The Exotic Animal Pet Trade And How It Hurts Everyone

The Exotic Animal Pet Trade And How It Hurts Everyone

“The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? But, Can they suffer?” Jeremy Bethman said this quote, he stated that when we treat animals as if they cannot suffer, we objectify them. When we as people treat living things without dignity, it shows that we don’t care about the fact that they are still living things. People still nonetheless own and treat exotic animals like accessories. People shouldn’t be able to own exotic animals, because it’s cruel to the animals and can put the owners in danger. Owning exotic animals is cruel to the animal. For instance, in the article Do You Really Want a Baby Tiger? Mia Lewis, the author, states, “An animal that has behaved one way for

As seen in the article referenced earlier Do You Really Want a Baby Tiger? She claims, “It’s not just big cats, poisonous snakes, and chimpanzees that can be harmful - even smaller exotic pets can cause serious injuries” (Lewis 104). These facts indicate that even owning any exotic animal is irresponsible, even a tiny one. This shows that owning these animals is irresponsible as a pet owner and can cause harm to the people that own them and those around the animal. This type of irresponsible pet ownership can cause real and serious harm to those who own the

Some people believe exotic animals are not as dangerous as the media made them out to be. This argument is shown by a statement said by Andrew Wyatt, “No uninvolved public has ever been killed in the USA since 1990 as a result of a captive big cat, primate, bear, elephant or reptile at large” (Rexano 106). This may be true, but this argument fails to talk about the dangerous diseases exotic animals can give to their owners. “...exotic pets may carry zoonoses that have not previously been identified in that particular geographic area19; numerous outbreaks of zoonoses have been associated with the legal and illegal importation of animals in the pet trade.” (Souza). This means that the more we let people interact with and own exotic animals the more zoonoses and diseases that can be transmitted to a human from an animal, there will be. As stated earlier in this article an estimated 75% of our emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses. This shows that owning and handling exotic animals is dangerous and should be regulated because of the diseases they can pass on to humans. Although people want to own and use exotic animals, it is dangerous and can harm the