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I am currently a student at a university in Chicago and I am writing a research paper on "Why private owners should be permitted to house exotic pets." I am having trouble finding information and topics to support an eight page paper. Any information, websites, books, etc. available that I may use to support my topic is appreciated. Thank you.

Assuming the paper's double spaced, that should be pretty friggin easy...
Well, on this site, go to the Forums/Messageboard page that has all the forums. Two forums, herp laws/CITES forum and herpetological news (they're right next to eachother) should give you plenty of raw information in the posts there.
Now, my question is, for your paper what do you mean by exotic pet? are you thinking of chimps and tigers, or burmese pythons and corn snakes? Defining the term exotic might alter your argument greatly.
Your paper also relies on what class it is. Will your teacher accept philosophical arguments of freedom, ethics, etc to do what we please so long as the animal is cared for well, public safe and the wild population isn't harmed, or are you looking for hard facts and statistics of pet populations around the country, or cases of legislation and NIMBYism?
Make a rough draft at least in your head of what you want to say, and look for ideas that will fit.
Good luck with finals.
P.S. Another idea for your paper is to find all the arguments against exotic pets and find ways to either smash them or compromise.
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Thank you very much. You are right, I should probably signify snakes or reptiles more generally. Thanks again for your input!

Also, the teacher would go for both, so my plan is to argue in a broad way using both tactics. She's pretty much for anything. Thanks

Thinking on the topic further, I feel that the term exotic should be broad. If people are dedicated to working and housing chimps then it would be the same as dedicated to snakes. There are precautions and restrictions with both animals. Thanks!

My pleasure and I'm glad I could help, but just to warn you, snakes and chimps require very different levels of care. The average snake, even a delicate, venomous or giant one is an instinctive, simple solitary animal and can be cared for and will thrive on ten minutes of maintenance a day or even less. (of course for a venomous snake one needs a ton of experience and for a giant snake the keeper needs someone on standby, just for safety reasons).
A chimp however strikes me as the pet from hell. They're highly intelligent, highly sociable, physically very powerful and need a great deal of social and intellectual stimulation if they're to not go insane. They require a far more varied diet than a snakes ratsicles and while it may be possible for someone to work a 9-5 job and take care of a happy healthy chimp, they'd have to be a superhuman saint and not have a life outside of that.
Of course if somebody is unusually gifted, level headed, egoless, passionate and dedicated enough to chimps that they, the public and the chimp will benefit from it, it should be that person's right to keep such an animal.
But there's the catch. How do we sort those kind of people from unrealistic Jane Goodall wannabes or power trippers who want that tiger or huge snake in their garage for a fashion accessory?
I hate to say it, but a lot of people are incompetent enough that they can't so much as handle a sweet tempered teenage domestic dog when it grows out of the cute puppy stage. Some people also overestimate and romanticise their skill handling non-domestic animals. When the untrained animal isn't a dog chewing the furniture but a powerful animal chewing it's owner's head, the margin for error is very unforgiving. Especially when an untrained, uncontrolled and active animal could threaten the public.
Sorting these people and who should do so, is another difficult but fascinating topic. I think maybe some kind of licensing that requires volunteering and safety classes would weed out the worst impulsive airheads, but keeping legal licensing from being a bureaucratic mess would be a challenge.
Okay, I've rambled a bit too much, but you have a great deal of material available now. Good luck and tell me how the teacher liked your paper.
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If you watch animal cops and those types of programs or look in the news you will find tons and tons of neglected, confiscated, and put down dogs. The exotics make up a smaller percentage of keeprs and an even smaller percentage of neglegent ones. Somehow society has made it seem like dogs and cats are just another part of a house. Common sense almost does not exist and people are begged to adopt them because of the numbers. The exotic industry at least maintains a level of common sense. No person dedcating their life to rasing and breeding chimps is going to let them go out to random homes. I know plenty of sugar glider breeders that are very picky and screen their customers. I am somewhat picky to who I sell any snake to as well and very picky of it is an animal that grows larger than I feel the person is ready for or has the experience. I can personally see a lot of benefit to not having restricting laws for these animals and exhibitors permits should be as maximum as we need to go. Now if someone sells a tiger or taipan to someone and it ends up killing a child or getting loose or is even found caged inappropriately then maybe the vendor should be slapped with a case against them. An industry that regulates itself..wouldnt that be nice.

Nice, good points! I will definitely build off that. Can I say something like "Go to any exotic pet show and you'll find people picky to who they sell to after spending so much time raising and caring for them" kind of thing... of course that is off the top of my head, but along those lines? Would that support well? Thanks!

>>Nice, good points! I will definitely build off that. Can I say something like "Go to any exotic pet show and you'll find people picky to who they sell to after spending so much time raising and caring for them" kind of thing... of course that is off the top of my head, but along those lines? Would that support well? Thanks!

That'll probably work well. One person I talked to at a reptile club meeting who had some baby blue beauty snakes with him (which grow 8 or so feet long) said that he was going to stop breeding them as he was afraid these alert and large snakes wouldn't recieve appropriate care. That's a drastic example but shows the type of dedication a lot of people have for their critters.
Of course there will always be unethical scumbags trying to shove burmese pythons and iguanas onto unsuspecting novices but they, thankfully are a small minority that generally don't stay in buisness long.
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0.2 chickens
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave)
0.1 Halflinger horse
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1.1 parents
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Thank you! I may quote you on that.

No problem! For the sake of paper citations my real name's Melissa Mork.
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0.2 chickens
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave)
0.1 Halflinger horse
0.0 reptiles due to living with
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

Thank you, I will be using it!