SCORES of deadly wild animals, including lions, crocodiles and venomous snakes, are being kept as pets by Brits in their homes.
Many have been bought online via social media ads or on Gumtree, and current legislation does not require an owner to have any training on how to handle them in a lot cases.
Reece Oliver, who showed off his pet lions at Strelley Wildlife Conservation Facility in ITV documentary series Britain’s Tiger Kings[/caption]
A Gumtree advert showing pythons for sale in London for £400[/caption]
Hybrid Savannah cats are becoming more popular due to social media infleuncers[/caption]
And while some more regulated set ups, aside from traditional zoos, house such animals, including Heythrop Zoological Garden or the Strelley Wildlife Conservation Facility in Nottingham, a large number on the list are kept at people’s homes.
The latest figures, from 2023, show 2,700 such “dangerous” creatures – and which require a licence to keep – were officially registered at 187 private addresses across 126 local authorities in the UK.
That includes a dozen lions, 11 pumas, and 16 different types of crocodile, including a saltwater croc, which can grow up to 20ft, in North Yorkshire.
“Hybrid” beasts, including from breeding a domestic cat with an exotic wild feline, are growing in popularity thanks to social media influencers, with a “loophole” meaning many don’t even need a licence.
There’s also a rising trend of Brits realising they can’t cope and abandoning such animals, in part due to the cost of living crisis and Covid pandemic.
And some species – either let go or escaped – have gone on to thrive in the UK, creating colonies that challenge native wildlife.
Chris Lewis, captivity research manager for Born Free, told The Sun: “In terms of the current legislative landscape within the UK, it’s legal to keep pretty much any wild animal as a pet… it’s largely unregulated.”
Asked what sort of person is keeping a creature considered a “dangerous” exotic predator, like a big cat or deadly snake, he said: “Some would suggest it’s a status symbol or an adrenaline-fuelled purchase.
“They may have kept other wild animals in the past, but then they wanted something which was increasingly more challenging.”
He continued: “Some people feel a connection to those animals. Others feel like they are perhaps rescuing that animal from wherever they got it from, and also sometimes keepers feel that by keeping those animals they are in some way helping with the conservation of that species.
“However, those claims are highly questionable, and they are hard to justify.”
The most popular deadly exotic beast for such Brits is the rattlesnake, with more than 70 of the venomous species, which hails from the Americas, registered on these shores.
But perhaps most worrying is that the majority, if not all, will not have been defanged and so can still kill someone within a matter of hours if a bite goes untreated.
Chris said: “What can happen is sometimes the teeth can be removed that are used by the snake to inject the venom, but that’s commonly seen as a violation of their welfare.
“So I would say that in this country, the majority, if not all of privately kept venomous snakes would still be capable of injecting their venom.”
A venomous snake would be kept in a highly-secure, regulated tank, and for obvious reasons, it can’t be taken out and petted.
Chris says it’s possible that some of these private owners operate as some kind of business, perhaps offering training on handling these snakes – though that’s not the case for the majority.
He said legislation is patchy in the UK, with “no real requirement” for an owner to have “any training in how to care or look after these animals”.
Chris explained: “There’s a small number of species categorised as dangerous, which you require a license to keep – venomous snakes, lions, for example.
There are currently 12 lions registered at private residences in the UK[/caption]
Rattlesnakes are among the most popular dangerous exotic pets registered in this country[/caption]
“For the rest, it’s largely unregulated. You can keep whatever you want, so there’s nothing illegal about what people are doing but it raises questions as to whether the current landscape is fit for purpose.”
Earlier this year, 32-year-old Ashley Betts claimed he didn’t know a Dangerous Wild Animals (DWA) licence was needed to keep exotic creatures after police discovered a 4ft American alligator called Cliff in a tank in his garden in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
He pleaded guilty to breaching the Dangerous Wild Animals Act at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court in March.
And while the court heard there was “no suggestion” that the animal was being kept poorly or was unsafe to other people, Betts – who was fined £1,000 – refused to reveal where he’d got Cliff from, other than through a friend.
The trade for such animals is booming, and over the last two decades the ease of access has greatly increased, particularly online, said Chris.
“In the past you either had to know somebody or a pet shop near you had to stock the animal that you were wanting to keep,” he explained.
“But now people can go online, they can search for whatever it is that they’re wanting to keep or acquire, and there will, in the vast majority of cases, be somebody somewhere online selling that animal.”
Chris went on to say: “In terms of the current legislative landscape within the UK, it’s legal to keep pretty much any wild animal as a pet.
“There are only a very few exceptions to that, and those would be species which are considered to be invasive.”
An invasive species would be a non-native species that has colonised a new area to the point of damaging the surrounding environment.
Ashley Betts was found to be keeping an alligator at his home in Rotherham (stock image)[/caption]
Seven king cobras are registered at a private address in the UK[/caption]
Wolves are also among those on the registered list[/caption]
According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), tackling invasive species costs the UK roughly £1.8billon per year globally.
But such invasive animals aren’t the beasts on the dangerous animals list that people need a licence to own: they’re green crabs, killer algae, sea walnuts, lionfish and Pacific oysters.
So, the growing trend of keeping dangerous animals from abroad at your home in Britain isn’t necessarily contributing to overall environmental damage – but there is still an issue of these animals getting out.
Born Free estimated in the first nine months of 2021 there were at least 25 cases of escaped or abandoned exotic pets in Britain.
In September of that year, two reticulated pythons – each around 10ft long – were found in the Cambridgeshire countryside.
An article on the charity’s website said “despite their size and strength”, the large constrictor snakes, which are “for sale online, at reptile markets and in pet shops across the country”, are not included within the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976.
It added: “As such, no licence is required to keep them, even though they are categorised under zoo legislation as being likely to cause severe injury or pose a severe threat to life.”
The article went on to describe cases in recent years of escaped marmosets in Oxfordshire, wallabies in Cornwall, Savannah cats in Bristol and raccoon dogs in Nottinghamshire.
One woman told The Sun her neighbour was startled after finding a large shedded python skin in her back garden in Hampshire in 2022.
Chris said the increase in abandoned animals coincided with the Covid pandemic lockdown.
Legislation for keeping a dangerous wild animal
You need a licence to keep some animals considered to be wild, dangerous or exotic under the the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976.
Apply to your local council for a licence to keep a wild animal.
You need a licence to keep some animals, for example:
- wild cats
- primates
- wild dogs, such as wolves
- certain pigs, such as wild boar
- marsupials
See the full list of animals you need a licence for.
According to stats, among the most popular such beasts are rattlesnakes, of which there are more than 70.
There are also 12 lions, 18 crocodiles, seven king cobras and seven tigers.
“The general theme for people was that it was being blamed on cost of living, and that they purchased these animals either before lockdown or during lockdown.
“Then the price of looking after those animals either increased, because, particularly with reptiles, you have to provide heating and perhaps humidity control, but also lighting as well, which are all energy consumers, and cost money.”
He went on to say: “All of these animals are too easy to purchase. You can spontaneously buy them with very little thought as to whether you are prepared to look after them in the long term.
“Many of these animals live for 10, or maybe over 20 years, so they are an incredibly long term commitment.
“When people realise how much they cost to look after, or realise they may need to move house, or their circumstances in life change it can often result in the animals being either abandoned, or people wanting to surrender those animals because they no longer can either look after them or want them anymore.”
Chris said most exotic animals are unlikely to survive in the wilds of the UK for long, so the prospect of people being stalked by pythons on their dog walks in the wilds of the Cotswolds are unlikely.
“There was no evidence of exotic snakes being able to survive in the UK,” he explained.
“So whilst they may survive for a short period in the summer, as soon as the weather changes and the temperatures drop, those animals sadly die.
“They require heat to maintain themselves, so in contrast to native snake species who go into almost a sort of hibernation state, these snakes don’t do that.
“They’re active all year round. People may abandon them in the summer, thinking that they will be capable of surviving, but when it comes to winter they would die, sadly.”
There are, however, some examples of such exotic animals, not necessarily dangerous to humans, thriving in the UK after being introduced here.
There was no evidence of exotic snakes being able to survive in the UK. So whilst they may survive for a short period in the summer, as soon as the weather changes and the temperatures drop, those animals sadly die.
Chris Lewis
Born Free wrote that the chance that escaped raccoon dogs could “establish themselves in the British countryside in the coming decade is considered high”, and “if it came about there could be devastating consequences for our native wildlife”.
Chris said recent examples of exotic animals that are believed to have been kept as pets before being freed and establishing themselves on British shores, include “instances of small populations” of wallabies but “it’s unclear where their exact source came from”.
He said: “Sometimes people say they maybe escaped from a zoo, or sometimes they’ll say that they were pets that were released.”
The other example is the ringnecked parakeets, which can be found in London, as well as having established colonies in a few other UK cities.
“They’re one of the most common recent examples, where they were believed to have been kept as pets and then released, and they established themselves,” said Chris.
“It’s still unclear exactly what or if any damage they are causing to the native species, because obviously they will be competing with native birds for nesting space and also for food. But it’s unclear exactly what impact they’re having at the moment.”
Chris explained that many exotic pets traded in the UK are bred in captivity here, while generally only reptiles are still regularly caught in the wild.
Savannah cats
And another growing trend is the cross-breeding of exotic animals, particularly “hybrid wildcats”, including the Savannah cat, which has become popular recently due to social media influencers.
These are a hybrid of a domesticated cat and a serval, and a first generation one is illegal to own without a DWA licence.
“They’re considered to be a step up from your common domestic cat, because they’re bigger, they’re quite striking in appearance and have featured in a number of online videos with influencers or celebrities.
“So they are considered to be a fashionable pet, I guess,” said Chris.
“Once you get into the second generation of Savannah cats, you then don’t need a license anymore, which I think helps with their appeal and also that raises questions as to whether that’s even appropriate because you have this animal, which is only two generations away from its wild parents, and you suddenly don’t need a license for it yet…
“It is quite bizarre, almost a bit of a loophole with the licensing.”
Chris said he would encourage people to remember that the domestication of cats and dogs occurred over the thousands of years over multiple generations.
“To assume that an animal after just two generations is suitable and capable of being kept adequately in a domestic environment within the UK is perhaps not appropriate, not advisable,” he continued.
“And any hybridisation of two species which are so noticeably different because the breeding of a domestic cat and a wild cat can be filled with welfare issues for the animals involved.
“I would strongly advise against anyone wanting to purchase a Savannah cat.”
Chris said he kept exotic animals as a child but eventually was put off keeping such pets, as well as the idea of zoos themselves, when he learned more about the wild animal trade.
“You kind of realise that it’s perhaps not the most appropriate thing to do, and also not in the best interest of those animals that you’re keeping.
But when you’re younger it’s seen as something which you can do like… it’s something which is almost a cultural norm, which is perhaps something which we need to change.
“Ultimately, in most cases we’re doing it for our own, you know our own personal interests, and perhaps not putting the interests of the animal at the forefront of what we’re doing.”
He went on to say, referring to zoos: “What benefit do people get from seeing these animals when they’re being kept in conditions which aren’t natural to them, and they may not be performing natural behaviors?
“You’re just learning about what the animal is like when it’s kept in captivity and they may be two very different things.”
Chris believes the UK needs to “flip the legislative landscape on its head”.
“A number of European countries have adopted a system called a permitted list system.
“What that does is it builds a set of criteria to assess whether animals are suitable to being kept in a captive environment.”
That includes whether they a threat to conservation or a risk to humans.
“Only species which meet all of those criteria are added to the list,” continued Chris.
“It means that there can be more attention given to the specific needs of those animals, so people could be better educated and more well informed of how to look after them.”
Do you know more? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk
