Lawmakers pledge to ban private ownership of exotic animals
By Ken Dixon and Brian Lockhart
STAFF WRITERS
HARTFORD — The leaders of the legislature’s Environment Committee on Friday promised to create legislation to ban private ownership of exotic animals, including chimps like the one that mauled a woman in Stamford
last month.
State Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, and state Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, co-chairmen of the committee, said though it is weeks past their mid-February deadline to raise bills, they will find a parliamentary maneuver to create penalties of up to a year in prison and $2,000 fines for violating the law.
Roy and Meyer made the announcement during a news conference with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Greenwich; Gina McCarthy, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection; and a
representative of the Humane Society.
A law passed in 2004 requires a Department of Environmental Protection permit to own exotic animals. But the DEP decided to exempt Travis, the chimpanzee shot to death by Stamford police last month after he mauled a woman visiting his owner.
The new legislation would ban exotic animals including primates, alligators, kangaroos, wolverines, hippopotami, rhinos, elephants and snakes, including pythons.
Exceptions would be made for those owned by zoos or scientific laboratories.
“The simple truth is wild animals belong in the wild, in their natural habitat or sanctuaries, not in suburban homes where they can do the kind of horrific damage that a chimpanzee did in Stamford very recently,” Blumenthal said. “A woman has been disfigured and probably disabled because we lack the kind of ban; a clear and specific
prohibition that could have prevented that terrible accident.”
The bill would also require veterinarians who treat potentially dangerous animals to notify the DEP within 24 hours and provide them with the location of the animal.
“The incident in Stamford provided all too graphic evidence that primates are wild animals, they’re not pets,” McCarthy said.
DEP spokesman Dennis Schain told The Advocate last month the agency allowed Sandra Herold to keep her 14-year-old chimp, which seriously injured Charla Nash, 55, Feb. 16. Nash remains hospitalized in the
Cleveland Clinic.
“Our view was they had this thing for so many years before the legislature got into this, we let them keep possession,” Schain said at the time, adding the department had never been told of any issues
involving the animal.
Herold and her late husband had owned Travis since the 1990s. He escaped their vehicle and tied up traffic in Stamford for a few hours in 2003.
Blumenthal said Friday there is no evidence that after the 2004 law was passed the DEP ever came up with standards for issuing permits to residents who wanted to keep exotic animals as pets.
“So there really is no permitting program right now,” Blumenthal said, adding he viewed the 2004 law as “defective” for even contemplating a permitting process for exotic pets.
“How could you decide whether to permit one chimp or another? It’s just about impossible,” Blumenthal said.
He said that if the bill becomes law, if animal owners don’t report they own dangerous animals, their neighbors will.
Travis is not the only exotic animal who made headlines in recent years in lower Fairfield County.
In 2001, Norwalk police mounted a day long search for a small pet kangaroo — Joey — who escaped from the backyard of his owner’s home at 2 Christy St.
That owner — Susan DeFrancesco — no longer lives at that address and could not be contacted for this story.
But DeFrancesco, a former wildlife worker, was comfortable enough with Joey’s behavior to bring him to Wolfpit Elementary School in June 2004 as part of a reading campaign.
Blumenthal said despite how tame Joey and other exotic pets might seem, the state must ban them and take them away from their current owners.
‘The whole point here is wild animals belong in the wild,” Blumenthal said. “When you say, ‘He is trained’ the answer is ‘no.’ As domesticated as they may seem, it is completely a surface appearance because by
nature they are wild.”
To report the potential illegal possession of wild animals, people may call the DEP at 860-424-3010..
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7 Comments
On March 10, 2009, Ginny Richardson Clark wrote:
I want to know what kinds of animals this specifies. I have two ferrets which are considered exotics in some states but not all. The ferrets I have are NOT wild animals! They have been raised in captivity and would know absolutely nothing about defending themselves or finding food for themselves. I once heard a story about an animal rights raid on a ferret breeding farm. All the ferrets were “freed” and the majority were dead inside a week! They either got ran over, starved to death, or were preyed upon. Most ferrets if trained properly are not aggressive towards humans. Mine definitely Are NOT aggressive toward humans. I want to know if this exotic animal ban includes ferrets, because I don’t think it’s fair to include them when people have owned and domesticated ferrets since ancient Greece!
FoA comments:
Think how unfair it is that ferrets have been bred for captivity since Ancient Greece. Thousands of years of enslavement of free-living animals because some humans think they are “cute and cuddly.” So far, ferrets are not included in the ban.
On March 19, 2009, Kent Radabaugh, IL wrote:
I don’t believe that this law is fair to exotic animal pet owners. I, myself, have several exotic animals as pets, and because of them I have learned much much more than what the animal documentary shows have taught me. It is one thing to hear about the animals that have been featured, but to experience it first hand teaches so much more than watching TV or just hearing about it. This law is going to hamper the opportunity for other people to learn about our friends in the animal world, and it would garner more fear of animals in today’s youth, resulting in the death of many animals because of that fear of the unknown.
[Blog editors’ note: Good heavens, you’ve got to be kidding. You don’t have the right to yank an animal who belongs in nature into your environment to study them, amuse yourself, or more. The animals of the world need less human intrusion and domination. They’re not trinkets for plucking.]
On April 13, 2009, mary ellen wieberg wrote:
Don’t tell people what we can or can not do in our homes,most people own harmless fish,ferrets,and other small pets.The government can shove all their laws and people like you are heartless for trying to take pets from families, most families don’t own chimps or kangaroos, crocodiles or other big animals, we own harmless small animals. I’ll never stop owning what I want, I’ll do what I want in my home, It’s my right as an American to be free and live free, and have what I want, I pay my taxes and abide by laws, but not this one. There is many people already petitioning this law, so lets see who wins, even if you do, I don’t care, I’ll have what I want. It’s my money, and my life,I get what I want to make me happy. People may quit working if the government thinks they can tell us how to live, what to spend our hard earned money on, and what we can own or buy. The economy is really in trouble. We should all go on strike against organizations like you.
FoA comments:
It may be your money, but it is not your life — it is instead about the lives of tens of thousands of animals forced into the pet trade, denied their freedom to serve as a frivolous entertainment, removed from their families and natural surroundings
On April 14, 2009, David Gaines wrote:
I’d like to respond to the following comments on behalf of the American Ferret Association, which advocates for the welfare of ferrets and is not associated with any trade group or other association:
{{ Think how unfair it is that ferrets have been bred for captivity since Ancient Greece. Thousands of years of enslavement of free-living animals because some humans think they are “cute and cuddly.” }}
There are numerous genuinely wild animals about which the above statement is something with which the AFA could agree, except that ferrets are not among them. Ferrets are not “free-living.” Unlike dogs and cats - commonly accepted domesticated companion animals - ferrets cannot live unaided in the wild, form feral colonies, etc. at this point in their biological history.
The AFA opposes all mistreatment and abuse of ferrets, whether at the hands of the commercial pet trade or private individuals. I myself have rescued and/or taken care of literally countless abused and mistreated ferrets over the last ten years. However, the AFA agrees with the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and the American Veterinary Medical Association in acknowledging that ferrets are, in fact, fully domesticated and are appropriate companion animals along with dogs, cats, rabbits and small domesticated rodents. As Ms. Clark notes above, ferrets have been bred to the point where they cannot survive in the wild and are thoroughly dependent on human beings for their survival. Any veterinarian with experience treating ferrets can confirm this. The AFA does not take a position on the morality of keeping companion animals, but if some clearly domesticated animals are permitted to be kept as pets, then all such animals should be.
{{ So far, ferrets are not included in the ban. }}
Presumably this refers to proposed amendments by AG Blumenthal to SB 994, the leghold trap bill. I’m told that these amendments will not be part of the bill but may come up at a later date as part of a separate bill. Unfortunately, among the truly wild and dangerous animal families Blumenthal lists is “mustelidae, including but not limited to the wolverine.” He does not exclude mustela putorius furo, the only domesticated member of the family mustelidae, from this type of ban, as an increasing number of states, counties, and municipalities have done over the last decade.
So, if a bill containing Blumenthal’s list in toto were to pass and be signed into law, then yes, Connecticut would become the first state in the nation to legalize ferrets and then reverse its decision and prohibit them. Simple biological facts require that the Attorney General do the right thing and exempt the domestic ferret, mustela putorius furo, from any such legislation.
David Gaines
Director, Legal & Legislative Affairs Committee
American Ferret Association
FoA comments:
Friends of Animals opposes the breeding of any animal to be kept as a pet, eaten as food, experimented on or used for entrtainment. Friends of Animals supports the rescue of animals bred for those purposes. However, the American Ferret Association promotes the keeping of ferrets as pets, promotes championship ferret shows, gives referrals to ferret breeders and supports ferret breeders “throughout the USA and overseas to encourage sound breeding and husbandry practices.” Friends of Animals is against the breeding of ferrets and welcomes a ban on ferret ownership in the state of Connecticut and elsewhere.
.
On May 4, 2009, Amy winkler wrote:
Friends of animals:
I agree that animals should not be experimented on or held in captivity for the most part.
However,in the case of the polare bear that will be irrevocably extinct in 50 years or less,captivity
Is their last hope for survival. Same holds true for the panda. As for ferrets, you have no idea what
You are talking about. They are not wild, they are completely domesticated and cannot survive in the
Wild.I have two of them and they are as sweet as can be. I too shall fight against making ferrets illegal. It will be a cold day in he’ll before I allow some hairbrained idiot dictate to me about ferret ownership. I will leave the country. One less person to help contribute to social security and taxes and Medicare.
[Blog editors’ note: Selling, distributing, breeding and keeping ferrets is illegal in Iceland and in New Zealand. It is illegal to keep ferrets as pets in Portugal. In the US it is illegal to have ferrets as pets Hawai’i, California, and in Puerto Rico. Keeping ferrets is also restricted in many cities. It used to be banned more widely, although now more people own them as pets, which is unfortunate, not least because they seem to be fairly good at escaping, which causes problems for them and for other animals. Moreover, ferrets are carnivores, which means their popularity creates yet another market for the by-products of animal agribusinesses. We recommend supporting non-profit rescue groups that work to deal with the circumstances faced by ferrets and other animals who have been selectively bred to be dependent upon humans.]
On May 12, 2010, GillY wrote:
any type of animals that originates or lives in the wild must be banned from captivity and hunting [which] impose danger to the humans and animals themselves. One perfect example is the brutal onslaught of a huge chimpanzee to Charla Nash..
We can never truly avoid such circumstances for these animals have that violent nature and we can never control them, so better return them to their natural environment.
On March 17, 2011, Kim Antonio wrote:
I am in favor of a ban on ferret ownership in the US because most of the people that buy these animals don’t have the slightest idea how to care for them properly. The ferret breeders only care about the bottom line, making a huge profit, while the animals suffer horrible deaths from cancers due to improper breeding practices.
Most people who buy ferrets believe that they are rodents and keep them in small hamster cages or fish tanks which is extremely inhumane considering how active ferrets are. Most people feed their ferrets cat food from the grocery store shelf, not the high protein diets necessary for optimum health. Most people state that they came home one day and their ferret was dead. Ferrets require extensive medical care throughout their lives for lymph node cancer, adrenal gland cancer, bone cancer, insulanoma, malnutrition, or have to be put down due to improper handling. Ferrets don’t just die - they suffer horrible deaths as a result of negligence and ignorance. I spoke to a woman today who said that she was going to get a ferret for her 10-year old nephew and have it de-clawed. I tried to talk her into getting some fish instead…
And then there is the lack of knowledgeable and professional medical care for ferrets. So little is known about the proper health maintenance of ferrets. There is only one exotics veterinarian in the state of Connecticut who I consider to be well versed in the care of ferrets. I have lost more ferrets than I care to count or admit to in this comment due to the incompetence of alleged exotics veterinarians. How many veterinarians know that adrenal cancer in males can cause testosterone levels to increase in a male ferret leading to aggressiveness and an enlarged prostate that prevents the ferret from urinating? How many veterinarians know how to put a hard cast on a front leg of a ferret to fix a fracture? How many veterinarians know how to do bone biopsies on a ferret without shattering a leg to diagnose bone cancer.
If not a total ban on ferret ownership, I am in favor of rigorous educational standards for all potential ferret owners in the US. Ferret breeders must be held accountable for their improper breeding practices and until this is accomplished I support a ban.
But that’s just my humble opinion…