talk of ban stirs nc exotic animal

Talk of ban stirs NC exotic animal owners

Owners of once-wild pets band to fight proposed regulations

Jim Nesbitt, Staff Writer

RALEIGH - The tempest caused by a proposed ban on exotic and dangerous

beasts has whipped up a guerrilla network of animal lovers who don't

want their favorite creatures outlawed.

People running small, private zoos and sanctuaries have attacked

members of a legislative study group who want to ban individual

ownership of a list of risky critters -- from lions and tigers to

anacondas and apes -- and to restrict people and institutions allowed

to keep them.

Joined by reptile hobbyists who fear their snakes or lizards will be

taboo, these critics claim radical animal rights activists have

hijacked the study group. Watching warily, representatives of North

Carolina's pork and poultry interests worry their animals might be the

next targets.

This nascent resistance movement has quickly learned the art of

infighting, forming an alphabet soup of organizations -- the N.C.

Association of Reptile Keepers, or NCARK; the N.C. Exotic Animal

Keepers, NCEAK -- and lighting up e-mail lists and Web sites.

"Basically, we got together because we were getting our butts kicked

by this study group," said Doug Evans, co-founder of the Conservators'

Center, a sanctuary for big cats and other exotic animals near Mebane.

They've aimed their most thunderous assault at the two top officials

from the N.C. Zoological Park in Asheboro and animal rights activists

who are voting members of the group. This includes a staff member of

the Animal Protection Institute, a California-based organization zoo

officials tapped to provide draft legislation and advice on an

"inherently dangerous animal" ban.

"We want these lunatics to go back to California and console

themselves over granola and leave the wildlife professionals of North

Carolina alone," said Tanith Tyrr, reptile curator at the Cape Fear

Serpentarium, a privately owned indoor zoo in Wilmington which also

maintains the state's only anti-venom bank for cobras and other

deadly, exotic snakes.

Dr. David Jones, director of the state zoo and a leading member of the

study group, says blasts such as Tyrr's mask the need for a state law

prohibiting or restricting private ownership of exotic animals. North

Carolina is one of 11 states that don't ban or regulate such animals,

zoo officials say, though about two dozen counties and towns have

their own ordinances, including Durham, Orange and Johnston counties

and Cary.

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of fear of the unknown here that isn't

justified," said Jones, former chief of the London Zoo and a veteran

of international wildlife and zoological organizations. "They're

paranoid on this."

Death triggered action

Jones and the zoo's mammal curator, Lorraine Smith, started their

campaign after the 2003 death of a 10-year-old Wilkes County boy

killed by Tigger, a tiger his aunt kept in the yard. That attack was

underscored by the 2004 mauling of a 14-year-old Surry County girl by

one of four tigers her family kept on a farm near Lowgap.

Jones said zoo officials were also motivated by an increase in calls

from animal control officers and other officials about exotic pets

escaping from backyard pens or indoor cages and terrariums.

This broadened the scope of the study group beyond tigers or lions

kept as private pets. Wolves, crocodiles, cobras, monkeys, pythons and

dozens of other non-indigenous species have been considered for the

dangerous animals list. Any exotic deemed capable of killing people,

causing serious injury or infecting them is a potential candidate for

a ban on private ownership.

Headed by officials of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural

Resources, the study group also includes veterinarians from two state

agencies, the owner of a small family-run zoo in Wilmington and a

reptile hobbyist. Leaders are scrambling to complete a report that was

supposed to be finished by the beginning of the legislative session

but may be delayed several more weeks.

Charismatic megafauna

This has turned a low-profile study group into a battlefront.

Tyrr and other critics claim animal rights organizations are preying

on a primeval fear of what some wildlife biologists call "charismatic

megafauna" -- big cats and other toothy carnivores.

But more people are killed by horses, cattle, bees, deer and dogs each

year than tigers or other exotic animals, the critics say. They warn

that by hyping the fear animal rights activists hope to gain a toehold

in North Carolina and eventually target medical research institutions

and the state's hog and poultry industries.

"It's a paper tiger, pardon the pun," said Andrew Wyatt, president of

the newly formed N.C. Association of Reptile Keepers and a voting

member of the study group. "This will give them a platform to go after

their higher priority targets."

Jones, though, said domestic animals aren't being considered. And

research institutions such the Duke University Primate Center would be

exempt from any exotic animal ban. So would circuses and rodeos.

Representatives of the state's agriculture industry remain wary.

"Animal rights groups are always trying to get their foot in the

door," said Bob Ford, executive director of the N.C. Poultry

Federation.

And some state officials worry the study group has wandered far

afield.

"Is the action and the amount of banning and regulating justifiable by

the actual need for doing it?" asked group member Dr. David Marshall,

the state's veterinarian and an employee of the N.C. Department of

Agriculture. "You could argue that honey bees and wasps kill or injure

more people than the animals that will be banned."

Instead of a ban, Dr. Dan Johnson of Raleigh, a group member and

exotic animal veterinarian, favors more narrowly focused actions

against proven dangers, such as banning individually owned big cats or

requiring permits to keep cobras or crocodiles.

Sterilizing tigers

Some sanctuary owners say a ban would put them out of business and

might require the killing of an estimated 150 privately owned big cats

in North Carolina. Evans, the co-founder of a sanctuary near Mebane,

said the proposed ban requires sanctuaries to sterilize their animals.

That would prohibit him from breeding nine big cats undergoing DNA

testing to see if they're Asian lions, which are down to a few hundred

animals in the wild.

"This is real conservation work," Evans said. "Sterilizing these guys

would be a total disaster."

Critics also claim small, private zoos can't afford a key requirement

for exemption from the ban -- membership in the Association of Zoos

and Aquariums, whose membership includes the state zoo and three

state-sponsored aquariums.

Proposed restrictions on breeding would also make it tougher for

smaller zoos, already regulated and inspected by the U.S. Department

of Agriculture, to replace aging showcase animals.

"All you'll wind up with is empty cages," said Sherry Tregembo, whose

family opened the Tregembo Animal Park in Wilmington in 1952. "Pretty

soon, you're out of business."

Jones said he has no interest in shutting down smaller competitors,

but does want statewide standards for animal care in zoos and

sanctuaries tougher than those provided by existing federal and state

wildlife laws.

Jones signaled a willingness to soften the provision that all zoos

belong to the AZA. He's also asked groups representing private zoos

and reptile hobbyists to draft statewide standards they would enforce

themselves.

Jones warns the absence of statewide regulation heightens the

likelihood North Carolina will attract people fleeing states that

outlaw exotic pets.

"If we don't have some sort of statewide standard, you're going to see

a lot of animal refugees coming into North Carolina," he said.