Reptiles, the new exotic pets?
Among many families, reptiles (like snakes or lizards) inhabit increasingly in terrariums individuals as some new exotic pets.
Among the most frequently encountered reptiles terrarium, there are non-venomous snakes like pythons and boas, geckos, iguanas, tortoises and red-eared sliders or chameleons, whom attracting fans with their particular changes color.
The reptile market as new exotic pets is expanding and is very lucrative for both the legal market and the illegal market that buys directly from nature without permission.
Espérance de vie des reptiles : the average life expectancy for iguanas, geckos and large snakes (Boa / Python) is about 15 to 20 years. For turtles, it is far much more: 50 years for red-eared sliders, and 80 years for tortoises!
What animals are reptiles?
The class of reptiles includes four levels of contemporary species:
- crocodilians: 25 species of crocodiles, gharials, caimans and alligators;
- rhynchocephalia: 2 species of tuataras;
- squamata: about 9,000 species of lizards (broadly defined), snakes and amphisbaenians ("worm lizard");
- testudines: about 330 species of turtles.
What do you think about keeping a reptile at home ?
Animals rights
Animal abuse is unbearable, and it is important to give rights to animals. For more than three decades, the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) has been fighting to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system, pushing government agencies to do their jobs to protect animals and shining a national spotlight on issues like factory farming and dissection in schools.
