As the pet trade booms, repercussions are more and more in the news. One concern, of course, is the effects on natural populations that supply the pet trade. When you add these losses to those of habitat change and procurement for food, numerous animals are in danger. But adding animals to a region may be just as damaging. Releases of pet turtles imported from the United States have devastated some European native species, unable to compete.
Another danger, brought to the forefront in June 2003, is that of
introducing diseases that attack humans. Cases of monkeypox popped up in several
mid-western states. First feared to be smallpox, investigation showed it to be the
close relative of that virus and apparently contracted from prairie dogs bought as
pets. Further investigation suggests that the prairie dogs contracted the virus while
held in a pet store with an African Giant Gambian Rat imported for the pet trade. As
yet, we've not received word of similar diseases from pets in the Chihuahuan Desert
Region. But just possibly, it's only a matter of time.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.