The Outback in a backyard
Having native animals as pets is mostly illegal in Australia, however this isn’t the case in America where the market for our native animals is booming. Jess Bineth reports.
A wild kangaroo in Western Australia. Picture: Charles Meeks.
This isn’t the case in America where the market for our native animals is booming.
Sugar gliders, marketed as ‘pocket pets’ because of their small size, have recently increased in popularity as a domestic pet because of their inquisitive and social nature, with one US breeder alone selling a reported 20,000 sugar gliders a year.
In Australia the rules and regulations for keeping native wildlife as pets are complicated and vary from state to state.
While some natives, such as certain birds and reptiles, can be lawfully kept fierce debate surrounds the suggestion that this should be extended to include a wider range of species, including marsupials.
Mike Archer, a professor of biology at the University of New South Wales and the former director of the Australian Museum, has owned up to 30 native animals through his line of work.
He has homed quolls, possums, kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, rodents, fruit bats, snakes and reptiles – most of which he says make great pets and should be able to be legally owned.
The animals lived in an open environment, not in cages, and were integrated into the family in the same way a dog or cat would be.
“There was never a morning when I’d get up and there wasn’t some absolutely beautiful animal curled up under my arm or sleeping under my chin,” he says.
Professor Archer speaks particularly fondly of an Eastern Quoll he adopted as kitten.
The pet used a kitty litter, kept himself very clean and loved to be played with.
“That animal was so much more rewarding than a cat or a dog has ever been to me,” Professor Archer says.
The Eastern Quoll is in serious threat of becoming extinct with populations now only surviving in Tasmania.
Keeping native animals as pets has been suggested as a conservation strategy for endangered species considered not likely to recover without intervention.
“If something happens to the population in the wild, as it has with the Eastern Quoll, a breeding colony can make sure we don’t loose the species entirely and we will have a colony that is available to repopulate the wild,” says Professor Archer.
The Pet Industry Association Australia (PIAA) says introducing a system of licensed breeding and sale of certain native animals could assist the conservation of rare species.
Brendan Westaway, Vice President of PIAA, believes that commercialising native animals is the key to saving some of Australia’s most endangered wildlife.
“If you’ve got a native animal with a commercial value it’s certainly never going to become extinct if there is a market there for people to breed them,” says Mr Westaway.
But he insists that strict guidelines are needed to ensure animals being sold and kept in captivity are not coming from the wild.
Julia Carney, spokesperson for WIRES, says the conservation argument is an excuse to exploit native animals in the pet industry and would put the welfare of native wildlife in danger.
“In this country we haven’t got the welfare of cats and dogs right, so why would the specialist care of native animals be any different?” she says.
Ms Carney does not believe the ordinary household can cater to the unique social, behavioural and nutritional needs of native animals.
“It’s an incredibly specialised area…native animals require equally high standards of care as do any domestic pet, however it is much more difficult to adequately provide for them,” she says.
David O’Shannessy, Chief Inspector of the RSPCA, agrees and says the organisation opposes the keeping of wild animals as companions.
“In many cases they require specialised husbandry and facilities to mimic their natural environment and meet then psychological and ecological requirements. Most people do not have the skills and experience and facilities to do this,” says Mr. O’Shannessy.
Central to this debate is whether we change our laws to allow people to own native animals for the sake of conservation but for animals like the Eastern Quoll, the real question is what’s worse – captivity or extinction.
