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| iStockphoto/Greg Brzezinski |
| A coatimundi does not make a good pet. |
Millions of live wild animals are imported into the United States each year for sale as exotic pets.
In 2005—according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—259,000 birds, 1,289,019 reptiles, 5,102,222 amphibians, 203,412,915 fish and 82,256 mammals were imported into the country live for the pet trade.
The mammals—for example—included a variety of squirrels and other rodents from Asia and South America, sugar gliders from Indonesia and Myanmar, wallabies from New Zealand, and small carnivores such as coatimundi and kinkajous from South America.
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According to the CDC: |
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According to the Department of Health and Human Services/CDC, the importation of wild animals poses a health risk for a number of reasons:
 Most shipments involve a high volume of animals.
Many shipments include different species co-mingled or kept in close proximity in confined spaces—conditions ideal for the transmission of disease.
For most species, there is no screening for the presence of infectious disease prior to shipment, and no holding or testing is required on entry into the U.S.
High mortality rates among some animals are common and current U.S. statutes and regulations do not require diagnostic necropsies to determine whether the mortality is from a pathogen.
Some imported animals are also known reservoirs or vectors of communicable diseases of public-health significance. |
Death A Likely Outcome for "Pets"
Wild one day, these animals are captured the next, and so begins a journey to the American home that most will not survive. Estimates vary by type of animal, but for every animal who becomes a pet, five to ten others might die along the way.
This is because the means used to capture, hold, and transport these animals to the marketplace stresses, injures and kills them.
As they travel, animals may be roughly handled, crowded into small cages, left without food or water, or left exposed to the elements. So common is death that dealers accept great losses as a cost of engaging in this business.
Such waste is not only cruel but also harmful to wild populations—many of which have been decimated by collection for the exotic pet trade.
Wild animals who survive to be sold face continuing problems because they do not make good pets, whether they are wild-caught or bred in captivity. With few exceptions, wild animals are difficult or impossible for individuals to care for.
The animals often grow to be larger, stronger and more dangerous than owners expect or can manage. Their nutritional and social needs may be unknown, and finding skilled veterinary care is difficult. The result is that wild animals who survive the initial trip still risk a slow death from malnutrition or neglect.
Zoonoses Pose Risk to Humans
Exotic pets can also pose a danger to human health and safety by exposing people to bacteria, viruses and parasites. The World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other experts consider the trade in wild animals to be one of the main drivers of emerging zoonoses (diseases transmissible from animals to humans).
Zoonoses recently in the news have included avian influenza, associated with the exotic bird and falconry trades; West Nile virus, associated with the pet trade in birds; and tick-borne diseases such as African tick-bite fever, caused by bacteria found in ticks imported on their wild animal hosts.
In 2003, 37 human cases of monkeypox in the U.S. were caused by the importation for the pet trade of infected African rodents. Along the way, the rodents were housed near prairie dogs—who ultimately picked up the disease, were sold as pets, and transmitted the disease to humans.
Zoonoses—or zoonotic diseases—are becoming more prevalent, and governments are looking for ways to address the problem.
Many degrees of regulation are possible, such as veterinary testing for known diseases before export or import; banning the import of certain high-risk types of animals (such as the longstanding bans on the importation of nonhuman primates and small turtles for the pet trade); or banning the import of animals from certain countries (such as the ban on importing birds from areas with bird flu).
Prohibiting the importation of exotic, wild animals as pets would provide the greatest protection to human health while eliminating a source of animal cruelty and environmental destruction. It would also be the easiest approach to implement and enforce.
