The unique pet” trade is large business. Selling protected wildlife in shops, auctions, or on the Internet is likely one of the largest sources of legal earnings, behind only arms smuggling and drug trafficking. But the animals pay the price. Many don’t survive the journey from their homes, and those that do survive usually endure in captivity and die prematurely from malnutrition, an unnatural and uncomfortable setting, loneliness, and the overwhelming stress of confinement.
Let me begin with the dangerous. The animals look sick. Many geckos appeared thin, with their spines exposed, together with unhealthy kinks in their tails. I suspect a lot of them to have high parasitic masses. The tanks are additionally overcrowded. Fennec foxes are fairly well-known animals and are prevalent in the commerce of exotic mammals, but the slightly larger bat-eared foxes, also from Africa, are a lot less common. Unlike fennec foxes, they’re primarily insectivores. … Read more