TAOS - The Association of Sanctuaries - We accredit superior animal sanctuaries for wild animals, farmed animals, and companion animals and assist animal sanctuaries in providing quality rescue and care for displaced animals who live in an animal sanctuary.

No Wild Pets!

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Project Overview

The keeping of wild and exotic "pets" is on the rise around the world and especially in the United States. For example:

•	The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) estimates that, in 2000 alone, 9 million reptiles were kept as pets. Both HSUS and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) estimate that more than 90% of them die in the first year.
•	The Avian Welfare Coalition (AWC) estimates that, by 2004, there will be 60 million captive birds in American households.
•	Other experts estimate there are more captive tigers in the U.S. than those living wild in Asia.
•	Estimates of wolves and wolf-dogs, or hybrids, kept as pets range from 200,000–300,000.

If you are thinking about keeping a wild or exotic animal as a pet, we invite you to reconsider the impact upon the animal and his native environment as well as the risks to your family and yourself.

The growing displacement of wild animals into human domestic space creates immense suffering for animals and frequently for humans as well. Here you will find a set of public education and outreach materials that discourage the private ownership of wild and exotic pets. These materials:

•	Detail the problems for humans and animals in keeping wild creatures as pets.
•	Offer alternative ways to support wild animals and their habitats.
•	Encourage animals lovers to be spiritually connected to "the wild" without damaging it by keeping a wild animal captive in human domestic space.

Our message is simple: wild animals need to remain in their natural habitat, not captive in human domestic space.

Wild Animals as "Pets"

People try to keep wild or exotic creatures as pets for a variety of reasons:

•	Display or decoration
•	Status or trophy
•	Curiosity or novelty
•	A way to express one's "spirituality"
•	A way to express one's "macho" side
•	Baby or child substitute
•	Because they are "cute"

Many owners and potential owners of wild animals see themselves as "saving the wild," whether "the wild" is an actual creature or place, or an inner spirit or psychic terrain. Yet these reasons do not take into account the self-willed nature of the animals, their ability and their need to live free in their natural habitat.

For wild or exotic animals are by nature wild and do not respond well to captivity. As adults, many become destructive and physically dangerous while others carry diseases such as Herpes B or salmonella, potentially lethal to humans. Further, wild animals do not make good pets. They rarely do tricks, they ignore their owners, and they are difficult and expensive to care for. Whether wild-caught or captive bred, even the exotic animals seen in pet shops—parrots, reptiles, turtles, frogs, snakes—are wild by nature and have not been domesticated. The urge to buy them should be resisted, for the outcome is almost always tragic.

The Consequences

For humans, forcing an animal to live separated from all that sustains his natural existence can be a costly venture. Potential owners rarely know:

•	The creature's lifespan.
•	His natural behavior and needs.
•	The time and expense involved in his care.
•	The dangers and diseases for both humans and animals.
•	The city, county, state, or federal laws regarding possession.

Nor are they aware of what the purchase of such a creature supports:

•	The high number of deaths caused in capture and transit.
•	The destruction of habitat and other species.
•	The disruption of whole ecosystems.
•	The animal suffering it entails.

A sense of failure, guilt, and loss, a sense of "what have I done?" and "if I'd only known" are often all that remains from an animal lover's misguided attempt to make a wild being serve as a pet.

The effort and expense required to maintain a wild or exotic animal outside of her natural domain occurs because humans have separated an animal from the habitat best suited for her life. In her own place, in her native home, an animal takes care of herself with minimal impact on the environment and its other creatures, including its human inhabitants.

Even captive bred animals suffer when kept as pets, for they are:

•	Denied adequate parental care.
•	Sickened and maimed by inappropriate diets and surgical procedures performed to make them less dangerous.
•	Separated from their own kind and unable to engage in their natural behaviors.
•	Robbed of their self-sufficiency and made dependent on human ability (or whim) to meet their most minimal needs.

Animal welfare organizations estimate that, depending on the species, as many as 90% die in the first year of being kept as a pet.

Wildlife Trade: The Big Picture

In the United States, the growing number of displaced animals results from an exotic animal market fueled by legal and illegal importers, trappers, breeders, dealers, zoos, pet stores, and the public itself. Zoos, circuses, and other animal acts respond to the public's demand to see baby animals by breeding. The result is a surplus of animals who have no place to go. They end up being sold to roadside zoos, or becoming exotic meat, food for other carnivores, or trophies in canned hunts.

Breeders and pet stores also play on the demand for baby animals, selling them as "pets." But when the novelty of having a wild or exotic pet fades or the animal's adolescent or adult demands become unmanageable, these creatures are relegated to cages in backyards, garages, basements, or worse. Some are resold, thus reentering the animal market, what has been aptly called the surplus animals' "cycle of hell." Only a few arrive at sanctuaries. Other unwanted pets are abandoned or killed. Their lives neither take place nor end in their natural home, the one place where those lives and those deaths belong.

TAOS is currently working with a global coalition of professionals in captive animal welfare to address the problem of trade in captive wild animals.

TAOS is a Member of

The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS)

P.O. Box 925, Stillwater, MN 55082

Phone: 763-772-3087 • Fax: 651-275-0457

E-mail: info@taosanctuaries.org • Web Site: http://www.taosanctuaries.org