‘You really need to think about it’: Things to consider before bringing home an exotic pet

Crystal Garrett visits Hope for Wildlife to get important information for those considering an exotic pet.

Some people enjoy having pets that go beyond cats, dogs and hamsters, but there are some things to consider before owning certain animals.

Hope Swinimer, the founder and director of Hope for Wildlife in Seaforth, N.S., is no stranger to exotic animals.

She bought a red-eared slider turtle from a pet store in the 1960s.

“We probably had it about six or seven years, and it was suggested by my mother that maybe we should release this animal to the wild to give it a better quality of life. Of course, now that I’m mature and an adult, I know that’s a really bad thing to do, and that’s what a lot of people do,” she told CTV Morning Live’s Crystal Garrett.

“They buy these exotic pets and maybe not getting 100 per cent prepared on that they’re getting in for and then they decide to let them go in the wild world.”

Swinimer says when people release exotic animals into the wild it displaces the natural indigenous wildlife of Nova Scotia.

“Even though (red-eared sliders) look a lot like our eastern painted turtle, they have a red bar along the side of their head, and those ones are introduced species, which are competing for habitat and space with the four freshwater turtles that we have in our province.”

So, what should people do if they have an exotic pet but have found they’re unable to care for it? Swinimer recommends checking in with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables.

“They will help you get a permit to make it legal to keep it or they’ll help you find perhaps a place where it can go for retirement. I think there’s programs set up, especially for the red-eared slider, so they can live out their life in captivity and they won’t need to go back into the environment, which should not happen,” she says.

Axolotl have recently become a popular animal online, but they are illegal to own in Nova Scotia.

“If you’ve had one for a long time, you can again apply to the government and they may give you a permit to keep them,” Swinimer says.

She adds she was shocked when she saw one for the first time and had to do a crash course to learn about them.

“They’re a part of the salamander family, but they’re one of the very few creatures I can think of that never went through metamorphosis, so they’re an amphibian; they start off in the water and usually they go from the water to land, they lose their gills, they develop lungs, they are so fascinating,” she says.

“They have the ability to regenerate limbs, even organs, how cool is that? Scientists often study them, and they’re only found one place on Earth, which makes them particularly unique, and that’s in Mexico in a lake.”

Another exotic animal in Hope for Wildlife’s care is a glider, which is only found in the wild in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

“They came in the ‘70s to Nova Scotia and Canada, so they sort of got a little bit out of control, and there’s so many that I don’t think there are any restrictions on these as far as keeping them as pets. You can buy these at the pet store,” Swinimer says.

“People think they can fly, but actually they’re just particularly wonderful gliders, they have this extra flap of skin between the front and back leg. But if you are going to get one you really need to think about it. They’re not like a pocket pet that lives for two or three years, they live 15 years or longer, so they have very long lifespans.”

Swinimer says whether gliders make good pets or not depends on who you ask.

“They have a very strong odour, they’re nocturnal and they’re used to beautiful habitats, large habitats and gliding from tree to tree, so it must be hard on them to live in the kind of life they would be forced to live in captivity,” she says.

“You really need to spend a lot of time with them to get them tame and friendly; they can be bitey for young children.”

Hope for Wildlife is currently open Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. for anyone wanting to see exotic, and less rare, animals.

“We have big crowds, and we really enjoy having people come. You can easily spend three hours here if you’re interested and you get to see our veterinary hospital, you get to see our education animals,” says Swinimer. “You don’t get to go into the rehab areas, but you do get to see a lot.”

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