Officials Call for Regulation of Non-Native Animals

By Shelley Hanson
WHEELING — The word exotic may conjure certain images and thoughts in people’s minds.

In the world of agriculture and wildlife, however, it means something totally different, something that could be dangerous or potentially destructive.

For Gus Douglass, commissioner of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, exotic means “non-native”— as in species of animals that don’t originate in West Virginia or the United States.

Some exotic animals enter the United States via the legal pet trade or illegally on the black market. However, whether they arrive legally, it is up to Douglass and his department to ensure the safety of the state’s farms and food.

“It just amazes me, the exotics or non-natives that people want to keep as pets,” Douglass said.

While he has not encountered people keeping large exotic animals such as tigers or lions, Douglass said it is not the size of the animal that typically counts, but what the animal could be carrying.

For example, in 2003, prairie dogs became infected with monkeypox via infected rats that came into country from Africa. Some of the prairie dogs entered West Virginia via pet stores, he said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monkeypox symptoms are like those of small pox, but milder. Twelve days after being infected, people develop body aches and pain, fever, rash and they feel tired. The rash leads to bumps that eventually turn into scabs and flake off. While people have died from it, monkeypox usually lasts two to four weeks. It typically occurs in western Africa.

“In early June 2003, monkeypox was reported among several people in the United States. Most of these people got sick after having contact with pet prairie dogs that were sick with monkeypox. This is the first time that there has been an outbreak of monkeypox in the United States,” according to the CDC.

Because of the outbreak, African rodents were banned from the U.S. The most stressful part of the outbreak for Douglass was that there was no definitive list of pet traders or pet stores available in the state. Such companies currently are not required to register themselves or the pets they sell with any state agency, he said. During the outbreak, officials scrambled to find the stores. Their only resource — the phone book.

Since the outbreak, the state Agriculture Department, state Division of Natural Resources and others have worked toward getting a law, SB384, passed that would require those in the pet trade to register their establishments with the state. Also, those who buy exotic or non-native animals from those stores would be required to register their animal with the state, Douglass said.

State Sen. Larry Edgell, D-Wetzel, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the legislation has been around for about six years. It was approved by the Senate, but has yet to pass in the House. The problem is that many delegates don’t understand it or its importance, he said.

“Hopefully there doesn’t have to be a disaster to wake people up,” Edgell said. “I hope we get it done before I leave.”

Edgell noted he would “try again next year” to get the legislation passed.

“We need to educate them,” he said of his fellow legislators.

Eradicating an invasive pest can also be costly. For example, it took the state of Florida 10 years and $1 million to eliminate the giant African land snail. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the snail was introduced to Florida in 1966 when a boy brought the giant snails home from Hawaii. His grandmother then released the snails into her garden. Seven years later in 1973, more than 18,000 of the creatures and their eggs had been found, according to the Agriculture Department.