Learn all about the #NotAPet campaign in this Bitesize Bonus episode of the Sedgwick County ZooCast.<\/p>\n\n\n
VIGNETTE (00:00)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n EMILY BISHOP: July 5 2018 \u2013 Buffalo New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n A squad of federal and state law enforcement agents armed with guns and bulletproof vests enter the single-story brick home of one Christopher Casacci.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn\u2019t Casacci\u2019s first run in with the law- he\u2019s served probation for felony forgery in the past. But this run in with the law will have much more dire consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agents enter the home, making their way to a sunroom. They can smell it before they enter the room- a pungent ammonia smell that hangs in the air. Experts trained in handling dangerous exotic animals follow the agents inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sunroom holds six exotic cats- two caracals and four servals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A few weeks prior, on June 22, an inspector from the United States Department of Agriculture visited Casacci\u2019s home following his application for a license that would allow him to possess African cats. Casacci withdrew the application before it could be properly processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon arriving at the home, the inspector found eight caracal and serval kittens. One in a crate and so sick and thin that its hip bones and ribs protruded from its skin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A depressing and disgusting situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, Casacci was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trafficking exotic African cats. Through his website \u201cExoticCubs.com\u201d he sold dozens of African cats, advertising them as \u201cexcellent pets\u201d that will \u201ccuddle and love the people around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Casacci\u2019s sale of exotic pets might have been shut down, this is a story that\u2019s too often echoed in other exotic pet busts. And these illegal sales aren\u2019t happening through back-alley channels and the dark web, they\u2019re happening on websites that I can almost guarantee- you, dear listener of this podcast, have an account on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n INTRO (01:59)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BISHOP: Hello, and welcome to the Sedgwick County ZooCast Bitesize Bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m your host, Emily Bishop, and this mini episode we\u2019re giving you the Zoo Scoop on the #NotAPet campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ANIMAL TRAFFICKING (02:18)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BISHOP: Let\u2019s say you\u2019re in the market for a new pet. Goldfish? Boring. Dog? Been there, done that. No, you want something more exciting, something that no one else you know has. You want something exotic. What about a tiger? Doesn\u2019t get more exotic than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So where do you start to go about obtaining this tiger? Well, you go to, of all places, Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a 2022 article, VICE reported that it took their team less than 24 hours to order a tiger on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 24 hours and half a dozen messages, and they were able to find a seller through a public Facebook group. \u201cIf the price is right, you get it,\u201d the seller said in a voice note. The sale was set to take place in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. \u201cWe will make payment in cash. If you confirm and we have the tiger, I will call you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When perusing Facebook market for a lightly used car or treadmill, there\u2019s a pretty high chance you\u2019ll also scroll by a listing for some kind of exotic animal being sold through pet trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Facebook knows this is happening. They announced that they would be cracking down on wildlife trafficking and partnering with conservation groups to help remove animal sales from their site. And they\u2019ve begun banning accounts connected to animal trafficking. A few years ago, Facebook and Instagram joined the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, taking a pledge to cut online animal trafficking by 80% by 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This would be great, if Facebook actually followed through. A 2021 report by the World Wildlife Fund found that the number of wildlife items for sale on Facebook actually increased by 74%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, at least Facebook is banning known traffickers\u201d you might be thinking. The thing about a Facebook account is that you can always create a new one, and the deletion of accounts actually makes it more difficult for organizations, like the WWF, to track known traffickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, that same report from the WWF found that in 2021 the number of traders on Facebook increased by 69%<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of this increase is due to the Facebook algorithm. Facebook notices you follow a lot of wildlife pages, so it will continue to recommend wildlife pages to you because the algorithm notices an increase in engagement when you come across these pages. But some of these wildlife pages might actually be wildlife trafficking pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the span of a few weeks, researchers noted that Facebook made 95 wildlife-focused recommendations to them through notifications and the \u201csuggested groups\u201d feature. Of these posts, 76% were posts about selling or buying live animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is pretty heinous, and you might be thinking, \u201cwhy would someone do something like this.\u201d For the sellers, the answer is obvious enough- money. An Asiatic black bear cub can go for $1,000; a leopard cub can be sold for $280. Reptiles, amphibians, and birds are smaller than most mammals, and therefore easier to transport and more likely to be trafficked. Some turtle species can go for $1500 each. It\u2019s a lucrative business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for the buyers, it\u2019s a little more complicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The people buying these animals are, for the most part, not some Cruella de Vil heinous villains. While many buyers are purchasing animals, or animal parts, for use in quote unquote \u201ctraditional medicine\u201d which side note, has no scientific backing or benefits, or for decorations in their homes as a status symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many people are buying these animals because, well, they love animals. Or they at least say they do. They don\u2019t see anything wrong with buying one- they might not even know that in most cases owning a wild animal is illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These people see no difference between having an African gray parrot and a canary- in their eyes caring for a serval should be as easy as caring for a tabby cat. And they see themselves as good pet owners, they aren\u2019t purposefully mistreating their animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But they are mistreating their animals. Because exotic animals are not pets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE #NOTAPET CAMPAIGN (06:50)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BISHOP: The #NotAPet campaign is working to end the illegal pet trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Association of Zoos and Aquariums have partnered with the Wildlife Trafficking Alliance and International Fund for Animal Welfare to help educate the public on why exotic animals are not pets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there are numerous reasons that you shouldn\u2019t have an exotic pet, we\u2019re going to focus on two main reasons that go hand in hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First is the animal\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, the animals being trafficked are captured and taken from their homes in the wild. They\u2019re mistreated on the journey from their natural habitat to wherever they\u2019re being sold, often being injured or becoming sick in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A series of texts intercepted from a 2021 animal trafficking case show a conversation between two traffickers. The first trafficker is complaining about six adult toucans he\u2019s transporting that won\u2019t stop squawking. The response from his partner? \u201cTape their beaks so they do not make noise and tie them up very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These animals are mishandled and abused when being trafficked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, is zoonotic disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A zoonotic disease is any infection or disease that is naturally able to transmit from animals to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way that animals are often transported during trafficking- in tight cramped quarters- increases the spread of zoonotic diseases between animals, and therefore to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 75% of new diseases discovered in the last decade are zoonotic, and more than half of all human diseases have zoonotic origins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s was zoonotic from chimps to humans. 2003\u2019s Monkeypox outbreak was transmitted, not from monkeys, but rodents and prairie dogs to humans. And the West African Ebola epidemic of the mid 2010s was the result of sustained contact between humans and bats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a myriad of other reasons you should not own an exotic pet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this can be overwhelming, and it\u2019s easy to feel helpless when confronting an issue as big as animal trafficking. But there are things you can do that make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the easiest things you can do is being conscious of the social media content you\u2019re engaging with. The next time you see a Reel or a Tik Tok of an exotic animal, ask yourself who is posting this and why? What does the caption say? What is the goal of the user who uploaded it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n By being smart about how we\u2019re engaging with content online, we can ensure that we aren\u2019t promoting illegal or harmful activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also be an advocate for wildlife. Talk to your friends and family about why certain animals don\u2019t make good pets. If your friend is telling you about how they want to buy a lemur or macaw, start a dialogue with them about why that isn\u2019t in their best interest, or the best interest of the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re craving more information on this issue, or if you want to take the pledge to be an animal ally, visit notapet.net.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n By just being more educated on the issue of animal trafficking and the illegal pet trade, you\u2019re already taking strides to help end the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LEARN ABOUT HOLIDAY GIFT MEMBERSHIP (10:15)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BISHOP: That\u2019s what\u2019s new at Zoo with the #NotAPet campaign. But keep listening after a brief message about how the Zoo makes holiday shopping easy to learn about the most heavily trafficked mammal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to find the perfect gift for a loved one can be tough. Shopping during the holiday season is stressful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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