Although trophy hunters and those who raise wild and exotic animals as pets might seem to be at opposite extremes, they are more similar than they seem; both are ignorant of animal rights and are adrenaline junkies, and both groups engage in these activities to boost their ego because they consider it to be a sign of their wealth and bravery. Last month, an international uproar erupted when a trophy hunter killed the Zimbabwean lion known as Cecil bringing people's attention to so-called "recreational big game hunting", where people pay large sums of money to hunt specific animals and take them back to their countries as trophies. On the other hand, numerous videos are posted on social media of people playing with their pet lions or tigers, but the public reaction is much more subdued because in comparison to a picture of a killed animal, it seems as if there is no harm done. Unfortunately, the domestication of wild and exotic animals seems to be prevalent among many of the wealthy elite in the Gulf region. The Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Wildlife Authority, Prince Bandar Bin Saud, has stated that the Wildlife Authority has never issued a permit for any individual to bring a wild or exotic animal to Saudi Arabia for "domestication" or sale. Accordingly, wild or exotic animals that are domesticated by individuals in Saudi Arabia have been acquired illegally. This is in violation of Saudi law, which would lead to penalties if it were discovered, especially since Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In the past several years, the Saudi Wildlife Authority in coordination with Saudi customs has been very serious and vigilant about the illegal trade of live wild animals or their products and has been successful in thwarting several smuggling attempts and in rescuing animals from illegal trading, but, unfortunately, some smuggling attempts have been successful since people still seem to acquire these animals. Accordingly, clear penalties need to be enforced and videos posted on social media should be dealt with like any other form of animal abuse in which people are identified and prosecuted. According to the Humane Society of the United States, taking care of wild animals is almost impossible because it requires a high level of expertise and an understanding of their nutritional and behavioral needs. Wild animals are unpredictable regardless of how loving they may seem to be to their caretakers; they are controlled by their instincts, which have insured their survival for millennia. Thus, domesticating them, if it is possible, could take hundreds of years in order for evolution to take its course and tame their wild instincts. Meanwhile, these animals are considered to be a threat to their caretakers and those who live with them, especially children, in addition to the possibility of imposing a health risk by spreading disease to humans.
Even if the owners of these animals hire professionals who are careful in dealing with them, the animals are still considered to be kept in captivity and raising them as pets deprives them of learning the skills they need to survive in the wild. Sometimes, people even have the animals undergo a medical procedure to make them less physically dangerous, such as removing their claws, which makes it impossible for them to go back to the wild where they belong. That is assuming that they survive the ordeal of being captured and smuggled into the country in the first place. Some of these owners do not care about the well-being of these animals, not to mention the environment, as long as it serves their own vanity. However, some of them do love animals and they assume that what they do helps the animals, but it does not! If you truly love these animals and are willing to pay as much as $50,000 to get one, use your wealth to donate to an organization that saves endangered animals, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which works to maintain the balance of the environment and helps build conservation areas for animals in their own habitat. The illegal smuggling of wild and exotic animals is a business which is worth millions of dollars and it will not stop unless there is no demand, and if we do not take any action, many of these animals may become extinct. — The writer can be reached at [email protected]
