Unfortunately, Canada is becoming host to a number of people with exotic ideals when it comes to owning pets. Take Yasmin Nakhuda, an Ontario pet owner in whose custody reside a couple of monkeys, a wallaroo, marmosets and a fox, among many other exotic pets, all out at her rural Ontario property.
Nakhuda is not alone in her tastes, as law enforcement have been regularly intercepting shipments of exotic animals to Canada to be sold and bred as pets.
These animals include a small litany of species of turtles and tortoises from as far away as Africa and China, chameleons and iguanas and more snakes than you could shake a stick at, as well as tigers, parrots and monkeys.
While many of the more dangerous and larger of these exotic pets are, according to law enforcement, bred on Canadian soil, many of the smaller animals are taken from their habitats and smuggled into Canada. This trade in animals is a multi-billion dollar industry and among the largest forms illegal trade in Canada, among counterfeit money and drugs.
If there’s one thing that always gets under my skin quickly, it’s the mistreatment of animals. Importing wild animals, many of which are from far warmer climates than in Canada is just that.
Those smuggling these exotic pets into Canada are doing so by sticking the animals into plastic totes, cramming them under car seats, putting them into shipping containers with false bottoms, and sometimes, like in the case of a Waterloo man, just stuffed into his own pants. Often these animals come to Canada far worse for the wear than they were before they were taken from their natural habitats.
Aside from the people importing pets being primarily after the enormous amounts of money they can make importing exotic animals into the country, the motivations of the people creating the demand in that market disappoint me. Why, you ask? Because instead of looking to the black market they could have taken a peek at their local animal shelter.
There’s no shortage of dogs and cats (and other far more domesticated, tame animals) that still need forever homes, waiting around in the Humane Society or SPCA locations in towns and cities, that would make wonderful pets—something any rational person ought to consider long before they think about importing primates or snakes through the black market, to build their own little menagerie.
I think it’s a given that most people adopting a snake, tortoise, tiger or other animal are doing it for the coolness factor. I’m sure in their vanity and impulsiveness it seems a hip, cultured thing to do. What ends up happening is that these people realize they’ve bitten off more than they can chew.
For some perspective, let’s keep in mind that a lot of people out there can barely even manage the responsibilities of caring for rabbits, given the rate of bunny-abandonment in Victoria, leading to a population explosion of rabbits at the Helmcken Road and Trans-Canada Highway interchange needing to be spayed and relocated by the truckload.
And if the tremendous amount of danger to the exotic animals being imported into homes which in many cases aren’t suitable for them, isn’t a detractor enough, many of these animals are a danger to the people who take it upon themselves to raise them.
I’ll spare the details, but if you’re not too squeamish, do a Google search for the name, Charla Nash, to see how horribly, aberrantly wrong things can go when people start thinking it’s a good idea to keep exotic, wild animals as pets.
Most provinces just have some bans in place, as far as laws go. The comprehensive laws B.C. has enacted that takes into account which kinds of animals are permitted and which ones are not was borne out of necessity, after a tiger broke out of its cage and killed someone in 2007 at an exotic animal farm.
Part of the bigger problem is in the fact that there are so many different laws from province to province regarding what’s okay and what’s not. Add on top of those dubious, uncertain numbers, since the trade of exotic pets is such a clandestine operation, and what you’ve got is a shady grey area, as far as legality is concerned.
There are places these animals can be kept: with people who have the qualifications to look after these animals. These people usually work at zoos or facilities specifically intended to look after these kinds of animals.
Since anything legal is far outside of my purview, allow me to appeal to the moral sense of the average Canadian citizen. Leave wild animals in the wild. There are plenty of tamer, less dangerous animals you could choose from for companionship, who’ll love you far more for it than a creature that misses its burrow or den outside of human custody.
