Exotic pets can be challenging for communities. An increasing number of incidents involving exotic pets has led more municipalities to ban or carefully regulate the ownership of exotic animals by private individuals in the past few decades. When local bans or regulations on exotic animals exist, the difficulty of answering calls and dealing with issues often falls to local animal control officers. Here’s a look at concerns with exotic pets, as well as how to keep tabs on exotic pet ownership in your municipality.

Concerns with Exotic Pets

Many municipal bans on owning exotic pets arise because of a local incident involving an exotic animal. In general, exotic animals pose three main types of danger.

Public Safety: Physical attacks from exotic pets is probably the number one reason that most local governments pass bans or regulations on exotic pet ownership. As wild animals, exotic pets can be unpredictable and in certain cases can pose threats to civilians around them. Because most private individuals are not well-equipped to handle large, dangerous animals, attacks resulting in injury or death to humans is not uncommon where exotic pets are involved.

Public Health: Exotic animals also have the potential to carry diseases that can pose a threat to public health. More than 90% of reptiles carry salmonella, which they can shed in their droppings and spread around their enclosures. If not handled and cleaned properly, this can spread to humans around them. Pet prairie dogs have also been linked to outbreaks of monkeypox, and macaque monkeys carry viruses that can be deadly in humans. The potential to contract diseases from exotic pets increases when the animals live in unsanitary conditions or their owners have poor hygiene habits.

Threat to Local Ecology: Another threat from exotic pets is their potential to wreak havoc on local ecology in instances where the animal escapes or is purposefully dumped. Non-native predators can disrupt the local order of prey-predator, whereas other species that might not have natural predators in this new environment can multiply unchecked and take resources away from native species. (This is a common issue in Texas, where some species of African herd animals that have been imported for big game hunting or wildlife tourism have escaped their perimeters to form their own herds.)

Animal Welfare: In addition to the dangers that exotic animals pose to the people and natural environment around them, there is also the danger to the animal itself to consider. Another major factor that plays into municipal bans and regulations on exotic ownership is concern for the welfare of the captive animals themselves. Many exotic pets have needs that are beyond the average person’s capabilities to provide for. From unsuitable living conditions to poor nutrition and vet care, many exotic pets are at risk of some level of neglect that affects their well-being – and when the care becomes too much, many owners will release their exotic pets into the wild, where many are not equipped to survive.

Laws Against Exotic Pet Ownership

In December 2022, the Big Cat Public Safety Act was passed. The new federal law prevents breeding and the future ownership of lions, tigers and other big cats, and requires those private individuals who currently own them to register their animals and prohibit the public display and petting of cubs. The Endangered Species Act is another federal law that regulates ownership or transportation of endangered species – but it’s more common that bans against exotic animals come from the state and local level.

Local governments often have greater flexibility and responsiveness to respond to concerns about exotic pets that arise from local incidents. Local laws vary from outright bans on owning varying exotic animals to regulations that require licenses or permits to have them.

Tracking Exotic Animal Ownership and Incidents

When local laws exist, it often falls to local animal control departments to field calls and handle incidents involving exotic animals. Even in areas where exotic animals are not prohibited, it is still beneficial to the health and safety of the public – and to the welfare of the animals – to keep tabs on exotic pet ownership. When animal control officers have better visibility on who owns exotic pets, it’s easier to provide the education and resources needed to ensure that both animals and citizens are safe.

Keeping tabs on these situations is often easier said than done, however, especially when case management is manually handled in Excel or using paper files. To that end, animal control software can be vital to tracking and managing exotic pet cases. Software with case tracking capabilities makes it easy to receive and log complaints from neighbors, schedule and manage inspections, and keep track of follow-ups – helping officers to ensure that the animal inquisition is both being provided for and safely secured so both animal and citizens aren’t in any danger. Animal control software with GIS technology also allows officers to flag properties where exotic animals are present, so officers visiting the home in the future can be on alert for their own health and safety.

Comcate: Increased Visibility for Increased Safety

Animal control officers have to be prepared to deal with all kinds of unusual situations. We know, because in the 20+ years we’ve been in business, Comcate has worked with animal control departments and private human societies across the country. We know the difficulties that officers face everyday – which is why we designed animal control-specific software to handle those challenges.

Our affordable animal control software helps officers streamline case tracking, making it easy to keep on top of ongoing situations and provide the necessary education and resources to abate the situation. Our Animal Control Manager solution comes also equipped with an Animal Database that makes it easy to log animals, find owner information by animal and essentially create a registry for local exotic pet owners. Interested in learning more about how software could help your municipality keep up with exotic pet cases? Fill out the form below to talk with one of our consultants!

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Learn how Comcate can help make government delivery simple, and offer a modern digital experience to help you increase transparency, efficiency, and performance across your departments. If you have any questions about implementing our software, please fill out the form below or call us directly at (415) 632-1248.

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