Critter crackdown has no bite
City's in hibernation on exotic pet front
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Banned: Ferrets
Banned: Monkeys
Maybe it is an urban jungle.
Four years after the city outlawed the sale or possession of nearly 200 animals, including familiar pets like iguanas and ferrets, few owners have been hunted down, and it appears that the law is frequently skirted or ignored.
Take the year 2000. In a city of 8 million people and the menagerie of pets they keep, Health Department inspectors wrote just five violations for prohibited animals - a cow, some bees, a ferret, a monkey and a serval, a wild cat similar to an ocelot.
Over 31/2 years, only 63 violations have been written by the Health Department for illegal animals - an average of about one violation every few weeks.
While there are no reliable figures on the number of illegal pets in the city, evidence of a considerable underground population can be found in the array of products on pet shop shelves and in the accounts of veterinarians and animal rescue workers.
"We have a major port and three major airports, we have people with lots of money, and we have a city where one of the challenges is, ‘How do you stand out from the crowd?'" said Stephen Zawistowski, a science adviser with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When it comes to iguanas, insects and other exotic pets, "it's like drugs - if people want them, they are going to find them," said Jan Koster of the Pet Stop on Columbus Ave.
"I think the law is good, but you can get just about anything you want," said Koster, who frequently turns down requests for offbeat animals, most recently squirrel-like sugar gliders and giant Australian hissing cockroaches.
"I sell ferret food. I sell ferret products. Technically, they're not supposed to have them, but people do," she added.
The relatively unchecked market for exotic animals across the nation has come under fresh scrutiny since an outbreak of monkeypox in the Midwest, a disease previously unknown in the Western hemisphere.
Scientists suspect a giant Gambian rat imported from Africa brought the disease to the United States, then infected prairie dogs when they were housed together by an Illinois pet distributor.
By late last week, health officials confirmed at least 20 cases of the disease in people, with dozens more under investigation. Monkeypox, which is related to smallpox, causes fever and rashes but is rarely fatal.
Because of the outbreak, U.S. regulators slapped an embargo on rodents from Africa and a ban on the sale or transportation of prairie dogs.
In a speech in Chicago last week, Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed to a continuing health threat from diseases that can be spread by travelers or trade in exotic animals.
"This is the new normal: emerging infectious diseases ... that create immediate global concerns because of the movement of people and animals," Gerberding said.
List created in 1999
The city has had restrictions on owning wild animals for years, but the detailed blacklist approved by the Health Department in 1999 made petty criminals of anyone with a walrus in his walkup or a porcupine in her pied-a-terre.
Some of the banned species were obviously not suited for a Central Park dog run - polar bears and panthers, for example. But there was outrage from some pet owners when the department included urban companions like ferrets and iguanas, whose owners argued that they possessed all the ferocity of soap bubbles.
"I don't know if there is a way to know how many iguanas are in New York City, but I don't think the ban has had much impact," said Cindy Hiddemen of the Green Iguana Society, an owners organization with members in New York. "We still get applications from people in New York City. Many still don't know that there is a ban."
There is a ban in the city on owning or selling the two animals suspected of having a role in the monkeypox outbreak - prairie dogs and Gambian rats. But the ban isn't easy to enforce. In fact, far more exotic pets are turned in at city shelters each year than are seized by police or city officials.
Last week, an Illinois company, K&D Exotic Pets, advertised prairie dog pups on its Web site for $150 each. A Web site for Wild Animal World, of Peoria, Ariz., said lion cubs could be had for $1,800; spider monkeys for $7,000; kinkajous for $2,800, and giraffes for $22,000 to $40,000.
In some cases, what's illegal in the city is readily available next door. Ferrets and iguanas can be bought at pet stores in Nassau County.
Word of mouth
Most law enforcement is based on complaints from neighbors.
"Once it's in the city, unless somebody wants to report them, it's difficult to locate them if they stay inside," conceded Julian Prager, acting executive director of the Center for Animal Care and Control, which is sometimes called on to round up banned animals.
In states and cities, the regulation of exotic animals varies widely. Until the national ban last week, Texas companies were selling more than 20,000 prairie dogs each year, and shipping some as far away as Japan.
New York airports also receive steady shipments of exotic animals from overseas.
It's a loosely regulated marketplace. At cargo terminals, there are too few U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors to check everything. In reality, most shipments head to their destinations after paperwork is checked - without a hands-on inspection.
"We absolutely don't have the ability to inspect everything that is coming in. With the number of inspectors, we are able to physically inspect 25% of wildlife shipments," which can include live animals or, in some cases, skins and pelts, said Sheila Einsweiler, a federal wildlife inspector.
"Judging what we find for sale in the U.S., what you find for sale on the Internet or in the pet stores, we know there are items that have made it into the U.S. and passed us," Einsweiler said.
Exotic animal tales - some taller than others, such as sewer alligators - are part of city lore.
Health Department officials said they seize about 10 exotic animals per year, mainly roosters and snakes, and several dozen more are picked up by police and the Center for Animal Care and Control.
According to Health Department records, the agency has seized pythons, turtles and a hedgehog in the last few years.
The Bronx Zoo occasionally gets calls from people trying to figure out what to do with an exotic pet that grew into a domestic terror. And the ASPCA has been called in to retrieve lions and mountain lions, said Zawistowski, an ASPCA adviser.
In 2001, a United Parcel Service driver in Brooklyn opened a leaking package to find a 5-foot-long, 40-pound alligator.
"If it's something that can be caught, it's ... in the pet trade," said Einsweiler, the wildlife inspector.
Originally published on June 23, 2003
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