SYNTHESIZING RESEARCH ON THE EXOTIC PET TRADE The economic principle I researched was “Institutions are the ‘rules of the game’ that influence choices.” My overall research question was “How does the varying legality of exotic pet ownership around the world influence the exotic pet trade?” Overall, I found that laws provide little deterrence to economic interactions if they’re not enforced. Despite people’s awareness of existing institutions and laws, if there is enough of a psychological and monetary incentive to complete a transaction, they will choose to ignore such restrictions.
Though I essentially came to the conclusion of the exact opposite of the economic principle I chose - i.e., laws can’t stop the market - there are quite a few influencing factors that have created such a unique situation. For one thing, typically, we assume that when a law is made to prevent something, it will be enforced. Or, even if it’s not well enforced, we assume that there will be substantial punishments for getting caught “breaking” it. However, such is evidently not the case with the black market for exotic animals. As I wrote in a previous post, “it's pretty difficult to get caught smuggling endangered animals.” For every headline about someone caught with live reptiles down their pants at an international airport, there are are numerous other smugglers who manage to escape the country with their cargo. According to National Geographic, “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is staffed with fewer than 400 law enforcement agents; by comparison, the Drug Enforcement Agency has 11,000 employees.” Laws are hard to enforce when there’s nobody to do the enforcing. Additionally, the business of animal smuggling has been described as “low-risk, high-reward”, and thus appear very attractive to “drug traffickers”, who find the drug business to be much riskier. On top of all that, smugglers face practically no penalties relative to other criminals. As quoted from the article, “if you're an animal smuggler with no prior convictions and you get caught with an equivalent cache of illegal butterflies, you might not even spend the night in jail.” Even a serial lawbreaker like “Hisayoshi Kojima, the world's most wanted butterfly thief” only faced “21 months in prison and a fine of just under $39,000” for “7 smuggling-related charges in 2007”. While there may be institutions that provide “‘rules of the game’ that influence choices” in most scenarios, when the institutions are present but largely passive - like in the animal black market - they have little influence on consumer choices.
It’s not like laws against animal trafficking don’t exist. As previously covered, “There are several federal laws that prohibit the selling and interstate transfer of certain exotic animals in the U.S.” which “include the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, the Wild Bird Conservation Act and the Endangered Species Act.” Authorities are not unaware of this issue. Despite these institutions, “According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the exotic pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, second only to drugs and weapons on the black market. It's a $15 billion dollar business in the United States alone, with breeders and dealers selling animals over the Internet or in trade magazines.” Part of what may influence this disregard for the laws (along with their poor enforcement) is the mystique and collectors’ craze surrounding exotic animals. Worldwide, “global demand for exotic pets is growing.” “In the Persian Gulf, big cats have become the latest must-have accessory for the super-rich” and “In the U.S., it’s believed there are more wild animals in homes and roadside attractions than in zoos...And Europeans are importing reptiles in greater quantities than anyone else...” Sometimes, the prospect of making so much money can overcome fears of getting caught. Though institutions are supposed to be the “rules of the game”, when said institutions can be circumvented, this economic principle breaks down.
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