Listen Now: Exotic Animal Trade

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Most New York City apartments are close quarters, especially if you’re living with an eighty-pound cougar. I’m Brian Banmiller on Business.

Recently the owner of the eleven-month-old female cougar surrendered her to the humane society. After spending some time getting care at the Bronx Zoo the cougar is now at the turpentine creek wildlife refuge in Arkansas. The director of the Humane Society says the cougar’s owners realized they weren’t able to take care of her and she was not going to live comfortably inside their apartment. The director says while she has seen a lot of black-market business with exotic animals this was not the case here. Instead the owner truly believed they could give the cougar a good home and turn it into a pet. Fortunately, unlike a lot of other people, they saw how unhappy the animal was. The director of the Bronx Zoo says the exotic pet trade is booming all over the country. Besides being harmful to the animals it also puts the people in the home and neighbors in jeopardy. Like earlier this year when a grown tiger terrorized a Texas neighborhood. Brian Banmiller, CBS News.

About Brian

CBS News Radio national business journalist Brian Banmiller has spent more than 40 years in the news industry, covering business, politics and the economy on television, radio and in print. Currently, his “Banmiller on Business” reports are delivered to an audience of millions nationwide.