Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets

by Peter Laufer

Laufer exposes the network of hunters, traders, breeders, and customers who constitute this nefarious business—which, estimated at $10 to $20 billion annually, competes with illegal drug and weapons trafficking in the money it earns criminals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, Science, Wildlife, Biology, Crime

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Peter Laufer, Ph.D., is the author of more than a dozen books that deal with social and political issues, including "Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq," "Wetback Nation: The Case for Opening the Mexican-American Border," and "Iron Curtain Rising: A Personal Journey through the Changing Landscape of Eastern Eurpoe." He is the coanchor of "The Peter Laufer Show" on radio station Green 960 in San Francisco. More about his books, documentary films, broadcasts, which have won the George Polk, Robert F. Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow, and other awards, can be found at peterlaufer.com. He lives in Bodega Bay, California.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do I have a sense of timing, or what? A few days after reading this book, Terry Thompson went out to his private menagerie of exotic animals, opened up the cages to release dozens of grizzly bears, wolves, tigers, lions, leopards, baboons and various other animals that are not native to Ohio. (I grew up in Ohio, so I know)

I'd be interested to hear what Laufer has to say about Thompson. I'm sure someone has enlisted him to comment on the events in Zanesville. If not, they should.

I was particularly interested in his interviews with tiger owners. One man in Idaho keeps a 350 pound tiger in his feed shop, insisting she's gentle and wouldn't hurt anyone. I shared Laufer's reaction--how degrading for this majestic animal to be on display in a feed shop, next to the bags of oats for horses and a sign asking for donations for the tiger's upkeep. (Tigers eat a lot.)

There's also an interview with Tippi Hedron, famous for her role in "The Birds." She now runs Shambala Preserve, a refuge for big cats born in captivity. A good many of them started off as pets. When they got to be unmanageable, their owners brought them to Shambala. Hedron has some interesting insights as to why people think they can "tame" these animals, and the shock they have when they find out exactly what it's like having a tiger in your backyard.

Laufer also writes about people who have snakes and chimpanzees, as well as the people who smuggle exotic animals into the country for sale. His negative attitude about owning exotic animals does come through, but I admit I share this attitude. It's insane for people to think they can control wild animals.

For example, our 15 pound cat is mean. He bites, he scratches, he kills squirrels and birds. The thought of having a cat 20 times his size is terrifying. And the thought of my neighbor having one is even worse. So sign those petitions. No one wants another Zanesville.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am extremely torn on this book. On the one hand, I have to give Laufer credit for interviewing many private exotic animal owners who are generally overlooked in the literature which focuses primarily on zoos and large operations. He covers quite a range, from celebrity sanctuaries to private primate breeders to the Lolli Brothers exotic animal auction. He went so far as to arrange private interviews with Ingrid Newkirk and Peter Singer as well.

However, Laufer has an agenda and all of his visits and interviews are strongly colored by it. He presents the narrative as if he is investigating the reasons why people keep exotic pets, when he clearly has already decided that people do it primarily to demonstrate power and domination over nature. All of his reported questions and responses are targeted towards this, there is no unbiased or open-ended questioning here. He consistently describes the animals in sad, desperate terms and often spins the owners as carelessly ignorant (which is certainly true some of the time, but it is impossible to distinguish the educated from Laufer's reporting). He regularly quotes zoo experts and animal activists denouncing statements by exotic owners. Again, many of these are indeed good sources, but he gives no context as to their quotes -- such as the bias accredited zoos have against private ownership as a whole, responsible or not.

Laufer also gets continuously sidetracked by the concept of "domestic" versus "wild" (along with "tame", "feral", and "exotic"). He argues that these are vague terms and that there really is no line between them. While in colloquial usage this may be true, these are actually well defined in technical usage. I am not entirely sure what he was trying to demonstrate by these philosophical meanderings.

The book itself reads more like a series of separate essays than a coherent whole. He repeats stories often, constantly referring back to a few examples and explaining them in full every time. There isn't much tying many of the chapters together. One moment he's describing the giggly owner of a wild cat cub, the next he's spending several chapters on the issue of invasive pythons in the Everglades.

There's a lot of very cool peeks into the private exotic industry here and it's well worth the read. It's unfortunate we have to view it through the filter of the author's agenda, masquerading as a neutral third party investigation.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forbidden Creatures is an attempt to explore the world of exotic pets. This is a topic that has been dealt with a lot, particularly with regard to the illegal trade of endangered animals. What makes this book stand out, the reason I was interested in it, is its focus on the owners themselves: what makes them want exotic animals as pets, particularly when the animal is potentially dangerous such as a tiger, chimpanzee or Burmese python. This is a question many of us have asked following well publicized attacks (remember Travis the pet chimp who horribly disfigured Charla Nash?), or even seeing oddities such as giant centipedes for sale in a pet store. Few of us have the opportunity to ask this question in person. In my days as a zookeeper and veterinary assistant it was a topic very much on my mind (and one I never had the guts to ask aloud when faced with someone who claimed to own a wolf or serval). I often did get answers regardless, and these were often in line with what Laufer was told.

Over the course of the book Laufer visits and talks with a number of owners of large cats as well as several primate owners, and a couple of snake owner/vendors. He sees people doing a relatively good job of it and those who are doing a poor job. He repeatedly asks owners about their motivations and their concerns surrounding their pets. The answers are fairly banal, with motivations typically expressing love of animals or a hidden desire to dominate something dangerous. Of these the love of animals and a wish to connect with another species are by far the most common but these fail to explain why a dog, cat or other domesticated species will not suffice.

A major problem with this is Laufer’s failure to really explore and understand what lines separate wild and domestic animals. Domestication refers to a species which has been genetically adapted to live with humans. There is a good amount of research into this, the most famous being breeding experiments with silver foxes in Russia in which foxes were bred to be more and more passive or more and more aggressive. The passive and friendly foxes also developed curly tails, floppy ears and shortened snouts, much like domestic dogs. This was made widely known in the March 2011 issue of National Geographic but has been known of in scientific circles for at least 15 years now. Laufer, however, treats the issue as a philosophical one. Much of the book is spent wondering about the differences between wild, tame and domesticated. While the differences between wild and tame can be a bit gray (a tame animal is one that has essentially learned to live with humans but has not been domesticated [see above]) they are still different from each other and both terms are certainly different from domestication.

How does a journalist of Laufer’s experience miss this? It is a question that bothered me for much of the book. He first really seems to get into the question of domestication in “Chapter Six: Who Belongs to Whom?” That chapter is devoted to his conversation with a man who bought a wolf cub and lived with it for several years. That the man did this does not provoke much in the way of scrutiny from the author, perhaps because the man in question is Mark Rowlands, described as one of the founders of the animals rights movement. Instead, they spend the interview discussing animal minds and delving into questions such as whether a pet owner can ever really know the mind of an animal or is it even possible to really own another animal. While these questions are important to ask in considering our relationship with our pets, the discussion is blandly philosophical. It fails to answer anything and winds up being the most boring chapter in the book. Like domestication, there is plenty of research into the minds of animals. Like domestication, the author ignores it, preferring to stick with the vague philosophical notions he and Rowlands come up with together.

Much of the problem behind all of this is Laufer’s personal beliefs on animal rights. Journalists often have to delve into topics for which they have intense personal feelings. The articles and books written can be made much stronger by the honest, self aware investigations into the author’s motivations running concurrent with the topic at hand (see David Foster Wallace’s essay “Consider the Lobster” [found in [book:Consider the Lobster and Other Essays|6751]] or the book Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird by Andrew D. Blechman. Laufer, however is so preoccupied by these thoughts that he seems to miss several opportunities for real journalism. A great example is his visit to Chimparty, a company which breeds and sells primates as pets. The company is a small operation run by a woman named Connie Cassey and is the birthplace of the now infamous Travis the chimp. Laufer does ask about Travis and does (we learn much, much later) ask her if she vets her clients (she does, but we are provided no specific information on this), but seems focus his questions on the reason she wants to raise primates. Little is asked regarding what the ramifications are of the lifestyle. When Connie says that it takes a lot of work and that she cannot go on vacations, he never presses her for more information: what does it cost? how much work does it take and what kind? How many hours a day does she spend cleaning, feeding, interacting with her pets? Why does she need a volunteer and a paid worker to help out and does that indicate that she has bitten off more than she can chew (incidentally she maintains that the money she makes off the business all goes back into care of the animals and given how much that care can cost – food, proper housing, cleaning supplies, veterinary bills – I believe her)? Instead, when he is shown the enclosure the chimps are kept in (which takes up much of the house Connie lives in) he finds himself thinking about how the space is not large enough – could never be large enough – to satisfy a wild animal. It is a thought that plagues him throughout the book, and while relevant, seems to prevent him from addressing many of the other issues surrounding the practice of keeping wild animals as pets.

He does mention some issues: safety, legality and the possibility of escape. The last of these is dealt with nicely in a series of chapters dealing with the large Burmese python population living in the Florida Everglades. It is an issue which has gotten much media attention lately but Laufer is the first journalist I’ve read to really talk with the different sides about the extent to which pet ownership is responsible for the problem, and to what extent the potential for such problems needs to be considered by prospective pet owners and lawmakers. Indeed, this section, perhaps the best section of the book, remains fairly focused and in depth. Part of the reason I suspect is that while he does mention in an earlier chapter that there are people who maintain that snakes and other reptiles would be happier in the wild, he doesn’t seem to be as upset over it as he is with regard to mammals and (presumably) birds. It’s not that he doesn’t ask the question, it’s that he lets it be one question and not the distracting overriding thought throughout.

Aside from the concerns over space he also spends a great amount of energy on the concept of ownership. Can we truly own an individual of another species? Do they actually own us? Shouldn’t our pets actually be equal companions? While philosophically interesting, it is gone over so frequently that it gets old quickly. He even goes so far as to compare a wildlife auction to a slave auction (an analogy that he is aware might be going too far). This sort of theorizing can be interesting and for some, might be revelatory, an eye-opening moment of clarity, but I suspect that mostly, it will lose him the attention of many readers as their cynicism takes hold.

It might be acceptable to lean so far into his animal rights-oriented mindset in covering this topic except that many of the issues he brings up – impacts of escaped pets on the local ecology, lack of space and boredom for captive animals boredom, the right to own another individual – apply equally well to domesticated species. With regards to the first, he talks proudly of his indoor/outdoor cat who frequently kills and brings home wild species. He may be unaware of the controversy surrounding outdoor cats and the havoc they may cause on native species, but if he is, I suspect that, like the definition of domestication, he is willfully so. As for the rest, he spends plenty of time rationalizing his own pets, a cat named Schrodinger, and a dog (deceased?) named Amigo. He prefers to allow his pets the freedom to roam. This alone justifies his keeping of them. According to him, if they were unhappy they could leave. The fact that they come back is proof that they want to stay with him. This in turn solidifies their relationship with him as companions rather than pets. Semantics aside, his logic smacks of self deception. Near the end of the book, while visiting a pair of large-cat owners in NV, the pair asserts that keeping a tiger in captivity is no worse than keeping a housecat in an apartment (an assertion Laufer agrees with). They them explain that when they allow their lion Bam Bam to walk freely around the property he “…walks about, sprays the property, then comes over to the porch and lies down” (p. 221). He challenges them, asking how they know Bam Bam is happy and seeming to forget that this same scenario is how he knows his dog and cat are happy with him. This could have been a moment for self reflection, allowing him to question his relationship with his pets and to wonder whether his justifications for living with them are sound, but instead he lets it drop.

“Forbidden Creatures” sets out to find out why people want exotic pets. In that it enjoys limited success. The problems he encountered in answering the question are perhaps more telling than the answers he received. Instead the real questions become those of the problems inherent in pet ownership as a whole, especially what right do we have to own another animal?, can we ever really make an individual of another species happy in our homes? and can we ever truly connect with other species the way we seek to with pets?. Unfortunately, Laufer fails to really answer these questions in large part because he prefers to rely on his own home-made and self-deceiving answers instead of really investigating them.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's estimated that there are more captive tigers in the United States than there are tigers in the wild. And only a very small percentage of those tigers are in proper zoos.

This is a fascinating and disturbing look at the exotic pet trade in the US. Peter Laufer began writing this book right around the time Travis the chimpanzee went berserk and attacked Charla Nash, and a pet Burmese python strangled a two year old girl (both of which are analyzed in this book). He interviews dozens of pet owners, breeders, scientists and more to try and figure out what motivates people to keep animals such as tigers, lions, chimpanzees, monkeys, pythons, and so on. He also visits many homes, centers, and private "zoos" where animals live and/or are bred. Along the way he debates whether its moral to keep such animals in captivity and whether any animal can ever be considered domestic or tame. Laufer's findings are disturbing, especially how easy our nation's laws make it for pet owners to breed these dangerous animals. There are still a few states (Ohio included) which don't even regulate trade and breeding.

If I could change one thing about this book, I would include pictures of the pets discussed (and people, if possible). I literally had to put the book down every chapter and google the pets and owners' names in hopes of finding pictures of the animals.

I really had no idea how large this problem was before reading this book. Who knew so many people keep tigers as pets? And I also had never really considered how sought after animals are for advertising and media. It made me question everything about captive animals and pet ownership. I will literally never look at a pet, even a dog or cat, the same way again.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author was not as interesting as his subject matter - and an editor should've told him that. I would've enjoyed more interviews with enforcement agencies, and a LOT less anecdotes and personal observations of the author.

[Sacha Blu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I appreciate the authors personal research, but for me there were problems with this book.

He meets with many exotic pet aficianados, breeders, owners, as well as those who run sanctuaries (and "scam-tuaries"), government agents, people trying to prohibit the breeding, sale, trade etc of wild pets, animal rights groups etc.

In that he does well and seems to keep a refreshingly neutral and open minded journalistic integrity.

The issues:

1. This book is pretty limited to the US exotic above ground industry. It is really almost entirely restricted to US politics and news in a way, though he mentions some instances of sheikhs owning animals. It doesn't really go into the illegal exotic animal trade at all. There is no interviews of anyone in or even close to the illegal global network of exotic animal trade. I suppose that's hard to infiltrate even using pseudonyms, but others have done so. He doesnt even talk about these issues, say, whete tje animals come from , why, how tjeyre getting here. Nor major developments in the exotic animal owmership issues globally. For instace, coconut farmers in SE Asia now using tons of wild pigtail macaques (monkeys) as enslaved workers in iron collars and chains who they train and force to climb and pick coconuts like human beings do. Most of the political issues he gets into are very local American things.

2. He repeatedly says theres a fuzziness between domesticated, tame, feral and wild. There are actually very clear definitions but he never once says them. For instance domestication is a very specific process that occurs genetically over hundreds of generations where in each generation, all but the most 10% friendly babies are culled. That is different than just captive breeding or farming, because, say, monkey farmers (whether in US or Vietnam) do not cull for tameness, their goal is NOT domestication, but profit. You do not need monkeys to be domesticated, because they are primarily sold for research and stuff which we can force on them, so they only need to be tame.

Even so, there are about 8 qualities a species must already naturally exhibit for domestication to ever be a possibility. Humans have tried domesticating nearly every animal and only about 20 species ever succeeded. Similarl the word tame and feral also each mean something very specific with accompanying information he neglects to provide. This is frustrating as I actually think the book makes people LESS educated on these topics and it is that lack of education abput what domestication really is and when its possible, that increases the misuse of these animals. So I think he really failed there, I mean, the absence of this explanation is shocking.

3. He repeatedly complains he doesnt understand what makes people want an exotic wild animal as a pet. Yet they repeatedly tell him, both their literal reasons, in words, and their subconcious reasons, in the subtext of what they say and do, and so do those who are for regulation. Its always the same things. Finally he arrives at the conclusion they're misguided, selfish/self-centered, have something missing in their lives, or have issues with authority (of the particularly American kind of issues). Yes, everyone you interviewed repeatedly told and showed you this, sir.
Also he uses the word monkey and ape interchangably! Apes are advanced primates without tails at all : gorillas, gibbons/siamangs, humans and our ancestral hominid lineages (neandertal etc), chimps/bonobos, and orangutans. Monkeys are smaller, have less advanced cognition and have tails (sometimes very tiny ones, but there).

4. This book is not organized for a reader. To the degree its organized, it seems based on who he interviews or visits or maybe the chronology thereof. Meaning all of the themes, species and examples seem randomly thrown on from one chapter to the next. Its not organized by animal type (big cats, snakes, etc) nor by history, or pro/con, or any clear progression. Even his understanding doesnt seem to be a clear progression through the book.

5. This book is surprisingly boring considering the subject. I kept falling asleep. He is an academic which can make someone a dry writer, but I regularly read academic non-fiction books and get involved in them.

While I do appreciate the time and work the author put into his visits, research, and writing, I can't really reccommend this book, unless youre interested in one of 2 topics :

1. Reading about tacky and selfish Americans who think they can do whatever they want and like to keep big cats captive or breed them. Dont expect education or something anywhere as entertaining as Tiger King.

2. The issue of tens of thousads of Asian pythons taking over the ecology of south Florida. This was probably the most cogent part of the book and went the deepest into an issue, but it still felt like we were barely skimming the surface.

I was really interested in this subject but I just couldnt wait for the book to be over.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Laufer has a engaging conversational style. Forbidden Creatures is mostly the story of his travels around the US (with a side trip to Yorkshire England) asking folks why they keep dangerous exotic animals as pets. Dr. Laufer weaves in information about tigers, chimps and pythons in the wild but mostly the book is an effort to understand what makes a person want to keep a lion in a cage in the back yard.

I love living in a area that still has wild animals, including some top predators. My screen saver is a picture of a bear strolling across my yard. We found cougar-killed deer with a couple hundred feet of the house twice in the 15 years we have lived here (private land inside Siuslaw National Forest.) I understand the draw of wild animals. Still, I cannot connect with the desire to own and control them.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this peek into the life of exotic animal owners and the trials they face with their animals. I can understand the draw of wanting a relationship with a wild animal, but I don't understand how anybody really wants to put that much work into having an animal that exists primarily as something to look at.

The book did seem a bit scattered at times, jumping from place to place and revisiting past stories. The author does put a lot of effort into seeking out a number of unusual situations and manages to find and interview a number of people who keep these animals. It does have a bit of a bias against keeping them in captivity, and presents some of the dangers of doing so, but I think it would be hard not to be biased against them.

Anyway, an enlightening read.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published in 2010, so some of the data probably has changed since then; I didn't look it up.

Eye-opening in that there is a lot from the POV of exotic animal owners, giving their perspective. There is some repetition, and some parts I had to skim over as they were disturbing to me, but overall a good informative read, and probably a jumping off point for more research in this area if you're so inclined.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about the exotic pet trade, and people who are interested in animals and conservation in general.

[Sheila · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only thing I enjoyed about this book: it was purchased for $1.00 at a Borders' closing sale.

[Zee Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The more I learn about the exotic pet trade, the more it is the pet “owners” who intrigue me…Why is it that some people seem compelled to keep rare, dangerous, and weird animals?”

Laufer is an investigative journalist who, in this book, takes on the underworld of the exotic pet trade. He covers the black market as well as the legal breeding & selling of exotic animals. He also delves into the strange lives of those who keep these animals as “pets”.
I found this book fascinating. I’ve read several books on this subject recently and this is the best of the bunch so far. Very well written.

[Charlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm on the fence. I understand trying to not be biased and show both sides but the writing style still annoyed me. he is biased (I think) but I felt I was questioning as I read based on things he said. it covers a wide range of ownership types but focuses mostly on big cats, apes, and snakes.

I am biased and don't believe exotics should be allowed. while the curtain was pulled back in some instances im not sure I got everything I wanted out of this book. it wasn't as educational as I hoped and jumped around a lot.

[Michele Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

So disappointed in this book. I picked it up hoping to get some good insight into animal smuggling and people who live with and breed true exotics (monkeys, apes, large or poisonous snakes, non-domesticated felines, etc) for a story I want to write. Instead I got a long, repetitive screed on "Is it morally right to own pets" that made everyone but the author out to be either clingy emotionally-damaged fussers or macho-people out to dominate mother nature.

Yawn.

And ironically the author himself often talks about his dog and cat without even a little awareness of being a responsible domestic pet owner. (His cat is freely allowed outside despite this being devastating to local ecosystems, and his dog only does tricks for treats, not because a well-mannered socialized dog is safer for a community or more likely to be able to be rehomed if needed for some reason.)

It frustrated me so much that every person interviewed in this book as an exotic pet owner is portrayed so badly. And that there is next to nothing about smuggling, or responsible pet ownership period. It's all half-truths (like the oft-repeated "you can't breed the wild out" to which I offer a hearty WTF because how do you think we ended up with the domestic dog? Yeah, you can't breed the wild out in a few generations or even decades, but it's battered around so much in the book that I eyerolled every time.)

And speaking of oft-repeated EVERYTHING is repeated. Especially the sad stories of people who put their lives into caring for an animal and tragedy struck. We get it, strong animals with big teeth can be dangerous. So can chihuahuas. Ask any vet or dog groomer what the most dangerous pet is and you'll likely hear a small dog breed or domestic cat (who can send you to the hospital rather easy since they can carry toxoplasmosis.)

In the end I couldn't stomach this book after 150 pages. It's not what it's advertised as, the author is clearly biased and out more to muse on what crazy people could do this and push scare tactics to villianize any and all pet owners.

Mr. Laufer, you want to know why we own pets? Because like all hobbies, IT MAKES US HAPPY. (And FYI, there are scientifically proven benefits too.)

[Trista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by a journalist covering the subject via that reference point, Laufer tracks down various big stories that have hit the airwaves recently - from the pet chimp who ripped off a woman's face in CT, to the large snake who strangled a child in Florida. He goes on to visit exotic animal conventions (essentially large buying opportunities), breeders, an animal smuggler and an exotic pet store owner. What he fails to do is speak to psychologists and psychiatrists who treat both the owners and the victims of these "pets" or try to explain the fascination. (Nor does he speak to the victims, themselves) Instead, he mildly interviews the owners, buyers and breeders in a rather shallow fashion to do so. B-

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was interesting, although a little on the conversational side. There was a fair bit of repetitiveness that was entirely forgivable and in keeping with the tone- reading this book was just like sitting around the table chatting. I learned a lot, had some prejudices reinforced, and gained some talking points to trot out when there's nothing else to say to my herpetologically enhanced teenager. The parts about monkey-keepers were entirely alien and fascinating. The parts about big cat keepers were somewhat alien and fascinating. The parts about reptile keepers were not so alien and were more fascinating than all the rest.

[Jessica Baumgartner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do people own monkeys? What do people consider and exotic pet? What is and should be legal for humans to own as a pet? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book. After working at a Petco while I was in highschool and then moving onto veterinary assisting I have come to find that many animals not only deserve to be free but also need it. One of the exotic pet owners interviewed in the book claimed that her animal was happier living in a cage because he was safe and had his food delivered to him, all I could think was that I know I would rather be free to live and possibly fail than be kept safe in a jail.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I found this to be enjoyable. I didn't find it captivating and suspenseful like the fiction books I normally read, but it was enlightening. It was written by a journalist and I did enjoy his writing style. It was editorial, yet a little humorous at times. He travels the United States and a little of Europe unraveling the exotic pet trade. I kinda wished he investigated the actual exotic pet trade (he focuses on private exotic pet owners), but I guess if he did that would be insanely dangerous. It was interesting seeing why people are drawn to exotic animals as pets.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets by Peter Laufer (The Lyons Press 2010)(364.13367) was a very interesting and informative read. It contains good coverage of the python infestation of the Everglades (query: did the infestation arise from Hurricane Andrew or from snakes being released into the wild by former pet owners?), and it provides both sides of each issue a fair chance to air their position. Be warned: the animal owners come across as being purely insane. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 6/11/11.

[Jennifer Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I learned about it from an interview on NPR and bought the book only to wait two years to read it. Peter's style is very readable. I like that he covers multiple species and situations across many different areas. It definitely keeps it interesting. I've recommended this book to many of my reader friends and anyone interested in wildlife conservation and animal rights. He exposes an underworld that we only hear about when a tragedy flashes across the news.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intriguing. Really makes you think about the ownership/breeding of exotic animals for the pet trade. And further convinces me that people who keep chimpanzees or snakes or tigers with them in their homes are truly nuts.

[Joseph Hlebica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A favorite topic of mine, one I've published on as well, though I prefer Laufer's amiable and wryly witty style to much of what passes for investigative journalism these days. Looking forward to the next in his trilogy on man and our relationships with the animals we keep and abuse.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for everyone. The captive exotic animals crisis in America is a huge problem that most people are not aware of. This book explores the reasoning and the issues behind these animal "owners". We must have more laws and we must start protecting these animals...

[stellajames · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, interesting read. Not great, left me sort of wanting more in the stories he told. More about why he believes people who keep dangerous wildlife are not too bright than the actual smuggling of these animals, though smuggling does come into it somewhat.

[Kathleen O'Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good companion piece to Animal Planet's television series "Fatal Attractions." While viewers of the show won't find much new information here, the book is still worth reading for those interested in the subject matter.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. It was really interesting to learn more about the exotic pet trade and why people keep exotic pets.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative yet entertainingly written.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting, good info, choppy style at times

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're going to attempt to be reputable, perhaps you shouldn't use PETA as a knowledgable source.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsympathetic, honest, and entertaining look into a booming black market. This is a must-read for pet hobbyists and animal lovers in general.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting stories