Keeping Wild Animals As Pets

When people think of exotic pets, they think: tigers, bears, lions, and crazy dangerous animals that can kill you with a playful “give me paw”. Exotic pets are more than those large mammals; they are any animal that is not native to your living area or has never been classified as domestic. The logic behind considering non-native species exotic pets is because it doesn’t have any natural predators to keep their population healthy; making them a threat to other species because they become invasive and deplete the other populations of creatures; throwing off the entire ecosystem in that place, all because of their owners releasing them into “the wild”. Hundreds of wild animals have been released in the U.S., causing tremendous negative effects on the released and native species. These negative outcomes don’t only happen to the species surrounding the released creature, but the creature itself. Seeing that this happens frequently with irresponsible exotic pet owners, the United States should obtain a ban on any type of exotic pet ownership in all states.

Exotic creatures need space and large quantities of food to survive, and it hurts the wallet. People end up not affording their “pet” and releasing it in the wild where they, the owner, live, even if the animal doesn’t know how to survive in that environment; that causes the animal harm and torture as well as other creatures. In a short documentary, Joe Taft, an exotic feline rescue founder, and director states that: “…somebody who had a large collection of big cats for some reason this guy went out one night and let all his cats loose… and all of those cats ended up being killed…”. In this case, the felines ended up shot, but that’s still dreadful because those felines are endangered species. This all occurred because of the United Stated not placing a law against owning exotic pets in all states.

Exotic pets are animals who are wild, they don’t belong in captivity as people would like; they are dangerous creatures with primitive wild instincts who can’t be molded to behave like your typical house pet. However, people argue that they can become as lovable as a puppy, but even if that were true their natural wild nature peaks through and can cause a catastrophe. Joe Taft explains: “A lot of these animals are incredibly friendly, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. These animals will kill you because they love you. ‘Hi, let’s play! Oh, you broke! ’”. Never trust an exotic pet because regardless of how tamed it may be, it can harm you when you least expect it.

Therefore, exotic pets should not be derived from their natural environments only for the human ego; they can be everything kind in the world but your safety, the safety of the people around you and of the animals, comes first. Yes, they are adorable, gorgeous, and exciting to own but most definitely dangerous and should have their freedom in the wild where they originate from. However, if the United States legislated a ban against people owning exotic pets, all of the innocent creatures could live in their natural environments with no one to disturb them, and no being would get hurt from those animals because of an impetuous person who impulsively purchased an elephantine responsibility that he or she will end up throwing back in “the wild” where they don’t belong.

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