McKenzie Sievert

Mrs. Brown

English III 5

24 September 2018

Should Exotic Animals be kept as pets?

“1,500 attacks, escapes and other incidents involving exotic pets,” have been

documented by Born Free USA since 1990. This illustrates that if exotic animals are kept as

pets they will cause disease as well as injuries. Another reason exotic animals should not be

kept as pets is caring for exotic animals requires extensive knowledge that some people don’t or

care to possess which will cause problems. Exotic pets are defined as animals that are “usually

from other countries, that haven't been domesticated”.

When exotic animals are brought into the US from other countries they often harbor alien

diseases, and when they are sold as pets, the diseases spread. One example of this is when

“Gambian giant rats [were] imported into the United States” to be sold as pets, they infected the

prairie dogs next to their cage. The humans who came into close contact with the prairie dogs

led to an “outbreak in the United States of monkeypox,” in the summer of 2003, which caused

“81 patients in the American Midwest” in only a span of 3 months. Exotic pet trade not only

affects human health it harms other species. Professor Matthew Fisher and his team went into

the French Guiana rainforest to capture poison dart frogs to find out why frogs worldwide are

dying. The result of their research is there is a fungus called chytrid, which causes a skin

disease often fatal, affecting frogs globally. The Bd fungus started in the 1900s rather than

23,000 years ago previously predicted. “Global trade and the marketing of exotic pets likely

propelled” the worldwide frog epidemic. Diseases are not the only thing exotic pets they also

can cause injuries.

Although we remove the animal from the wild we can not make a exotic animal domestic

and in trying, injuries will occur. In Texas, a woman kept a mountain lion as a pet, her nephew
over he was only 4 and he did not know the dangers of the cat. He stood too close to the

animal’s cage and he was “mauled by [the] mountain lion”. He was immediately hospitalized and

thankfully he survived but was left with lacerations and puncture wounds to his left side,

including a bite mark on the side of his face. In some incidents, the victim of exotic pet do not

survive. In Nebraska, Cory Byrne had a pet red-tailed boa constrictor, a type of snake, and was

showing it to a friend when the snake wrapped itself around his head and shoulders and started

to squeeze. The paramedics were called and despite their best efforts Cory was "strangled to

death by his pet snake". According to The Human Society of the United States, at least 13

people have died because of pet pythons since 1980. Exotic pets can also be the victim when

brought into the human world.

Many people see exotic animals in zoos and online through social media and decide

they want one. People choose not to learn the necessary knowledge to properly take care of

their animal. Reptiles and amphibians make great pets for those who can’t have furry animals

but they require much more tedious care, such as regulating the temperature and humidity in

their cage and feeding them mice and bugs. Even though all of the information to take care of

them can be easily found people still choose not to, “Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics in England

found 75 percent of pet reptiles and amphibians die in their first year”. Another example of

people no taking caring for their exotic animals is many pigs are in shelters. Many people buy

pigs marketed as teacup or miniature but don’t understand pigs don’t stay that small. Often once

they grow to their full size, owners find they are unable to care for them. Sue Parkinson runs a

rescue for pigs and “she says she gets so many calls from people who want to give up their pet

pigs that she has to turn many of them down.” These illustrate how people shouldn’t be allowed

to have exotic animals because they choose not to care for the animals the right way.

Many people are devoted to owning exotic pets as pets and they know how to properly

take care of the animals, therefore, they stay safe but there are many more people that don’t
care. In conclusion, exotic pets should not be kept as pets because they spread diseases,

cause major injuries and death, and people don’t care to care for them properly.

Work Cited

"A Big Pig Problem." Scholastic News/Weekly Reader Edition 4, 27 Nov. 2017, p. 6+.

Student Resources In Context,

Accessed 26 Sept. 2018.

Achenbach, Joel. "Exotic pet trade linked to invasive fungus that's killing frogs globally."

Washington Post, 10 May 2018. Student Resources In Context,

Accessed 26 Sept. 2018.

Brown, Catherine M. "Reaping the whirlwind? Human disease from exotic pets."

BioScience, vol. 58, no. 1, 2008, p. 6+. Student Resources In Context,

Accessed 25 Sept. 2018.

Slater, Lauren. "Wild obsession: the perilous attraction of owning exotic pets." National

Geographic, Apr. 2014, p. 96+. Student Resources In Context,

Accessed 26 Sept. 2018.

Tomlin, Cj, and Ashley Cruce. "Should Exotic Reptiles Be Sold as Pets?" Scholastic

News/Weekly Reader Edition 5/6, 8 Jan. 2018, p. 7. Student Resources In Context,

Accessed 26 Sept. 2018.