GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) has expressed grave concern over the increasing number of exotic pets brought into the country due to their popularity with Malaysians, particularly children.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader said exotic animals were often obtained by people with insufficient knowledge, resources or commitment to look after them properly.
According to Dr Michael Gumert, a professor of psychology at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, the unusual appearance, shape, colour, rarity, or timely fashionability of these animals, along with human psychological factors such as the desire for prestige, or to stand out, are reasons people buy exotic pets.
"Exotic animals live in very different conditions to those which they face in a cage or a tank. They also need special food and living conditions that are difficult to provide.
"Children often roughly mishandle exotic pets, causing them distress. Additionally, exotic pet owners sometimes attempt to change the nature of the animal by confining them in small, barren enclosures, chaining them, beating them into submission or submitting them to painful mutilations such as declawing and tooth removal.
"Obtaining exotic pets is easy and rarely results in a penalty since most states do not keep accurate records of exotic animals entering their state. It is impossible to know how many exotic animals are privately held as pets, but the number is estimated to be quite high.
"As such, CAP strongly urges against keeping exotic species as pets. Whether traded legally or illegally, keeping wild animals as pets is cruel," Mohideen said today.
Chinchillas, sugar gliders, iguanas, tortoises and turtles, primates, birds and snakes are among the most sought-after exotic pets.
A quick Internet search for buying an Indian star tortoise brings up a number of websites selling the protected species.
Mohideen said the demand for exotic animals, particularly reptiles, had made Peninsula Malaysia one of the top markets for the smuggling of exotic animals.
He noted that this involved large networks and syndicates which employed groups of people from hunters and collectors in rural areas to middlemen and high-level traders in urban centres.
Underground routes and a variety of methods are used to deceive enforcement authorities who are not experts in identifying violations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
"Exotic animals suffer at every step of this journey, only to be sold into captivity and later die or be abandoned when proper food or care isn't given them to them."
"Abandoned or escaped exotic animals may proliferate in the wild and become an invasive species competing with native species for food, or infect native species with diseases. An already rare animal may be brought to extinction by this largely unregulated trade. And finally, exotic pet owners have insufficient knowledge, resources, and commitment to the care of these exotic animals."