In many cases they are prohibited, yet as many as 5 million exotic or non-domestic animals live in Italian homes. There are those who make them celebrities on social media. But they suffer…
Have a dog or cat that roams the house? Discounted. Today, transforming your home into an assorted zoo is much more “trendy”. Instead of the usual feline or canine presences, colorful birds, silent goldfish or soft rabbits, it seems more sophisticated to have an exotic or wild animal, or even own some farm specimen.
So here’s a load of domestic ducks, chickens, hedgehogs, ferrets, Vietnamese pigs, owls, pythons, even capybaras (a large herbivorous rodent) or bearded dragons (a large orange lizard). With great profits for the companies that produce accessories for this type of beast and, unfortunately, also for those who smuggle them across continents. According to the latest data from LAV, the anti-vivisection league, 5 million exotic animals are traded every year and kept in cages, tubs, display cases, garages and closets in Italian homes. Of these, a quarter comes from smuggling. The illegal wildlife trade generates an annual revenue of 20 billion dollars worldwide. People like the “peculiar” animal: on social media there are videos with millions of “likes” populated by domestic ducks, ducklings walking down the street swinging on their webbed paws kept on a leash by their owners. Because, it’s good to know, there is a leash for ducks and chickens, sold for 19 euros in various shapes and colours.
Even more popular is the “nappy for domestic poultry”, a lovely washable, adjustable and waterproof panty. Because the duck is not like the dog who waits to go out to do his business or like the cat who retreats with feline dignity to his litter box: when he has to do it, he does it even if he is on the leather sofa in the living room.
A “basic” panty costs as much as a whole pack of baby diapers, and double if you choose the version with bows and ruffles. The American site PamperYourPoultry, online for 15 years, has created a fashion line, with different models, from the most “practical and colourful” to the most “small and elegant”.
Chinchillas and meerkats are also very popular, say the LAV figures, the former a rodent and the latter a mammal, with a very sweet appearance with large eyes and cunning faces. Or African hedgehogs or reptiles. The problem is that most of these animals are wild, meaning they don’t like contact with humans. And although the reference regulations regarding pets, law 157/1992 and ministerial decree 19/4/1996 with subsequent updates, do not explicitly prohibit their possession, it would not be advisable to keep them at home.
Not to mention the expressly prohibited categories, such as lemurs, raccoons, monkeys, capybaras, foxes. In this case there are penalties ranging from a fine of up to 8 thousand euros to imprisonment from three months to a year.
«The most serious thing is that he is caused continuous suffering. Because they need specific power, large spaces. Being confined in a closed environment exposes them to enormous physical and mental damage”, recalls Massimo Vacchetta, founder of the La Ninna hedgehog recovery center in Novello, Cuneo, a veterinarian with over 300 thousand followers. «Today it is fashionable to have an African hedgehog, given that the European one cannot be kept because it is endangered and protected. For years it has been forbidden to import it into Italy, but, since someone once brought it from Africa, farms have been created in which the specimens are bred in inbreeding, therefore already delicate and fragile”.
Added to this is the carelessness of the owners who ignore the type of commitment required by this species. «I receive abandoned specimens that have lived in miserable hygienic conditions, treated like dogs and cats when in nature they are shy and solitary. Due to the stress of captivity and forced interactions with humans they are apathetic. Or they walk back and forth in the cage until their paws are peeled, leaving a trail of blood on the bottom of the cage. Before buying a wild animal, you need to remember that it is not an inferior being without feelings, but a living being with its own emotions.”
Some wild animals live at night, or need a certain temperature to survive. Once domesticated, they can no longer be freed because, unable to obtain food or defend themselves, they would succumb. «The media makes “unusual” animals a symbol, people identify with them and are encouraged to buy them even if their possession is prohibited» claims Andrea Lunerti, expert in human-animal safety and well-known face on TV. «Let’s think about someone who buys a snake: they certainly want to convey an idea of strength. Then he realizes that it takes money and attention to maintain its natural habitat and gets rid of it. In my career I found myself recovering an African Steppe Monitor that ended up, no one knows how, in a condominium in Anguillara, near Rome. Its sale and reproduction is prohibited. Then, in a joint action with the Carabinieri, a Moluro python, a snake over three meters long, was approaching a child on a tricycle. Again: snapping turtles everywhere, one of these had been thrown into a condominium fountain full of goldfish. Unfortunately it is easy to procure this type of animal with impunity which, once abandoned, becomes a danger to everyone.”
The entry into force of the latest regulations on the census of exotic animals has fueled the phenomenon of abandonment. But it has not discouraged smuggling, which allows careless purchases at negligible prices, with most specimens dying of starvation during transport. The advice, before getting an animal other than a dog or cat, is to think twice and, perhaps, not buy it at all. Instead, consider whether it would not be decidedly better to choose to volunteer in a wildlife recovery center. To save the unfortunate specimens of other people’s purchases.
