This is a hedgehog
RALEIGH -- The state could soon take up a controversial issue surrounding exotic animals.
A study committee has forwarded recommendations to ban most exotic animals, but private zoos fear it will shut them down.
Two years ago, two tiger cubs grabbed headlines when they were found wandering along a highway near the Gaston-Cleveland County line. State zoo officials say people call them all the time.
"Saying I bought this baby tiger when it was a nice cuddly bundle at 30 pounds and now it's 400 pounds and I can't really keep it," North Carolina Zoo Director Dr. David Jones said.
The study committee initiated was by the General Assembly and has recommended banning someone from owning a long list of animals including tigers, elephants, and monkeys. Even though current facilities would be grandfathered in, private zoos worry it would shut them down.
"Even if they grandfathered in, all they are going to allow you is to keep what you have until it is dead and that's it," Tregembo Animal Park owner Robert Tregembo said. "You can't replace them or breed them. It would put us out of business and only the North Carolina Zoo would be the only zoo left in the state."
Supporters of the ban say it's not about shutting down independent zoos, it's about keeping neighborhoods safe across the state. They say it's about banning tigers in backyards and making sure facilities are legitimately keeping these animals.
"If you're genuinely trying to make sure you come up to those welfare and safety standards then this is not an effort to try and stop that," Dr. Jones added. "It's really the folks who really have no willingness to make an effort in this regard."
"I say if you're going to keep a tiger out of the backyard, what does that have to do with monkey and little things like that that won't hurt anybody?" Tregembo added.
It's an argument that won't end soon. It simply moves from a committee room of experts to the legislature and lawmakers. The 2007 session gets underway on Wednesday.
