AT 7pm JUST after dinner, Sam* would walk his dog around his neighbourhood block in Petaling Jaya, come home and feed the dog. Then he would either play online video games with his friends or scroll through social media sites such as TikTok and Instagram right before bed.
And once every few weeks, he adds something to this routine. After feeding his dog he would feed his other pets: a ball python (Python regius), a bearded dragon (Pogona spp.) and a sulcata tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata).
(Feature image: Screenshot of exotic pet content on popular social media platform TikTok. | Image by Macaranga)
Sam is one of many Malaysians who keeps exotic pets such as snakes and pythons, lizards, freshwater turtles, and songbirds.
“If you look online, there are plenty of people who show off their [exotic] pets,” says Sam.
Though most people would simply scroll past these photos, others, like Sam, find themselves consuming more and more of these social media posts. Eventually, they pull the trigger and purchase their very own exotic pet.
Sam says he always had an interest in exotic pets as his uncle used to keep songbirds and freshwater tortoises. But it was during the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown that led him to be online more.
After clicking on a post of a python poking its head out of a piece of hollow driftwood, Sam soon found himself scrolling and liking more posts of pythons being fed food and gently handled by their owners. “They look so calm and so cute.”
“Cute”—that was the same word used by two other exotic pet owners to describe the animals they saw online before they bought some. Another common description was “happy owners”.
When she saw posts that show “how happy (pet) owners are, you kinda just go ‘I want one too’, you know,” says Sue*, who owns red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans). She bought them after seeing TikTok videos of the terrapins swimming in tanks. And for Kay*, owner of a Smith’s red-knee tarantula (Brachypelma smithi), he felt like he “should have one too” after seeing posts of owners looking “happy and chill” with their exotic pets.
After seeing post after post of red-eared sliders, Sue eventually visited a pet shop and bought one. She now has three.
Sam and Kay took a different approach. The animals they wanted were not available at the pet shop they visited. They then joined online Facebook community groups of exotic pet enthusiasts and asked for help.
The community answered: buy online.
Driving up demand through posts
Seeing exotic animals in situations that make them appear cute, docile and in a positive relationship with their human handlers may lead to an increase in positive reactions from social media users, as reported in a research paper published in Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy in 2023.
Lead author Dr Magdalena Svensson and colleagues from Oxford Brookes University and NGO Monitor Conservation Research Society looked at social media posts on galagos, a critically endangered species of small primate that is widely bought as a pet in Thailand. They analysed nearly 22,000 comments in posts across social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Svensson and colleagues found almost 95% of comments from social media users were positive, with many of these commenters noting that these animals looked ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’. Some explicitly express interest in purchasing these animals.
These positive comments came from posts showing the galagos engaging in ‘natural-like behaviour’ such as eating and sleeping as well as engaging in positive interactions with their owners such as ‘playing’ or petting — these are the exact types of posts that caught Sam, Kay and Sue’s attention.
Purchasing exotic pets online
Although the sale of exotic animals goes against the terms of service in these social media platforms, the online pet trade continues to grow, and in some cases these animals may have been brought in through illegal wildlife trade.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, illegal online wildlife trade has ballooned in Southeast Asia. In 2022, a WWF report states that Myanmar has seen a 74% increase in the sale of live protected wild animals and their parts on Facebook in 2021 compared to the previous year. And in the Philippines, TRAFFIC reported that a total of 143 live hornbills were offered for sale on Facebook between 2018-2022. In these five years, the Philippines authorities had seized 66 hornbills, a higher rate than the 80 seized between 2010-2019.
Back home, 443 cases of illegal online wildlife trading have been dealt with by PERHILITAN since March 2023 as reported in Free Malaysia Today. Despite these efforts, Macaranga continues to see online posts advertising endangered species for sale on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Sam and Kay have purchased one each of their exotic pets online. For Sam it was the ball python, while for Kay it was the Smith’s red-knee tarantula. These purchases were made via private online Facebook groups dedicated to buying, selling, and exchanging exotic pets.
Both animals are classified under Appendix II in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). International trade of these animals requires CITES permits and the authority’s assurance that such trade does not hurt the species’ survival. Malaysia has been a party to CITES since 1978.
Furthermore, the ball python and the Smith’s red-knee tarantula are listed as protected wildlife in Malaysia’s Wildlife Conservation Act 2010. The law requires one to get a licence from PERHILITAN to keep protected wildlife. If caught without these licences, buyers and sellers may be fined up to RM50,000 and/or jailed up to 3 years under the new amendments made in 2022.
As for the red-eared sliders owned by Sue? The Wildlife Conservation Act lists it as a controlled species and prohibits anyone from trading or keeping them.
Neither Sam nor Kay have the compulsory licences to keep their pets.
Sam claims that, at the time, he wasn’t aware he needed a permit to own a ball python when he bought it off a seller from Cheras. When asked why he didn’t go to PERHILITAN to obtain a permit once he was made aware, he sheepishly murmurs, “got lazy.”
Kay also claims he wasn’t aware he needed a permit to own the tarantula he purchased off its previous owner. However, he was a little dryer with his response. “I’ll probably go to jail.”
When Macaranga asked why they still bought these animals online despite the risk, Sam and Kay shrugged and gave the same response: because they “looked so cute and cool.”
Do you want to buy more?
Of the three exotic pet owners Macaranga has spoken to, only Sue plans to purchase more exotic pets. But she would only do so through pet shops, she explains.
Kay has stopped buying more exotic pets as he feels he has enough. “I don’t want to keep more unless I have the money and space.”
As for Sam, he expresses he is already happy with the pets he currently has. But he also worries about the ugly side of the trade.
“I read online that some of these animals might not be obtained in a humane way, and with how popular more exotic animals are becoming, you have to wonder how these sellers got these animals, you know? Probably not good.”
Nearing the end of the interview, his phone rings. It’s a reminder for him to buy more pet food.
*Names are changed as the interviewees requested anonymity for this story.
This story follows from wildlife trade media training organised in 2023 by the US Agency for Global Media which Macaranga co-led.
[Edited by YH Law]
Updated. 2/4/2024: The penalty for keeping protected wildlife without licence is corrected to “RM50,000” and “3 years”.
Coming on Thursday: “Langur in city spotlights efforts to tackle wildlife trade online”, a story that examines what is being done to make our wildlife laws more effective against online wildlife crimes.
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