pet.
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Keeping exotic pets is an indirect way of supporting the illegal wildlife trade.
Exotic animals went through painful abduction from their natural habitats. Unfortunately, despite laws and regulations, websites selling exotic pets have mushroomed in recent years, offering pet care advice, tips, and other seeming pieces of information. These platforms masked the horrendous process of poaching, abduction, and extermination of other animals in the forest.
Exotic animals are a risk to public safety.
When your pet crocodile, snake, tiger, or lion accidentally finds its way out of their cages, they become a public risk as it may bite or attack random people or household animals along their way.
Wildlife may carry with them diseases.
The moment you buy an exotic animal and bring it to your home, you expose your family to a handful of diseases that the animal may carry with them. Exotic animals may look healthy, but they may act as carriers of zoonotic diseases. For example, many macaque monkeys may take the Herpes B virus through the secretions in their saliva or genitals. Other zoonotic diseases that exotic animals may transfer to humans may include Monkey Pox and Salmonellosis.
