Changes For Exotic Pets in Texas?

             There is an article in The TexasTribune titled Humane Society Wants Tougher Exotic Pet Rules in Texas, that addresses the issues with the lack of laws regulating the keeping of exotic animals as pets in a place of residence. The Humane Society of the United States believes that the rules on exotic pets statewide need to be more strict; they are planning to ask lawmakers to strengthen the laws that regulate the ownership of such animals. Texas law states that people who own exotic animals need to register their animals with their municipal or county animal control offices. By law in Texas, it is the local government's decision whether to regulate exotic pet ownership or ban it outright. The article says that more and more states are coming to the decision to ban private ownership of exotic animals — “21 states already have comprehensive bans, and another 8 states ban most exotic animals as pets”. The reason why this has become such an issue, and important to The Humane Society, is because there have been incidents in the last year that have put people in danger and The Humane Society is trying to prevent that from happening again. Jordan Crump, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, says that, “Statistics show that there are more tigers held privately in Texas than are alive in the wild right now.” There are some counties that have banned exotic pets already, but others have not and, because of the lack of laws for exotic pets, “people are county-shopping” for the best areas to live in with their exotic pets and not have to worry about the rules. This is an interesting article to read because it brings light to an issue that many Texans (including me) have not thought about. If there are people that, when they have the freedom, are irresponsible about the care of an exotic animal, it can be very detrimental to the community and and issue that should be addressed by lawmakers to prevent mistreatment and putting the community at risk.