By JOE KERNAN
For years, George Cardoza has been advertising that his company, Budget Termite and Pest Control, would remove alligators free of charge. No one took him up on it until about a year ago, when he got a call about an alligator loose in a pond in the Governor Francis section of Warwick.
“I did the ad as a ‘tongue in cheek’ thing,” said Cardoza. “I didn’t expect any calls for alligators but they took me up on it and we caught the alligator.”
Cardoza said he hasn’t had any more alligator calls since that incident.
Once caught, the alligator was turned over to Regal Reptiles of Providence, a pet wholesaler that provides exotic reptiles, fish and spiders to area pet shops. Owner Shawn Fay said he gets about 40 surrendered or abandoned alligators a year. The alligator caught in the Governor Francis pond was one of 20 Fay recently shipped to Florida.
“People decide they are too big or too dangerous to have around and they sometimes release them,” said Fay. “That’s a bad idea. They can be a danger to people and animals and they will die over the winter.”
Fay takes in alligators free of charge and keeps them in a 6,000-gallon pond at his shop. He boards them until he has enough to repatriate to breeders in Florida. They, in turn, send him fertilized alligator eggs that he hatches in Providence or sells to select pet shops.
“I don’t charge anything to take in an alligator,” said Fay. “I do charge $15 to take in iguanas. Iguanas are a bigger problem because they can be so much more aggressive.”
In spite of their popularity, Fay says iguanas are not very good pets. He recommends a Crested Gecko or a Leopard Gecko instead. He says they are easier to handle and care for. He also recommends the Bearded Dragon lizard.
Exotic reptiles have become so popular as pets that, in two years, they threaten to outnumber dogs in Britain. A study by the British Federation of Herpetologists, the breeders’ association, has found that 5 million reptiles are kept as pets. If the trend continues, their numbers will outstrip the dog population of 6 million by 2006, and could threaten the supremacy of cats, of which there are 7.5 million.
Chris Newman, the chairman of the association, said that the number of lizards and snakes kept as pets had doubled about every five years since 1995, when there were 1.5 million.
“The days when people bought a five-inch-long lizard to discover to their horror it grew to six feet are disappearing,” he said in a report to the federation. “It is a better informed, more sophisticated market.”
The figures have been compiled through research among pet shop owners and suppliers of reptile food, which are mice and insects for the most part. Breeders believe that well-known reptile owners such as singer Britney Spears, who has owned snakes, have added to booming sales. Reptile lovers say that their pets are relatively cheap to buy while young, are brightly colored, and can survive with little or no direct human contact.
The most popular lizards are leopard geckos, bearded dragons and water dragons. Chameleons are also popular with children because of their ability to change color. Iguanas and monitor lizards are seen as suitable only for specialists, and few pet shops will sell them to inexperienced keepers.
“They really should be sold only to people who know what they are doing,” said Fay. “They require special attention. That’s why people abandon them or give them up.”
Fay also wholesales snakes. The most popular snakes are the constrictors, such as the American corn snake, which grows to over four feet. Bigger species such as Burmese pythons are dangerous. The Ball Python, so called because it curls into a tight ball when it feels threatened, is also popular and expensive. Albino specimens can cost $1,000 or more.
But reptiles can be hard work. Some lizards need live insects most days, while snakes are fed dead or living mice once a week.
“The trend has prompted animal welfare charities to urge the government to halt the trade in imported reptiles for fear that they are not being kept properly,” according to Newman. Animal sympathizers are also alarmed at the popularity of reptiles with children, and humane societies have to deal with a rising number of lizards abandoned by kids. The number of abandoned reptiles had increased by 161 percent since 1998.
Today, the United States accounts for 82 percent of the international trade in live reptiles covered under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, according to one study. The study, published in the report The U.S. Role in the International Live Reptile Trade: Amazon Tree Boas to Zululand Dwarf Chameleons by Craig Hoover, analyzed global trade data and reviewed trade in about 100 species, many covered under CITES.
The United States is now the world’s largest consumer of reptiles for pets, importing 2.5 million reptiles annually. A single species, the Green Iguana from Central and South America, accounts for 45 percent of the imports.
U.S. exports are dominated by one species, the native Red-eared Slider Turtle. Those are the turtles that used to be sold in the pet departments of chain stores or as souvenirs. These turtles make up more than 80 percent of the 8 million to 10 million reptiles exported annually. The majority of Red-eared Slider Turtles are produced on farms, but it is unclear how much wild stock is needed to sustain these farms and what impact they have on wild populations. Red-eared Slider Turtles have also caused concern about the turtle’s potential as an invader species that could compete with and displace native turtles. It has been introduced to Africa, Asia, the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Imports to Europe have been banned.
Other species featured prominently in U.S. trade include Ball Pythons, Boa Constrictors, tortoises and turtles and, oddly enough, the tiny jewel-like poison frogs from South America.
“They are only poisonous in their native habitat,” said Fay, who also deals in the frogs. “The poison comes from their diet in the wild. They are completely safe in captivity.”
Although the U.S. monitors and regulates wildlife trade, it has focused largely on the import of foreign species rather than the export of natives. The trade in American turtles is of particular concern. It supplies two different markets: the pet trade and the food market, primarily in East and Southeast Asia. The number of map turtles jumped from less than 10,000 in 1990 to at least 80,000 in 1995.
While legal trade in live reptiles is on the rise, the study found illegal trade increasing as well, particularly in protected Australian and Madagascan reptiles such as pythons, chameleons and monitor lizards. Recommended actions, include an examination of international trade in North American turtles and farming operations to assess their effect on wild populations.
In the meantime, if you have been contemplating buying a reptile as a pet, a visit to Regal Reptiles is a must if you want to make an informed decision.
Fay, who started out as a an appliance repairman before he went completely over to reptiles, gives lectures and demonstrations at camps, day care centers and schools around the state. He brings about 20 animals, including scorpions and tarantulas, to his shows. To help pay for his rescue operations and for his business in general, he offers tours of Regal Reptiles for $7 for adults and $5 for children at his 425 Washington St. location in Providence.
“It’s great for kids,” he said. “After the Children’s Museum and the zoo, there aren’t that many places you can take a kid for an interesting adventure.”
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