The Tragedy and Truth about Wild Animals as pets
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans”
Global impact- Wild populations impacted
The numbers and viability of species in the wild is negatively impacted every time an animal is removed from its native breeding population for the wild pet trade. Likewise, the deliberate release of non-native wild animals, or their accidental escape, can wreak havoc as these animals can become an invasive species risk to the native wildlife.
Individual impact
For each individual animal involved, the wild animal pet trade has a devastating impact. The only people who benefit are those who profit from extracting them from the wild, shipping them, exhibiting them, breeding from them and selling them.
Death in transit
For every wild animal captured for the “pet” trade there are multiple that have died in the process, before they even got sold as “pets,” enduring horrific containment and transportation prior to death.
High death rates in captivity
The suffering continues for those that live long enough to get sold as pets or for breeding. A survey on reptiles as pets revealed that 75% died within a year of purchase.
Captive misery
Even when bred in captivity, wild species are not domesticated. They still have complex social, physical and behavioural needs that are adapted to their specific natural habitat. Without this environment, they suffer. Captive wild animals are often trapped in inappropriate or unfulfilling captive conditions having to endure a life without the proper heat, light levels, medical care, diet, social set up, or enrichment. Many wild “pets” are presented to vets with avoidable diseases directly related to their poor nutrition, high stress and inadequate environment. Even the best intended captive setting can only mimic a small slice of the wild habitat they were destined to inhabit.
No welfare orientated protection
The UK Government provides no truly welfare-orientated legislative protection for non-native wild animals and enables UK residents to keep almost any wild animal with few restrictions. The Dangerous Wild Animals Act, 1976 only applies to the few animals deemed dangerous. Sadly, this legislation is human centred, primarily focused on minimising the risk to the public and any consideration given to an animal’s welfare is secondary e.g.“Animal welfare should also be considered in inspections.”
The checks and balances of a Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) license are so few and lightweight that it may as well not exist. Obtaining a Dangerous Wild Animal license (DWA) does not guarantee that the person holding it has the knowledge of how to care for the animal, or that they have the means to care for and intend to care for them. It is a piece of paper.
Cruelty enabled
To make matters even worse, many species-specific recommendations within the Dangerous Wild Animal License (DWA) are an enabler for cruel wild animal ownership. For example the minimum recommended enclosure sizes. Appallingly, the DWA minimum enclosure recommendation for a single Mountain lion is 28 square metres and for two is 42 square metres (to put that in perspective, the average size of a domestic UK lounge is 46 square metres).
The minimum recommendation for an enclosure for two Lemurs is 3 metre squared (the average size UK bathroom is 6.21 metres squared, over double the recommended minimum space to keep two Lemurs).
These recommended minimum measurements do not afford the animal any opportunity to exhibit natural behaviours and guarantees total captive misery.
WildSide has taken animals in that have been kept in these government recommended minimum enclosure sizes and worse. They arrive here with behavioural issues, with no life, no spirit, they pace in circles, they pull out their fur and feathers, they are aggressive, they self-harm. This cruelty to other species is permitted and promoted in the UK.
On death row
Tragically, the wild “pets” that survive in captivity still face the very real risk of being euthanised if the “owner” no longer wants them, or they are confiscated by the authorities. For non-native wild animals there is not a UK wide network of rescue centres, equivalent to those for dogs and cats. The obvious place to take an unwanted wild animal “pet” is a zoo but zoos are not set up to accommodate, or be accountable for, taking on non-native wild pet rescues. so, at the end of a horrific life many are put down prematurely. Too often if we had said no to an animal coming here its only other option was to be euthanised.
Don’t let them suffer in silence.
