The underground exotic animal trade is some really serious business. Wildlife trafficking generates $19 Billion a year, right behind drug trafficking ($300B per year), arms smuggling ($60B per year), and human trafficking ($30B per year). In this 17-minute "Profiles" piece by VICE we get an up close and uncomfortable look at the gray and black market aspects of the exotic animal trade.
Cruel and cramped living room environments for exotic pet cats.
Exotic Feline Rescue Center
There are people in the United States actually selling and trading exotic animals like corn and tomatoes at a Saturday farmer's market. The unregulated purchases of wild, killer cats are astounding. Some crazy person surfing the net can unconsciously purchase a tiger cub online for $25, obviously oblivious to how big these wild cats and their appetites can get. When they are no longer able to take care of their pet lion, leopard, Siberian tiger, black panther or Amazonian jaguar, they'll have no choice but to shrug off the responsibility to places like the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana. This Rescue Center is the second biggest exotic feline rescue center in the United States. They're responsible for feeding and taking care of these big cats. Everyday, this specific rescue center goes through about 3,000-4,000 pounds of meat, and everyday, about 1,000 pounds of bones need to be carefully picked out of these carnivorous cages.
Or, there is a second option. These inexperienced exotic cat owners can mimmic the notorious, mentally-ill Ohio man who frantically unleashed over fifty exotic animals including Bengal tigers, grey wolves, black bears and lions into the quiet suburbs of Ohio before killing himself. This wild animal frenzy unfortunately ended in mass murder—all animals were shot to death minus a Macaw monkey, who was probably eaten by one of the lions or tigers.
Tranquilizing Cougars with Ketamine
In the video, there is a disturbing sequence of events involving a group of clueless people desperately attempting to shove a cougar into a small cage inside of a van. The owners could no longer care for their big, carnivorous cougar so they called the Exotic Feline Rescue Center to take the big cat from their hands. After almost escaping during a failed attempt at caging the powerful animal with their bare hands, they were forced to sniper the cougar with the psychedelic tranquilizing dissociative, ketamine. This needed to happen, not once, but twice before the cougar collapsed into her own drool and began exploring Her cosmic consciousness while getting shoved and transported in a confining cage. It was an unpleasant viewing experience, to say the least.
Wanting to own a wild cat is purely an ego-trip. This false pride of ownership allow people to say that they can control and dominate a big cat, failing to recognize the fact that a big cat can easily chomp on your jugular whenever the hell he or she pleases. Like Chris Rock once astutely pointed out, "That tiger ain't go crazy, that tiger went tiger!"
There are people in the United States actually selling and trading exotic animals like corn and tomatoes at a Saturday farmer's market. The unregulated purchases of wild, killer cats are astounding. Some crazy person surfing the net can unconsciously purchase a tiger cub online for $25, obviously oblivious to how big these wild cats and their appetites can get. When they are no longer able to take care of their pet lion, leopard, Siberian tiger, black panther or Amazonian jaguar, they'll have no choice but to shrug off the responsibility to places like the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana. This Rescue Center is the second biggest exotic feline rescue center in the United States. They're responsible for feeding and taking care of these big cats. Everyday, this specific rescue center goes through about 3,000-4,000 pounds of meat, and everyday, about 1,000 pounds of bones need to be carefully picked out of these carnivorous cages.
Or, there is a second option. These inexperienced exotic cat owners can mimmic the notorious, mentally-ill Ohio man who frantically unleashed over fifty exotic animals including Bengal tigers, grey wolves, black bears and lions into the quiet suburbs of Ohio before killing himself. This wild animal frenzy unfortunately ended in mass murder—all animals were shot to death minus a Macaw monkey, who was probably eaten by one of the lions or tigers.
Tranquilizing Cougars with Ketamine
In the video, there is a disturbing sequence of events involving a group of clueless people desperately attempting to shove a cougar into a small cage inside of a van. The owners could no longer care for their big, carnivorous cougar so they called the Exotic Feline Rescue Center to take the big cat from their hands. After almost escaping during a failed attempt at caging the powerful animal with their bare hands, they were forced to sniper the cougar with the psychedelic tranquilizing dissociative, ketamine. This needed to happen, not once, but twice before the cougar collapsed into her own drool and began exploring Her cosmic consciousness while getting shoved and transported in a confining cage. It was an unpleasant viewing experience, to say the least.
Wanting to own a wild cat is purely an ego-trip. This false pride of ownership allow people to say that they can control and dominate a big cat, failing to recognize the fact that a big cat can easily chomp on your jugular whenever the hell he or she pleases. Like Chris Rock once astutely pointed out, "That tiger ain't go crazy, that tiger went tiger!"
A map displaying the highly-unregulated exotic animal ownership policies here in the States.
Unregulated Exotic Animal Auctions and Ranches
VICE also takes us on a trip to one of these exotic animal Texas auctions where animals are auctioned off like 18th-century slaves. Some of these animals include elk, axis, wallaby, fallow and oryx. It turns out that some states with loose exotic animal laws are used as legal loop-holes to launder legal and illegal (and sometimes endangered) exotic animals. It's fairly common practice to open up a ranch in Texas and fill it up with non-native animals so rich Exxon executives and hunters can have the illusory thrill of hunting down an out-of-place giraffe and wallaby. According to one of the ranchers, this exotic animal hunting game is a good thing for these animals, because it allows them to flourish in order to be hunted. Another rancher claims that many petrol executives from Houston come to hunt at the exotic wildlife ranch, not to bring back valuable game meat for their families to eat, but to simply kill in order to take the mount and hang on their walls like trophies. Some of these snaking oil executives intentionally leave the meat of the animal there to rot and waste. It's one thing to hunt and eat what you hunted, but to hunt simply to kill is stupidly mean-spirited and morally criminal, even.
What do you think?
VICE also takes us on a trip to one of these exotic animal Texas auctions where animals are auctioned off like 18th-century slaves. Some of these animals include elk, axis, wallaby, fallow and oryx. It turns out that some states with loose exotic animal laws are used as legal loop-holes to launder legal and illegal (and sometimes endangered) exotic animals. It's fairly common practice to open up a ranch in Texas and fill it up with non-native animals so rich Exxon executives and hunters can have the illusory thrill of hunting down an out-of-place giraffe and wallaby. According to one of the ranchers, this exotic animal hunting game is a good thing for these animals, because it allows them to flourish in order to be hunted. Another rancher claims that many petrol executives from Houston come to hunt at the exotic wildlife ranch, not to bring back valuable game meat for their families to eat, but to simply kill in order to take the mount and hang on their walls like trophies. Some of these snaking oil executives intentionally leave the meat of the animal there to rot and waste. It's one thing to hunt and eat what you hunted, but to hunt simply to kill is stupidly mean-spirited and morally criminal, even.
What do you think?
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