Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets [ハードカバー]

I read and purchased this book after seeing it attached to 'Stolen World' on Amazon. The author interviews some interesting people but when interviewing them seems to go to great lengths to make them seem rather bizarre when in some cases they seem perfectly responsible in what they are doing. He makes attempts to dismiss their efforts and successes often with glib commentary. As an example at Chimparty one would have to be clueless not to see that the lady being interviewed has done an admirable job maintaining such a large and difficult group of animals. Zoos often have more resources and staff and don't do nearly as well as she has done. Likewise her knowledge of these animals is a resource for their captive management. This is aside from her breeding and selling chimps which I do not support. But the rest of what she has done is an admirable effort that the author simply dismisses as his words ' a misguided, tragic figure, an unfortunate woman who may be as trapped and broken as her chimps'. Nonsense, she has been passionate, dedicated, respectful, and successful with a difficult species. She has done better than most zoos for goodness sakes. Is this even broached- No as that would make exotic owners seem positive.

Another complete miss on his part is the benefit of animal outreach programs to the general publics general awareness of wildlife in general. If all we had where public instituions with wildlife the public would be woefully underinformed and unfamiliar with animals and this would hurt allot of the very causes alleged animal rights groups support. Shamu may not have the life of his wild cousins but can anyone reasonably argue that the captive whale doesn't increase public awareness of wild populations.

The author is completely dismissive of the very real environmental toll loose house cats have on native populations of wild animals particuarly songbirds. He poo poos the mention of this from Shawn Heflick. Later mentioning his vet(obviously misguided as well) tells him a housecat should be outdoors. The damage housecats do across the USA to various species far exceeds that of the pythons in the everglades.

In conclusion while the author does a decent job highlighting the relatively rare occurrences of exotics causing problems and attempts to be even handed in allot of places. In the end his work is pointedly one sided and to dismissve of logic and the reality of how animals exotic and not impact our world.

Peter Laufer's "Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets" is an unsympathetic view of people who own "big cats, great apes, and long snakes". Based largely on first person interviews, Laufer, a PhD in journalism, is actually more balanced in concern to reptiles than mammals. Written from his perspective (he uses "I" frequently), it is obvious that he doesn't understand pets in general, exotic or ordinary. Indeed, he often worries whether or not his family should possess a cat or a dog. He finds some solace in his cat's ability to leave or enter the house via a cat door and freewill.
Laufer continually returns to the theme that people who possess "big cats, great apes, and long snakes" want to "dominate" the animals. Chapter 15, "A Conscientious Merchant", is supposedly about Charles Thompson of Snakes'n'Adders, who deals with a variety of herps and helps a young couple in Laufer's presence with an "aggressive" cornsnake that was recently purchased. Needless to say, it was the couples' first snake, and they did not know how to approach and handle it properly, and the cornsnake was as tame as you would expect. Laufer, however, manages to incorporate an unrelated story of animal (reptile) cruelty and an apocryphal tale (related second hand from his wife) of a keeper who would peruse the community bulletin boards searching for children's accidental surplus baby mice to feed to his kingsnake. The mice would then become "a stripped skeleton". Laufer's misunderstanding of basic biology assures that he will never answer his own question of "What do you do with it?"
Though Laufer continually uses direct quotes from interviewees, he (subconsciously) cherry-picks his quotations and sources and reveals a bias of his academic, San Franciscan surroundings. His portrayal of big cats, great apes, and the people that deal with them are universally unflattering. His treatment of herpetoculture is more even, though he does manage to lump all reptile people under the same umbrella as people who keep burms and retics. He writes at length about invasive burms in the Everglades, and does a good job of presenting both alarmist and skeptical views on the issue. However, he thoroughly fails to appreciate the scope, diversity, and considerable history of all the invasive animals in Florida and unfairly singles out the reptile trade as the issue of concern.
"Forbidden Creatures" is a worthwhile read if only to remind those immersed in herpetoculture that a large segment of the general population remains ignorant (and fearful) of reptiles. That ignorance can be educated, well-researched, and powerful (in the case of Laufer specifically and journalists and politicians in general), should give all within the herp community pause. Laufer's fixation on "dominance" of animals clearly can't account for us who enjoy finding herps in the field, taking care of the captive reptiles within our possession, and fostering and rescuing of herps as needed. Do read "Forbidden Creatures" but don't reward the author by buying it. Check it out from the public library instead.

After reading a couple other excellent books on the sinewy underworld of animal smuggling, I was looking forward to tearing through this book as I had the other two. Unfortunately it was not to be. Firstly, the chapters are broken-up into an incongruous mess, and often are duplicative. There were multiple times I caught myself wondering, "Didn't I just read this?"

Unfortunately, the author is quite obviously a west coast liberal whose political and religious biases saturate each chapter in classic condescension. He calls himself a journalist, but in fact, journalism isn't about opinions, it's about reporting.

I highly recommend you look elsewhere--this book is not entertaining, and is political to boot.