Owning an exotic pet can be a fantastic rush. People buy these animals when they are small as they look nice but when they grow up they need to be returned to the wild and they need special care that normal people cannot offer. To meet the demands of those who keep exotic animals as pets, dealers often have to take the animals from their native lands.
Exotic animals are often further hurt at the hands of dealers who sell them to zoos and pet stores. There are a wide variety of exotic pets kept as animals. Ask anyone who owns one of these smaller exotic species, and they’ll tell you that these pets can provide the same love, companionship, and satisfaction that a larger dog or cat can offer.
Virtually every week I am presented with a pet reptile which has an advanced disease relating to poor owner preparation or knowledge on how to keep these specialist animals. Some species of snakes live for a long time – sometimes upwards of twenty years. Whether dogs and cats are suitable is an argument in itself but at least they’ve had several thousand years of domestication and we sort of understand and attempt to meet their needs.
I think part of the problem with the exotic pets trade is that the animals are seen as objects, as fashions and as status symbols. Since they are exotic pets, therefore sugar gliders are illegal in some parts of the world. Just like in the case of having other types of exotic animals, commitment is very essential.
A lot of these pets” roam miles and miles in a day in the wild and are then relegated to tiny cages. However cute that picture on Instagram looks, remember that these are animals with needs that we can’t meet and whose lives we are harming and whose populations we are destroying.