FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — They arrive from Amazon rainforests, central African savannahs and south Asian jungles, crated passengers in the cargo holds of airliners.
Spitting cobras, common death adders, Zanzibar dwarf geckos, green iguanas, chinchillas, emperor scorpions and hundreds of other non-native species enter the United States each year to serve the demand for unusual pets.
A lot of time has gone into an unsuccessful campaign to clear the Everglades of Burmese pythons, just one of the non-native species to find a congenial home in Florida. But the federal government continues to allow wide-open imports of a vast range of wildlife, conducting few screenings for disease and permitting most shipments to enter without inspection. A report on wildlife imports by the Government Accountability Office last month found “gaps that could allow the introduction of diseases into the United States.”
A Sun Sentinel review of live wildlife import records from 2004 through April of 2010 found that the United States imported these animals:
• More than 739,000 rodents, despite warnings from the federal Centers for Disease Control and prevention that rodents can transmit to humans diseases such as hantavirus, bartonella and typhus.
• Nearly 20,000 venomous snakes, including 632 puff adders, 113 black mambas and 357 king cobras.
• More than 1.2 million green iguanas, as well as 39,673 Nile monitor lizards and 20,806 Burmese pythons.
A bill in Congress would have restricted imports to those species that had been approved as harmless, but an outcry from wildlife owners and the pet industry defeated it. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completing the process to declare the Burmese python and eight other big snakes injurious species, which would end imports except for zoos and a few other purposes.
“If the federal government had listed the Burmese python as injurious 20 years ago, we wouldn’t have had this problem,” said Beth Preiss, exotic pets director for the Humane Society of the United States. “It may be too late to stop the invasion of the Everglades, but it’s not too late to stop it in the rest of the U.S.”
But the pet industry and hobbyist groups have fought back. They note that a cold snap last year killed a lot of the Everglades pythons. They say import limits represent an extreme response to problems caused by a few species. And they say tough restrictions would cost jobs and undermine a beneficial pastime that fosters in children an appreciation of science and nature.
“A lot of children spend hours in front of the TV and the computer and have very little contact with nature,” said Jamie Reaser, vice president of environmental policy for the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, a trade group. “So I think it’s very important children have the opportunity to learn about animals and the environment.”
Inspecting animals
The wooden crates rest on the concrete floor of a warehouse at Miami International Airport, second only to Los Angeles in live wildlife shipments into the United States. Last year, Miami International Airport received 4,786 shipments of live wildlife.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspector Carlos Pages dons gloves and pries open a long crate from Suriname, a nation with rain forests that extend into the Amazon basin.
The box contains a row of bright yellow sacks. When he picks one up, it starts moving. Inserting a plastic tube the size of a Pringles container that lets him look inside safely, he sees the glistening skin of an emerald tree boa. Although the snake isn’t venomous, he is careful. “These snakes have a nasty disposition,” he says. “They will bite.”
D.J. Schubert, wildlife biologist for the Animal Welfare Institute, said the import business is riddled with opportunities for animals to suffer.
“They can be held for a long time without water or food,” he said. “Frequently they’re held in boxes or burlap sacks. The entire industry facilitates cruelty, not because people are trying to be mean, but because they don’t know any better.”
A raid last year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found horrific conditions at U.S. Global Exotics in Arlington, with more than 26,000 snakes, hamsters, wallabies, sloths and other animals crowded into filthy cages without food or water, many dead or dying.
Reaser, of the pet trade group, said that case was an exception in the industry that works hard to keep its valuable cargo safe. “I think it’s important to keep in mind that a lot of people in the pet industry got into it because they really love animals,” she said. “There’s an economic investment, and it doesn’t make good business sense not to care for the animals.”
Also, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it’s not practical to screen millions of animals for diseases. The service has 124 inspectors at 38 entry points to watch for smuggling, improperly packed animals and banned species.
Adding disease to the list would be “tough,” said Edward Grace, Fish and Wildlife Service deputy chief of law enforcement. “Our inspectors don’t have the veterinary skills to determine if an animal is ill or may be a disease vector.”
Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a group that researches wildlife diseases, said agricultural livestock imports get tougher scrutiny. “If you’re importing cattle, we’re going to test them for hoof-and-mouth disease,” he said. “But if you bring in a shipment of rodents from Indonesia, we don’t test them for anything.”
Dr. Nina Marano, chief of the Geographic Medicine and Health Promotion Branch of the Centers CDC, said rodents are effective at transmitting diseases such as the viral disease hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a chronic bacterial illness called bartonella and various forms of typhus.
Monkeypox, a viral disease from Africa, appeared in people in the United States in 2003, arriving in a shipment of rodents from Ghana to Texas. The CDC banned rodent imports from Africa, but the pet industry found other sources.
“Rodents carry many viral diseases,” Marano said. She is especially concerned about children, who are often the caretakers for these animals and “who aren’t known for regularly washing their hands.”
Fans of unusual pets
Last month in Fort Lauderdale, the Florida Reptile and Alternative Pet Super Show drew dealers and hobbyists to a long conference room to buy and sell pythons, tarantulas and geckos.
“I don’t do normal animals,” said Tyler Cowan, 14, of Lake Worth, Fla., who purchased a sunglow leopard gecko and a bearded gecko. “I don’t like anything furry. I have two leopard geckos, a bearded dragon, a black and white Argentine tegu — such a sweetie. Think of it as a scaly puppy dog.”
Anna Harvey wanted a snake for her 6-year-old son. “He is obsessed with reptiles,” she said. She asked dealer Jay Eaton whether a $40 king snake would make a nice friend for her son’s ball python.
Friend? Probably not, Eaton said. “King snakes eat other snakes.”
Pompano Beach dealer Adam Chesla said buyers range from hobbyists to collectors to investors. Having studied environmental science in graduate school, he takes seriously the problem of the Everglades pythons.
But Chesla said environmental and animal rights groups have seized on the issue to attack a rewarding hobby that helps children learn about science and nature. “It puts kids on the right track,” he said.