HUMANS AND WILDLIFE: TOURISM, RIDES, EXOTIC PETS, GAME MEAT

WILDLIFE TOURISM ATTRACTIONS

swimming with a captive dolphin

Wildlife tourism contributes more than US$100 billion per year to the global economy. Wildlife attractions such as swimming with dolphins lure people from around the world and now make up a lucrative segment of the booming global travel industry. Twice as many trips were taken in 2019 than there were in 2005, an increase partly attributed to Chinese tourists, who spend far more on international travel than any other nationality. [Source: Natasha Daly, National Geographic, June 2019]

Natasha Daly wrote in National Geographic: “Wildlife tourism isn’t new, but social media is setting the industry ablaze, turning encounters with exotic animals into photo-driven bucket-list toppers. Activities once publicized mostly in guidebooks now are shared instantly with multitudes of people by selfie-taking backpackers, tour-bus travelers, and social media “influencers” through a tap on their phone screens. Nearly all millennials (23- to 38-year-olds) use social media while traveling. Their selfies — of swims with dolphins, encounters with tigers, rides on elephants, and more — are viral advertising for attractions that tout up-close experiences with animals.

“For all the visibility social media provides, it doesn’t show what happens beyond the view of the camera lens. People who feel joy and exhilaration from getting close to wild animals usually are unaware that many of the animals at such attractions live in” less than ideal conditions. “Owners and operators of wildlife tourism attractions, from high-end facilities such as Dolphin Quest in Hawaii to low-end monkey shows in Thailand, say their animals live longer in captivity than wild counterparts because they’re safe from predators and environmental hazards. Show operators proudly emphasize that the animals under their care are with them for life. They’re family.

Influencers and Wild Animals

Natasha Daly wrote in National Geographic: Everyone finds Olga Barantseva on Instagram. “Photographer from Russia. Photographing dreams,” her bio reads... She meets clients for woodland photo shoots with captive wild animals just outside Moscow. For her 18th birthday, Sasha Belova treated herself to a session with Barantseva — and a pack of wolves. “It was my dream,” she says as she fidgets with her hair, which had been styled that morning. “Wolves are wild and dangerous.” The wolves are kept in small cages at a petting zoo when not participating in photo shoots. The Kravtsov family hired Barantseva to take their first professional family photos — all five family members, shivering and smiling in the birch forest, joined by a bear named Stepan. “Barantseva has been photographing people and wild animals together for six years. She “woke up as a star,” she says, in 2015, when a couple of international media outlets found her online. Her audience has exploded to more than 80,000 followers worldwide. “I want to show harmony between people and animals,” she says.[Source: Natasha Daly, National Geographic, June 2019]

“On a raw fall day, under a crown of golden birch leaves on a hill that overlooks a frigid lake, two-and-a-half-year-old Alexander Levin, dressed in a hooded bumblebee sweater, timidly holds Stepan’s paw. The bear’s owners, Yury and Svetlana Panteleenko, ply their star with food — tuna fish mixed with oatmeal — to get him to approach the boy. Snap: It looks like a tender friendship. The owners toss grapes to Stepan to get him to open his mouth wide. Snap: The bear looks as if he’s smiling.

“The Panteleenkos constantly move Stepan, adjusting his paws, feeding him, and positioning Alexander as Barantseva, pink-haired, bundled in jeans and a parka, captures each moment. Snap: A photo goes to her Instagram feed. A boy and a bear in golden Russian woods — a picture straight out of a fairy tale. It’s a contemporary twist on a long-standing Russian tradition of exploiting bears for entertainment.

“Another day in the same forest, Kirsten and I join 12 young women who have nearly identical Instagram accounts replete with dreamy photos of models caressing owls and wolves and foxes. Armed with fancy cameras but as yet modest numbers of followers, they all want the audience Barantseva has. Each has paid the Panteleenkos $760 to take identical shots of models with the ultimate prize: a bear in the woods.

“Stepan is 26 years old, elderly for a brown bear, and can hardly walk. The Panteleenkos say they bought him from a small zoo when he was three months old. They say the bear’s work — a constant stream of photo shoots and movies — provides money to keep him fed. A video on Svetlana Panteleenko’s Instagram account proclaims: “Love along with some great food can make anyone a teddy”. And just like that, social media takes a single instance of local animal tourism and broadcasts it to the world.

Cruelty of Animal Rides

Elephant safari to see a one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park, India

Andrea Sachs wrote in the Washington Post: In March 2023, a photo of Pai Lin made the viral rounds. The image of the septuagenarian female illustrated the dark and painful underbelly of elephant tourism in Thailand. The Asian elephant's back sloped down like a ramp, the weight of countless visitors crushing her spine. Pai Lin spent a quarter of a century entertaining tourists. She is now retired, living her remaining years at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand in Tha Mai Ruak, the sanctuary that released the photo. However, around the world, many elephants and beasts of burden are not so fortunate. New generations of animals have joined their elders in a trade that is still prevalent but has been gaining more vocal opponents over the years. [Source: Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, March 30, 2023]

"Riding animals is high on the list of cruelty," said Liz Cabrera Holtz, a wildlife campaign manager with the U.S. office of World Animal Protection. "I think attitudes are changing about the use of wild animals as entertainment, but we recognize that there's no quick fix."The issues are manifold and intricate. The concerns touch on animal welfare as well as cultural traditions, human livelihoods and the economics of tourism. There is no easy answer, but travelers can be part of the solution. When people stop paying for camel rides in Giza or donkey rides in Petra or elephant rides in Ayutthaya, then the [local businesses] stop using them," said Jason Baker, senior vice president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "We are trying to hold tourists accountable and make them empowered."

Animal rights advocates say the abuse is often in plain sight, barely veiled by a leather seat or blanket. Baker, who has investigated the living and working conditions of camels and horses in Egypt and Jordan, has seen animals suffering from saddle sores, starvation, dehydration and maggot-infested wounds. On the Greek island of Santorini, PETA Germany has documented the harsh treatment of donkeys, which are forced to carry heavy loads (including tourists) up and down 500 steps under a punishingly hot Mediterranean sun. Some of the animals wore sharp metal wire muzzles that jabbed into their faces; others were whipped or beaten and denied water, food and rest."You can see the cruelty in front of you," Baker said. "The scars are the scars, the hitting is the hitting."

Discouraging Animal Rides and Coming Up With Alternatives

Andrea Sachs wrote in the Washington Post: All countries have some form of animal welfare legislation, though the laws may favor domesticated pets over captive or wild animals. World Animal Protection's Animal Protection Index ranks 50 countries based on laws and policies. For example, on a scale of A to G (best to worst), Thailand received a C for "laws against causing animal suffering," a D for "protecting animals in captivity" and an F for "protecting animals used for draught and recreation." Egypt earned mostly F's and G's. Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands ranked the highest, with an overall B score. The United States and Canada fell right in between, with a D. [Source: Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, March 30, 2023]

Growing attention on sustainability and environmental issues, plus a rising demand for accountability and transparency, has helped push the needle in a more positive direction. Tripadvisor was one of the first major travel companies to take a stand: In 2016, it no longer allowed travelers to book activities that involved physical contact with wild or captive animals. The following year, Shore Excursions Group, which provides cruise lines with port activities, removed elephant rides from its slate of options; Royal Caribbean eliminated the activity as well. In 2019, Booking.com and Airbnb drew up animal welfare policies that banned a range of unethical animal activities, such as elephant rides. The same year, the Association of British Travel Agents revised its animal welfare guidelines to include a similar provision. "When the big organizations took a more formalized stance, the governments paid attention," said Paul Pruangkarn, chief of staff for the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok.

The momentum has continued, even during the pandemic. In 2021, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan replaced the horse-drawn carriages with a small fleet of electric golf carts. Locals transport guests from the Siq, or gorge, to the Treasury, about a mile-long trip. "No more animals are going through the Siq," said Malia Asfour, managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board, North America. However, handlers with camels, donkeys and horses still hawk rides in the back half of the UNESCO World Heritage site. "It's a process," she admitted. "We can't turn everything off tomorrow."

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, a federal committee announced its intentions to abolish elephant rides at Amer Fort in Jaipur, following reports of animal abuse and neglect and visitors' waning interest. PETA India provided a concept for a royal substitute: an electric chariot dubbed the Maharaja. The switch is still pending, but travelers can rent diesel cars to explore the fort. Similarly, at the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egyptian authorities are considering replacing the horse-drawn carts that dangerously race up the slippery road with electric vehicles. Discussions have stalled, but Baker sees flickers of hope. While walking up the road to see the pyramids in Giza, he ran into another traveler also on foot. "They made a comment that they weren't going on a terrible animal ride," Baker said. "That's progress."

Exotic Wildlife Pets in the U.S.

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “All across the nation, in Americans’ backyards and garages and living rooms, in their beds and basements and bathrooms, wild animals kept as pets live side by side with their human owners. It’s believed that more exotic animals live in American homes than are cared for in American zoos. The exotic-pet business is a lucrative industry, one that’s drawn criticism from animal welfare advocates and wildlife conservationists alike. These people say it’s not only dangerous to bring captive-bred wildlife into the suburbs, but it’s cruel and it ought to be criminal too. Yet the issue is far from black or white. [Source:Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“At least not to Leslie-Ann Rush, a horse trainer who lives on a seven-acre farm outside Orlando, Florida, a place where the wind makes a rustling sound when it whips through the palms. Rush, 57, who has a kind face and hair the color of corn, breeds and trains gypsy horses she houses in a barn behind her small petting zoo, a wire enclosure where three male kangaroos, four lemurs, a muntjac deer (originally from Asia), a potbellied pig, a raccoon-like kinkajou called Kiwi, and a dog named Dozer all live—the lemurs leaping freely, the kangaroos sleeping on their sides, the petite pig rooting in the ground, the Asian deer balancing its rack of antlers on its delicate head. Rush weaves in and around her exotic pets with ease and cheerfulness and Cheerios, doling them out to the lemurs. They thrust their humanlike hands into the open boxes and draw out fistfuls of O’s, which they eat almost politely, one by one, dining daintily while the drool gathers in the corners of their mouths.

“Rush has a ring-tailed lemur, Liam; two ruffed lemurs, Lolli and Poppi; and a common brown lemur named Charlie. While many lemurs are threatened, the ruffed lemurs are considered critically endangered in the wild. Rush believes that by caring for these captive-bred creatures she is doing her part to help keep lemurs alive on Earth, and she cares for her animals with a profound commitment that consumes her days and even her nights. As darkness falls, she moves from the small enclosure into her home and takes her favorite lemur with her; he shares her bed, coiled up on a pillow by her head.

“Because kangaroos are active typically at dawn and dusk, the animals look lazy in the daylight, dun-colored beasts lying on their sides in cylinders of sun, their thick tails trailing in the dry dirt. But come evening they hop up on their hind legs and press their faces against the large glass window, looking in on Rush in her home: Let me come in, they seem to say. Rush does not let them in, although she did when they were babies. “I have all of these amazing animals of different species, from different continents, and the thing is, they play together,” she says, and she sweeps her hand through the air, gesturing to her multicolored menagerie sunning, sleeping, snacking. She has filmed and posted videos of them playing on YouTube, the lemurs leaping over the kangaroos, which hop and twirl and chase the primates around the yard.

Only the youngest kangaroo is awake, and now, suddenly, he perks up. His ears fork forward and his eyes take on a sheen. Hauling himself up on his hind legs, he sniffs the pig’s mottled hide as it trots by, then starts to hop behind the animal, lowering his pointed nose to get a whiff of the pig’s rear. The pig turns around and snarls. The kangaroo, the youngest one, which hasn’t been neutered, doesn’t seem to understand the meaning of the snarl—why would he, since he’s been raised to comprehend not animal but human language—and continues to pursue the pig, which picks up speed. The kangaroo is now in hot pursuit, trying to mount the pig.

““Look!” Rush says. “They’re playing!” But the animals do not seem to be playing. The pig’s snarl grows more threatening. There is, all of a sudden, in what was a peaceful enclosure, a series of misunderstandings. Although it seems evident to me that the kangaroo is trying to mate with the pig, Rush later tells me it was grooming. Whatever is happening, the pig is having no part of it and trots away as fast as his little legs will go. Of course, a kangaroo cannot successfully mate with a Vietnamese potbellied pig. Yet here, in this wired enclosure, the natural order has been altered.

Market for Exotic Pets in Mount Hope Ohio

Josie Glausiusz wrote in Natural History magazine: Three times a year the small town of Mount Hope, Ohio hosts a three-day sale of exotic animals. For a modest entrance fee of five dollars, visitors can meander among the crates, shopping for bearded dragons, Fennec foxes, and wallabies. Or they can ponder the merits of purchasing a black bear, a cougar, a sugar glider, or a zebra. For a seventeen-year-old boy and his eager-to-please, divorced dad, a two-week-old African lion was the winner. In April 2005, they plunked down $900 in cash for the cub, whose eyes were not yet open. No permit and no "owner's manual" included. (Ohio law did not require a permit, and still didn't at press time.) [Source: Josie Glausiusz, Natural History magazine]

The very next day the boy and his furious mother turned the lion, Alex, over to Tiger Mountain Refuge in Rainelle, West Virginia. John Forga, who runs the sanctuary with his wife, Myreda, asked the teenager where he had intended to keep Alex, as he and his mother lived in an apartment. Forga recalls the boy's answer: "'I was gonna train him to be friendly and he could have stayed in my room.' He was going to grow up in a child's bedroom watching TV and eating Cheetos!"

Alex now weighs 585 pounds, lives in a 2,500-square-foot enclosure, and dines well on a daily diet of twenty pounds of fresh beef, one adult tame rabbit, and two vitamin-infused chicken legs. Tiger Mountain shelters a bevy of other unwanted, abused, neglected, and confiscated big cats, including a blind African caracal lynx, a black leopard that was nearly euthanized by a private zoo in Ohio, and a cross-eyed, 350-pound Bengal tigress abandoned by a small zoo in Missouri.

No one knows exactly how many exotic pets live in the United States, or how many foreign animals are brought into the country every year. Hundreds of millions, from tropical fish and butterflies to lab monkeys, enter legally, making the U.S. the largest importer of live, wild animals in the world. Add to that a lion's share of the illegal international trade in wildlife, valued by the U.S. State Department in 2007 at $10 to $20 billion worldwide.

Caring for Exotic Wildlife Pets

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “The $35 that Rush charges to visit what she calls her Exotic Animal Experience helps defray the costs involved in keeping her pets. Some exotic-animal owners spend thousands a year on fresh meat, for carnivores that dine daily on raw steak, for primates—omnivores with complex dietary needs—for snakes, which eat rat after rat after rat. In Rush’s case her kangaroos consume huge quantities of grain, while the lemurs eat mounds of fruits and vegetables. [Source: Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“Rush herself lives a lean life, much of her own money poured into feeding her herd. And then there’s her time. She puts abundant hours into caring for her exotics. “They’re 24/7,” she says, and then goes on to add, “but they’re my family. They need me. I can’t explain to you what that feels like. I wake up every morning and come out here, and all my animals come rushing up to greet me. I feel loved, and that feels great.

Zuzana Kukol, who co-founded REXANO (Responsible Exotic Animal Ownership) to oppose bans on the private ownership or use of animals, and co-founder Scott Shoemaker live on ten acres of land an hour’s drive from Death Valley, in the state of Nevada. They own two bobcats, two African lions, two cougars, four tigers, one serval, and one ocelot. They point out that wild animal ownership has existed throughout history and in all cultures—“by monarchs, kings, monks, nomads, and peasants”—and insist that most owners today treat their animals well and keep them from harming people. When it comes to risk and its management, she is very clear: “I’d rather die by a lion than by some stupid drunk driver.”

“Local people, including farmers, give the couple their ailing cows and horses, which Shoemaker kills with a simple gunshot to the head, then butchers into small pieces and feeds to the menagerie, including Kukol’s favorite pet, a male African lion named Bam Bam. She has always gravitated more toward animals than people. “Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to surround myself with animals,” she says. “I never wanted children.”

Laws Regarding Exotic Wildlife Pets

Josie Glausiusz wrote in Natural History: So confusing and inconsistent are the laws that many people are ignorant of them. Paris Hilton found out that her pet kinkajou — a small rainforest-dwelling mammal related to the raccoon — was illegal in California only after it bit her at three A.M. one morning in August 2006 and she required a trip to the hospital. [Source: Josie Glausiusz, Natural History magazine]

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “Privately owning exotic animals is currently permitted in a handful of states with essentially no restrictions: You must have a license to own a dog, but you are free to purchase a lion or baboon and keep it as a pet. Even in the states where exotic-pet ownership is banned, “people break the law,” says Adam Roberts of Born Free USA. [Source: Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“The term exotic pet has no firm definition; it can refer to any wildlife kept in human households—or simply to a pet that’s more unusual than the standard dog or cat. Lack of oversight and regulation makes it difficult to pin down just how many exotics are out there. “The short answer is, too many,” says Patty Finch of the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. It’s estimated that the number of captive tigers alone is at least 5,000—most kept not by accredited zoos but by private owners. And while many owners tend to their exotic pets with great care and at no small expense, some keep their pets in cramped cages and poor conditions.

“Commercially importing endangered species into the United States has been restricted since the early 1970s. Many of the large exotic animals that end up in backyard menageries—lions and tigers, monkeys and bears—are bred in captivity. Today on the Internet you can find zebras and camels and cougars and capuchins for sale, their adorable faces staring out from your screen; the monkeys with their intelligent eyes; the big cats with their tawny coats. And though such animals are no longer completely wild, neither are they domesticated—they exist in a netherworld that prompts intriguing questions and dilemmas.

Exotic Wildlife Pet Owners

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “From his experience in providing sanctuary for exotic animals in need of new homes, often desperately, Roberts says that exotic-pet owners tend to fall into multiple overlapping categories. Some people treat their animals, especially primates, as surrogate children, dressing them up in baby clothes, diapering them, and training them to use the toilet. Some own exotics as symbols of status and power, the exotic animal the next step up from a Doberman or pitbull. There are impulse buyers who simply could not resist purchasing a cute baby exotic. Still others are collectors, like Brandon Terry, who lives in Wake County, North Carolina, in a one-bedroom apartment with 15 snakes, three of them venomous. And then there are wild animal lovers who may start out as volunteers at a wildlife sanctuary and end up adopting a rescued animal in need of a home. [Source: Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“Denise Flores of Ohio explains how she acquired her first tiger. “I went to a wild animal park one day, and someone put a baby tiger in my lap. My heart melted; it just melted. I was hooked,” says Flores, who ended up caring for eight rescued big cats, including two white tigers so beautiful they looked like fluid ivory.

“Some people seek wild animals as pets as a way to reconnect with the natural world. They believe their exotics set them apart, the relationship made all the more intense by the unintended social isolation that is often the result of having an unpredictable beast as a companion. “Yes, of course my exotics make me feel unique,” Rush says. Though anyone can own a cat or dog, exotic-pet owners take pleasure in possessing an animal that has, for hundreds of thousands of years, refused the saddle of domestication: They take the uncivilized into society and in doing so assert their power. “I wanted something different, something unusual,” says Michelle Berk, formerly of Palisades, Florida, who bought her kinkajou, Winnie, on craigslist. “She was there for me to make my own. We didn’t get a dog because there’s nothing cool or outstanding about owning a dog. A kinkajou—now that seems untouchable. And who doesn’t want the untouchable? They say don’t touch it, so you want to touch it.”

“Tim Harrison understands the allure of owning exotic pets. Thirty-two years ago he worked as a public safety officer in the city of Oakwood, Ohio, and kept a menagerie in his house. He had snakes wrapped around lamp poles. He had rhesus monkeys leaping from counter to couch. He had lions sunning themselves on his gravel driveway. He had capuchins and bears and wolves, which were his favorites. After a hard day of chasing criminals or a boring day of ticketing cars, Harrison would change out of his uniform and drive home to his animals. He always went to the wolves first. His body aching, his mind numbed, he’d let the canines come to him, weaving around his legs. He’d drop down on his knees and then lie flat on his back, the wolves clambering over him. “I would just lie there and let them lick me,” Harrison says, “and it was one of the best feelings in the world.”

Exotic Wildlife Trade

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “It’s true that even in states where wild animal ownership is explicitly banned, existing laws are not well enforced. The market for exotics is so alive and thriving that to call it underground is a bit misleading. “The worst offenders are the tiger petting zoos that churn out 200 cubs a year so people can have their picture taken with them,” says Carole Baskin of Big Cat Rescue, an accredited sanctuary. [Source: Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“At the raucous auctions held in muddy fields or paved parking lots, auctioneers hold out adorable tiger cubs with scrumptious soft scruffs or display tiny chimps in baseball hats and T-shirts that say, “I (heart) you.” But people don’t realize that all too soon that adorable tiger will outgrow its role as family pet and end up confined in a chain link enclosure.

“It’s backyard breeders that Tim Harrison believes are to blame for most wild animal abuse. He’s been to auctions where cages are stacked one on top of the other, cramped with cougars and other big cats, mostly cubs; the tents awhirl with people whose pockets bulge with cash; snakes and primates being sold for thousands of dollars. The parking lots are filled with everything from shining Cadillacs to rusted trucks, the public pouring in to see and touch.

“The breeders stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars during an auction. They coach their auctioneers—the middlemen—to tell prospective buyers that their animals, usually babies, are harmless, and they are correct. “The problem comes,” says Harrison, “when the animal reaches sexual maturity and its natural predator instinct kicks in.”

Exotic Wildlife Pet Incidents

Born Free USA keeps a running database of deaths and injuries attributed to exotic-pet ownership. Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: In Texas a four-year-old mauled by a mountain lion his aunt kept as a pet, in Connecticut a 55-year-old woman’s face permanently disfigured by her friend’s lifelong pet chimpanzee, in Ohio an 80-year-old man attacked by a 200-pound kangaroo, in Nebraska a 34-year-old man strangled to death by his pet snake. And that list does not capture the number of people who become sick from coming into contact with zoonotic diseases. [Source: Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“The state of Ohio has become ground zero for the debate over exotic-animal ownership, and here’s why: In October 2011, outside the city of Zanesville, in Muskingum County, a man named Terry Thompson let 50 of his wild animals, including lions and tigers, out of their cages and enclosures before killing himself. The local sheriff’s department had little choice but to shoot most of the animals, which were dodging cars, loping across backyards, and posing a threat to public safety. Prior to the Zanesville incident, Ohio was one of a handful of states that required no license or permit to keep an exotic or wild animal as a pet.

“The Zanesville tragedy woke Ohio up. In response to the outcry over the sight of exotic carcasses lined up near Thompson’s property, the governor of Ohio signed an executive order cracking down on unlicensed animal auctions. The state now requires owners of “dangerous exotic animals” to have a permit, to microchip their pets, to establish a relationship with a veterinarian, and to buy insurance. “I couldn’t afford the insurance,” Flores says, and so she sent her big cats to live in accredited sanctuaries, which is exactly what state officials hoped would happen. “These are beautiful animals, yes, but let me tell you,” says Flores, “I had the common sense to know to never get in the cage with them. I’d pet them through the bars, if that. That was all.”

“Sheriff Matthew Lutz was the one who gave the order to shoot the animals after Thompson released them from their cages. The incident continues to haunt him. He has joined forces with animal rights activists who have lobbied for years, to no effect so far, for a federal law that would prohibit the private possession and breeding of large cats except by zoos and other registered facilities.

Exotic Animals in Texas

Rachel Graves wrote in the Houston Chronicle: Although no one knows how many exotic animals are held in captivity, officials estimate there are 5,000 tigers held in the United States, 2,000 of which are in Texas. By comparison, there are about 3,500 tigers in the wild worldwide. [Source Rachel Graves, Houston Chronicle, July 27, 2002]

Texas is a hotbed for exotic pets, experts say, because of its warm climate, plentiful land and Wild West mentality. Authorities find out about dangerous pets when neighbors complain, the animals escape or when someone is injured. It is legal to sell exotic animals, and breeders are not required to keep records of the sales. Although there are no federal laws regarding exotic pets, the Humane Society of the United States is urging Congress to pass a law banning interstate shipments of lions, tigers and bears for the pet trade. Dangerous exotic animals are banned in Houston but are allowed in Harris County with a permit. Only four people in the county have or are seeking such permits, and four others have been forced to give up their dangerous pets after the county started regulating them in 2000.

Based on incidents in the past several years and the number of local breeders, authorities are sure there are many more of the animals in the Houston area. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found a starving 1-year-old lion in a horse trailer in northeast Harris County last week and seized it. In 2002, an 8-year-old girl peeked through a fence in a Houston neighborhood and saw a 500-pound Bengal tiger roaming next door. A black panther believed to be an escaped pet jumped into a back yard in Richmond in 2001 and killed a pet schnauzer, and a 3-year-old boy was killed by his father's tiger in Lexington in 2001.

In five years between 1997 and 2002 with the Houston SPCA, chief cruelty investigator Jim Boller said he has taken in 59 exotic cats, a half dozen primates, countless wolves and wolf hybrids and three brown bears that a family of illegal immigrants smuggled from Russia to use in their circus act. "(The people) were deported. We kept the bears," Boller said. The bears now live in a wildlife sanctuary in San Antonio. Those who keep exotic animals are generally a taciturn bunch, reluctant to talk about the animals because of trouble with neighbors and the authorities. Boller describes them as cutting across socioeconomic, age and gender lines but sharing a common characteristic of inflated egos. "It's the same type of people who want the bigger, badder, nastier dog," he said. "(They think) if a Rottweiler will guard my house well, a tiger would be 10 times better."

Richard Farinato, the director of captive wildlife protection for the Humane Society of the United States, said Texans started breeding such exotic "hoof stock" as zebras, giraffes and antelopes in the 1950s, then moved on to dangerous cats and other exotic animals. He attributed Texans' passion for the animals partly to a "Wild West mentality ... They want something macho. They want something novel. They want something that will scare people, get attention." Farinato said those who get into trouble with their exotic pets tend to be "the kinds of folks who live in a trailer or a double-wide with a cat in the back." Big cats and poisonous snakes also are sometimes used to guard drugs.

What Its Like Owning Tigers and Lions in Texas

Rachel Graves wrote in the Houston Chronicle: John Stromsky spends his days feeding and cleaning up after seven tigers, two mountain lions and a black panther. Between the 10 of them, the animals eat 70 pounds a day of "salvage meat" — free leftovers that meat companies give Stromsky by the truckload. "It's not a glamorous job. You figure seven pounds of meat a day. What does that equate to in leftovers?" Stromsky said, in a delicate reference to his cleanup chores. Stromsky's animals include the Bengal tiger he took in after it tore the arm off a 4-year-old boy in Channelview two years ago. He also cares for other animals whose owners could no longer keep them. [Source Rachel Graves, Houston Chronicle, July 27, 2002]

The cats live in an elaborate set of cages behind Stromsky's home in northeast Harris County. The cages are the best-tended part of his property, which is overrun with cars needing repairs and house cats that boldly swipe food from the tigers' cages. Stromsky does not recommend keeping exotic pets, nor does the only other exotic cat owner in Harris County who would consent to an interview. Animal experts are vehemently opposed to the practice.

Lion and tiger owner Suzette Stidom of Harris County said many who want to buy exotic cats cannot afford to feed them. She spends $12 a day on chicken parts for her two animals. "They eat before I eat," she said. "You don't want a couple hungry cats in the back yard." Stidom said she first got a lion 15 years ago, when she was "a kid" impressed by the novelty. She now owns a female lion and a male tiger that she keeps caged together in her back yard. The two animals are affectionate with each other, and Stidom said they might mate, creating a "liger." Such crossbreeding is common enough that "liger" has become an accepted term, Farinato said. "These folks are out there doing all kinds of strange things because, God bless America, it's a free country," said Farinato, who opposes keeping dangerous exotic animals as pets.

Although Boller accuses Stidom of selling exotic cats from her S&S Exotic Animals pet store, Stidom says she doesn't do so because most people cannot care for the animals. "They end up in the wrong hands nine times out of 10," Stidom said. "You buy this little-bitty cat you think is cute. The thing grows up. Five hundred pounds later ... " Instead, Stidom says she sells smaller animals such as monkeys, birds and sugar gliders, a tiny Australian marsupial. Stromsky and Stidom keep their animals in cages, but Stromsky raised a mountain lion in his house with his three children, and Stidom kept her first lion in the living room while it was growing up. Both pet and play with their animals. "I can get in there and play with them, do whatever I want with them," Stidom said. "They're just big babies." Stromsky even puts his hands in the mouth of Lory, the mountain lion he raised in his house. He said he has helped her give birth twice, putting his hands inside her to manipulate the babies. "Ain't no veterinarian going to do that," he said. Animal experts say those who believe they can turn several hundred pounds of wild animal into a docile pet are kidding themselves. "Those are people with a death wish," Farinato said. "There is no way that that animal is safe."

World’s Top Game Meat Producing, Exporting and Importing Countries

World’s Top Producers of Game Meat (2020): 1) Papua New Guinea: 414108 tonnes; 2) United States: 265239 tonnes; 3) Nigeria: 170839 tonnes; 4) Côte d'Ivoire: 152633 tonnes; 5) Ethiopia: 90310 tonnes; 6) Democratic Republic of the Congo: 89082 tonnes; 7) Ghana: 75202 tonnes; 8) Cameroon: 72724 tonnes; 9) Argentina: 50980 tonnes; 10) Morocco: 50797 tonnes; 11) South Africa: 47848 tonnes; 12) Congo: 43066 tonnes; 13) Zambia: 40493 tonnes; 14) Zimbabwe: 36828 tonnes; 15) Kenya: 29361 tonnes; 16) Niger: 29360 tonnes; 17) Gabon: 27910 tonnes; 18) Botswana: 25850 tonnes; 19) Mali: 24613 tonnes; 20) Tanzania: 23915 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Producers (in terms of value) of Game Meat (2019): 1) Papua New Guinea: Int.$1141959,000 ; 2) United States: Int.$712817,000 ; 3) Nigeria: Int.$516439,000 ; 4) Côte d'Ivoire: Int.$420957,000 ; 5) Ethiopia: Int.$246855,000 ; 6) Democratic Republic of the Congo: Int.$240751,000 ; 7) Ghana: Int.$215526,000 ; 8) Cameroon: Int.$208810,000 ; 9) South Africa: Int.$158991,000 ; 10) Congo: Int.$149006,000 ; 11) Morocco: Int.$145073,000 ; 12) Argentina: Int.$135407,000 ; 13) Zambia: Int.$109218,000 ; 14) Zimbabwe: Int.$97564,000 ; 15) Kenya: Int.$93314,000 ; 16) Niger: Int.$89255,000 ; 17) Botswana: Int.$86706,000 ; 18) Gabon: Int.$77438,000 ; 19) Mali: Int.$74829,000 ; 20) Tanzania: Int.$71372,000 ; [An international dollar (Int.$) buys a comparable amount of goods in the cited country that a U.S. dollar would buy in the United States.]

World’s Top Exporters of Game Meat (2020): 1) New Zealand: 10412 tonnes; 2) Poland: 8234 tonnes; 3) Netherlands: 8157 tonnes; 4) Belgium: 5277 tonnes; 5) Germany: 3327 tonnes; 6) Spain: 3141 tonnes; 7) France: 2390 tonnes; 8) Hungary: 2061 tonnes; 9) Austria: 1407 tonnes; 10) Czechia: 1401 tonnes; 11) United Kingdom: 1126 tonnes; 12) Slovenia: 935 tonnes; 13) Italy: 588 tonnes; 14) Estonia: 572 tonnes; 15) Slovakia: 561 tonnes; 16) South Africa: 392 tonnes; 17) Saudi Arabia: 314 tonnes; 18) Sweden: 266 tonnes; 19) United States: 129 tonnes; 20) Denmark: 115 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Game Meat (2020): 1) New Zealand: US$81016,000; 2) Netherlands: US$36701,000; 3) Poland: US$35228,000; 4) Germany: US$33768,000; 5) Spain: US$20972,000; 6) Belgium: US$19673,000; 7) France: US$17041,000; 8) Austria: US$16540,000; 9) Hungary: US$11318,000; 10) Slovenia: US$11293,000; 11) Czechia: US$8003,000; 12) United Kingdom: US$5652,000; 13) South Africa: US$4557,000; 14) Estonia: US$3050,000; 15) Sweden: US$3020,000; 16) Italy: US$2547,000; 17) Slovakia: US$2374,000; 18) Saudi Arabia: US$1538,000; 19) Denmark: US$1003,000; 20) Finland: US$616,000

World’s Top Importers of Game Meat (2020): 1) Netherlands: 32746 tonnes; 2) Germany: 14819 tonnes; 3) Belgium: 7336 tonnes; 4) Saudi Arabia: 4257 tonnes; 5) United States: 4145 tonnes; 6) France: 3171 tonnes; 7) Italy: 2649 tonnes; 8) United Kingdom: 2385 tonnes; 9) Austria: 2108 tonnes; 10) Slovenia: 887 tonnes; 11) Czechia: 766 tonnes; 12) Finland: 604 tonnes; 13) Slovakia: 551 tonnes; 14) Poland: 497 tonnes; 15) Sweden: 444 tonnes; 16) Spain: 358 tonnes; 17) Denmark: 324 tonnes; 18) Portugal: 245 tonnes; 19) Luxembourg: 148 tonnes; 20) Romania: 106 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Game Meat (2020): 1) Germany: US$91019,000; 2) Netherlands: US$67648,000; 3) Belgium: US$43447,000; 4) United States: US$27637,000; 5) France: US$20998,000; 6) Austria: US$16202,000; 7) Italy: US$16117,000; 8) United Kingdom: US$10562,000; 9) Saudi Arabia: US$5983,000; 10) Slovenia: US$4325,000; 11) Finland: US$4304,000; 12) Sweden: US$3911,000; 13) Czechia: US$3074,000; 14) Poland: US$3002,000; 15) Spain: US$2397,000; 16) Denmark: US$2304,000; 17) Slovakia: US$2264,000; 18) Luxembourg: US$1805,000; 19) Portugal: US$1050,000; 20) Romania: US$759,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Live Animal Exporting and Importing Countries

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Live Animals nes (2020): 1) South Africa: US$13841,000; 2) Czechia: US$9257,000; 3) United Arab Emirates: US$5717,000; 4) Qatar: US$2918,000; 5) Thailand: US$2465,000; 6) Russia: US$2020,000; 7) Hong Kong: US$1916,000; 8) Ukraine: US$1605,000; 9) Seychelles: US$1190,000; 10) Kenya: US$803,000; 11) Malaysia: US$683,000; 12) China: US$681,000; 13) Lebanon: US$543,000; 14) Egypt: US$514,000; 15) Belarus: US$501,000; 16) Ireland: US$296,000; 17) Pakistan: US$277,000; 18) Turkey: US$240,000; 19) Mauritius: US$200,000; 20) Mexico: US$148,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org,nes means “Not elsewhere specified or included”]

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Animals, live, non-food (2020): 1) Netherlands: US$191390,000; 2) United States: US$96580,000; 3) France: US$75858,000; 4) Belgium: US$74618,000; 5) Cambodia: US$73085,000; 6) Canada: US$68214,000; 7) Spain: US$48346,000; 8) Germany: US$45551,000; 9) United Kingdom: US$34616,000; 10) Denmark: US$34566,000; 11) Mauritius: US$32806,000; 12) Egypt: US$25807,000; 13) Israel: US$18437,000; 14) China: US$16750,000; 15) Slovakia: US$14912,000; 16) Italy: US$14402,000; 17) Morocco: US$13516,000; 18) Hungary: US$12354,000; 19) Singapore: US$12233,000; 20) Japan: US$11015,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Live Animals nes (2020): 1) Russia: US$6910,000; 2) China: US$5653,000; 3) Hong Kong: US$4931,000; 4) Czechia: US$3056,000; 5) United Arab Emirates: US$2305,000; 6) Thailand: US$1980,000; 7) Bangladesh: US$1832,000; 8) Iran: US$1675,000; 9) Croatia: US$1352,000; 10) South Africa: US$1269,000; 11) Iraq: US$1243,000; 12) Kuwait: US$1146,000; 13) Ukraine: US$875,000; 14) Turkey: US$785,000; 15) Taiwan: US$754,000; 16) Ethiopia: US$543,000; 17) Armenia: US$482,000; 18) Belarus: US$475,000; 19) Uzbekistan: US$436,000; 20) United Kingdom: US$397,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org, nes means “Not elsewhere specified or included”]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Live, Non-Food Animals (2020): 1) United States: US$259305,000; 2) Canada: US$84569,000; 3) Germany: US$65992,000; 4) France: US$61647,000; 5) Spain: US$49517,000; 6) United Kingdom: US$43167,000; 7) Netherlands: US$39514,000; 8) Japan: US$38608,000; 9) Belgium: US$37699,000; 10) South Korea: US$35468,000; 11) Italy: US$21999,000; 12) Switzerland: US$19397,000; 13) Singapore: US$18904,000; 14) China: US$13613,000; 15) Denmark: US$9827,000; 16) Austria: US$7547,000; 17) Poland: US$7356,000; 18) Portugal: US$7116,000; 19) Vietnam: US$6659,000; 20) Norway: US$5789,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Mostly National Geographic articles. Also David Attenborough books, Live Science, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Natural History magazine, Discover magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides and various books and other publications.

Last updated November 2024