| August
2007 TOURIST CAUTION More and more tourists think they are helping exotic animals by buying them from a random person on the street who claims to have "found it abandoned in the jungle." While tourists mean well, purchasing such an animal anywhere in the world exacerbates the problem by creating a black market. No animals leave offspring before they are able to survive on their own. Every animal being sold on the street is there because its parent was killed, perhaps the person trying to sell it! And every animal being sold on the street is in ill health. Should you purchase such an animal, albeit well-meaning, you are actually giving the seller a reason to kill another parent in order to sell its offspring, and you are putting yourself in jeopardy because the purchase of an exotic creature is illegal in all countries. If the animals are lucky, they are brought to a center such as the Amazon Animal Orphanage, as was the Luigi, the red uacary to the left.. But that will not stop the problem. Only you can help stop this problem. Do not buy animals from street vendors. Report them to local authorities. Please, before visiting open habitats, read National Geographic or watch Animal Planet, both of which caution against purchasing exotic creatures and both of which provide information about the illegality of purchasing exotic animals. |
Amazon Animal Orphanage
Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm
www.AmazonAnimalOrphanage.org
pilpintuwasi@hotmail.com
063-23-2665
Padre Cocha
Iquitos, Peru