This website is dedicated to providing you with information about exotic and wild animals kept as pets in Canada. My goal is to help you, the world, by presenting the information you need to form an opinion about weather or not it’s right for people to keep these animals as their pets.

So what do I mean by “exotic pets”?

Throughout the site I refer to these animals as exotic, but I’m using this term to encompass all wild animals that you would not normally find as pets. This means any animal that you can find living in the wild without relying on humans, or an animals that is not domesticated. This includes local wild animals (with the exception of my page on ecological concerns where I am referring to nonlocal animals only).

It’s very difficult to come up with a number of exotic pets currently in Canada as many go undocumented, and some aren’t legally considered exotic pets. However, the exotic pet trade is second only drugs in terms of illegal markets. Some exotic pet owners are very public with their animals while other hide them. A specific case really brought the issue to the public eye in 2010. Norman Buwalda, former chair person of an organization in support of exotic pet ownership was killed by one of his pet tigers. Buwalda had five wild cats at the time, including a lion and a cougar. In 2004 one of Buwalda’s tigers mauled a 4 year old boy, but Buwalda fought to keep his wild cats, and won.

My Personal Views

Although I want my readers to come to their own decisions about exotic pet ownership, it is important that you know I (creator of this website) have a personal bias when it comes to this issue. I have very strong animal rights opinions, I feel animals are not here for humans to use and am a vegan (to the best of my abilities) . This being said, my position on exotic and wild animal pets is strongly against the concept. I believe these animals should not be removed from their natural environment for the enjoyment and entertainment of humans. I feel it is completely rediculous to try a justify keeping a tiger in a cage in a backyard. I chose this topic to write about because I felt I could stomach it a bit better than others, yet I still felt ill while reading some of the cases I used for research. All in all, I believe it is important for everyone to have their own opinions so please keep in mind that there is a personal bias when reading the information I have provided.