Reminder: Don’t release your captive pets

I know we’ve said this a thousand times, but not only is it a bad idea, but it’s illegal in many places to release captive animals into the wild.

The cane toad (Rhinella marina), photo by Bernard DuPont via Wikipedia Commons.

Released animals can upset biomes that contain none of their predators, like rabbits and cane toads that are now spreading uncontrollably in Australia. If they eat similar foods to native animals they can put pressure on the very survival of those native species, like brown anoles from the Bahamas outcompeting native green anoles in Florida.

Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) in Florida displaying dewlap photo by Nosferattus via Wikipedia Commons

And, they can also introduce non-native diseases or parasites they came into contact with in the long supply chain in the pet industry that often mixes animals from far flung areas together in cramped, less than sanitary conditions. Some scientists have suggested that humans have something to do with the rapid spread of Chytridiomycosis in amphibians around the world.

To see an especially bad example of this, this article of The New Yorker is a great read:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/the-lizard-king-of-long-island?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_111624&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&utm_term=tny_daily_digest&bxid=5c467d58f543e668ab5e1985&cndid=56081541&hasha=dce1e75701c25e6443ac9cc596afb6ec&hashb=cf851df3438e8d504078f60f1756b7dd518913b9&hashc=f144d8d3142133d8aaa4209b4c424e18ae580d180d41a31a6a82c4fee36b32a9&esrc=bounceX&mbid=CRMNYR012019