The keeping of exotic animals as pets has been on the rise over the past few decades, and the (often illegal) trade in these animals is being fueled by the internet. Exotic animal ownership is associated with wide-ranging risks including the spread of disease, exploitation of animals captured from the wild, and habitat destruction caused by the introduction of non-native species. Additionally, exotic animals are often kept by people who are inexperienced or misinformed in conditions that aren’t adequate for their needs, raising serious animal welfare concerns.

To better understand the role of social media in the trade of exotic animals, and to get a sense of the public’s overall perception of exotic animal ownership, researchers in Canada analyzed thousands of tweets on Twitter (posts on X) and TikTok videos featuring exotic animal content. They gathered a dataset of over 9,000 tweets between 2012 and 2022 and over 150,000 comments on TikTok videos between 2018 and 2022 by doing searches on these platforms for the most commonly traded species in Canada.

The researchers then applied sentiment analysis to this data, a process where the attitudes, opinions, and emotions conveyed by a piece of text are evaluated using a machine learning algorithm. Each post or comment was evaluated on a scale from -1 (negative sentiment) to +1 (positive sentiment). For instance, a comment such as “This is cruel. These animals belong in the wild” would be classified as negative, while one like “Aww I want one” would be considered positive. Comments that discussed aspects of the posted content unrelated to attitudes or opinions (e.g., “What species is this?”) were classified as neutral.

Exotic Species Kept As Pets

The researchers found that Canadian Twitter/X and TikTok accounts posted about a wide variety of wild animals kept as pets, including:

• Venomous animals (e.g., black widow spiders, false water cobras);
• High-maintenance animals (e.g., lions, tigers, primates);
• Native Canadian wildlife (e.g., lynxes, foxes); and
• Threatened and endangered species (e.g., Java sparrows, African spurred tortoises).

Opinions Of The Exotic Animal Trade

Overall, the sentiment scores from posts and comments about exotic animal ownership were overwhelmingly positive. Nearly 80,000 posts were classified as positive, which was almost 20,000 more than the number of neutral posts, the next highest category. The number of tweets that were considered positive towards the exotic animal trade was greater than the number of negative tweets across all years included in the study.

There was a slight, significant relationship between public perception of exotic animal keeping and the type of animal presented, with reptiles and amphibians being most likely to have negative public sentiment associated with them. The researchers found many cases where reptiles and amphibians were being kept by so-called collectors in rack systems that don’t give the animals the space or resources they need. Commenters often discussed disapproval of these practices, contributing to the greater negative sentiment towards reptile and amphibian ownership than other groups.

Awareness Of The Impacts And Legality Of The Exotic Animal Trade

The researchers found that, in general, there was low awareness among Canadian social media users about the implications of the exotic animal trade for wildlife conservation. Some commenters discussed how they thought keeping wild animals in captivity was beneficial for the species’ survival, and there was little acknowledgement of the fact that the trade can harm wild populations.

Commenters also seemed to be largely unaware of the fact that the keeping of many of the animals in the posts and videos is illegal. Less than 0.1% of the roughly 150,000 analyzed TikTok comments discussed the legality of owning these animals, and those that did often expressed disapproval of the legislation, saying things like “they are illegal here for no reason at all.”

Facilitation Of The Exotic Animal Trade

Many posts and comments featured words like “want,” “get,” and “buy” (e.g., “I want one,” “How did you get one?”). “I want” and “get” each appeared over 5,000 times, while “buy” showed up over 1,000 times. Often, the original poster replied to these messages by telling the person to message them privately. This suggests that the exotic animal trade may be occurring directly through these social media platforms.

Implications For Advocacy

In line with previous research, the study’s findings suggest that social media users in Canada are largely unaware of the negative consequences of owning wild animals as pets, and that there’s positive sentiment toward the practice overall. They also suggest that social media may be directly facilitating the wild animal trade by connecting animal distributors with potential buyers.

Consequently, there’s a significant opportunity for animal advocates to use social media as a tool to address the gaps in awareness about the exotic animal trade and ownership. Interventions by experts and trusted authorities, such as posting and promoting educational content about the negative impacts of exotic animal ownership, or directly addressing other users’ posts with informative comments and discussion threads, may help to change public sentiment and curtail the trade in these animals.