Kaufman County May Ban Exotic Animals

For years, Kaufman County has cultivated a reputation as something of a haven for exotic wild animals and their owners, a place where elephants, monkeys and big cats might be as at home on the range as cattle, pigs and dogs.

But after a tiger mauling and the discovery of dead and mangled livestock, this East Texas gateway is reconsidering its historically relaxed approach to regulating exotic -- and some say dangerous -- animals.

While more than 70 percent of Texas counties prohibit keeping dangerous wild animals as pets, Kaufman County is among the few in the state that lets its 89,000 residents keep a giraffe or bear with the right paperwork. .

Pet owners worry about drug safety

Authorities and pet owners are beginning to raise serious questions about the safety and effectiveness of animal medicines, mirroring worries over human drugs like the painkiller Vioxx.

Tested on just a couple hundred animals, a drug meant for pets is less apt than a human one to show all its failings until it reaches the market, veterinarians say. More than 700 drugs have been approved for pets, but many others are used legally without explicit approval for animals.

Most pet drugs were first developed for people. But each species of animal — even varying breeds — may react differently to the same drug.

Further, animals can't say if a drug makes them feel bad.

"I can't tell until you see something physical," said Laurryn Simpson of Commerce Township, Mich., who founded the Web site dogsadversereactions.com

Animal Shelter Push Bill Banning Exotic Pets

If owning a bear or lion sounds better to you than a dog or cat you better hurry, lawmakers in Iowa are looking to make owning these types of animals illegal.

Animal shelters across Iowa are pushing for a new law that would make it illegal for Iowans to own or possess many "dangerous animals."

Over the years the Iowa Animal Rescue League has been asked to find homes for the once-cuddly wild pets, but due to the increase in numbers it's becoming harder and harder to find them homes.

Maria Tiller of the Black Hawk County Animal Control says, "It's a public safety issue. Some of the animals are escaping which causes a threat to the residents in the area."

Many cities including Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Iowa City already have ordinances banning people from owning these types of animals.

Exotic pets: Big cats and pigeons and snakeheads. Oh, my.

Thanks for covering this important issue. There are thousands of reasons why wild animals shouldn't be caged and not one justifiable reason for trying to make a pet of a wild animal. Up until 2003 the number of big cats we had to turn away from Big Cat Rescue was doubling every year due to the virtually unregulated pet trade. By 2003 we had to turn away 312 big cats (mostly tigers) in a single year. We had been working hard with others who care about animals to pass a bill that made it illegal to sell a big cat across state lines as a pet. That bill passed in December 2003. The following year, the number of big cats we had to turn away dropped, for the first time ever, to 110. As we pass better state laws, that number is continuing to drop but another thing happened in 2003 as well. The number of cougar sightings, in places where they had not lived in the wild in over 100 years, skyrocketed.

Americans use insurance to medicate pets

With aging, it's become a routine faithfully endured by the Guffords. Each day starts with a blood sugar check and a shot of insulin. Then a couple of pills, maybe mashed into a bowl of tuna and canned carrots. Mixed with dry chow.
All for their 12-year-old dog.
Brownie takes more drugs than his human companions put together. He has been medicated in recent months for diabetes, infections, high blood pressure, and his finicky gut that rebels at red meat. Since 2005, he has taken drugs for everything from anemia to a spider bite.
"He's our baby, he's a family member, I would want somebody to do that for me," explains Ann Gufford.
She estimates spending $5,000 over the last two years on medicine for her baby, a mixed beagle-cocker spaniel.