The Oppression of Tigers | Max Sitver | TEDxYouth@SRDS
now let me welcome max infer a junior who will be talking about the exotic pet trade hello everyone so as Noah said I'm Matt zipper and i'm here today to talk about the exotic vet checked but before we get into that I want to talk a little bit about myself so I can't really tell you where my love of animals really originated but I do know that when i was around two or three i was introduced to many animals on my brother's birthday parties and my sisters i was introduced to animals like birds snakes and many other exotic animals but it was until I was about 11 that I got my first pet as seen here i have a little bearded dragon it was after a year begging and research that i finally got my first bearded dragon but as always with the first kid to bed it's a learning experience and rex happy they lived for two years but he sadly passed away of overfeeding what but it was something that allowed my passion of exotic animals to grow when i was a freshman i finally applied for a job at our ranges pets it with this job it gives me the chance to grow and share my passion I'm introduced many exotic animals every single day like a little fox pixie or a 20 foot snake Natasha or many words it also allowed me to grow my passion for exotic animals at home I now have 35 geckos two rabbits a red tail hawk and two dogs and a hedgehog but now I can share my passion with thousands of people year and I can give talking about the exotic texture so what is the exotic pet trade well an exotic animal is defined as something that is not normal something surprisingly fascinating and something that is often far removed from its original habitat they're often placed in a artificial habitat by us and they take specific care that many don't can't provide the exotic pet trade is a 10 billion dollar trade worldwide and a multi-million dollar trade in the United States below in these out of Petra many animals are traded something from a small to a leopard gecko at home or something as big as a timer for today's purposes are going to focus on the title is who doesn't love a tiger there's a rough estimation in the united states that there are about five seven thousand captive tigers now to you this number may seem small first for a country with 50 states and twenty thousand cities but in reality for species that only has 3,500 animals left in the wild it is outrageously large this means that just in the United States alone there are double the amount of tigers left in the Asian one and a century ago these Tigers thrown ninety-three percent more land and there was over a hundred thousand one day in the wild and the main problem with this is where do these Tigers are done when I asked that question too many of you you probably think to a zoo like enclosures like these they're offered the right care and they have the right funding behind them to provide correct food and habitats but in reality many of them may end up in cages like this this is in someone's backyard in Washington this tiger was in this person's backyard for six years and as seen here in this case is nothing like a zoo it's built a flimsy materials that type can easily break through now this leads me to my first point many of these cages are insecure this cage as in here is built with one lock to hold back a four to six hundred pound tire this can easily be broken by something that can break a human bone many of the Tigers are also left in cages like these in this cage this is this Kia he was left in this cage for the first six years of her life this cage is is left with unsanitary conditions through there's old food rot flesh and even a dead tire carcass right next door that oh that is actually cut out of the photo but this cage leaves are at a huge risk she is left with hundreds of bacteria in this case age that can either give an infection or easily kill her she's not provided the correct vet care and is not given the correct diet which puts her at even in larger risk other Tigers alleged in small cages like this and this this Cape Tiger was left in a 12 x 12 shed for the first four years of its life it was not offered outside air or given any enrichment at all who was left in the shed with one tire and fed daily but what effect does this really have on a timer that's the effect usually these Tigers become malnourished and emaciated this is kim bo kim bo was kept in a cage like the second one i showed with the dirty floor and the dirty food for the first eight years of her life sadly after a rescue she passed away because she was extremely malnourished there's another top photo paper usually a tiger you shouldn't be able to see the the spines or the hip bones but of course on Kimba you can see everything what we want or what I'm asking for is for cage like these well well built cages that are safe and keep the tiger healthy well how do we achieve this of course everything is about money so the way to fix this is to up money the the United States has to regulatory bodies the United States Fish and Wildlife and the USDA both of these organizations are supposed to regulate the exotic pet trade and watch over owners who keep exotic pets but of course due to lack of funding they don't have enough inspectors to watch all exotic pet owners which allows owners to leave poor conditions and keep animals in poor health so the way to fix this is to of course a funding which will allow hire more inspectors and keep a closer eye on more exotic pet owners another way to fix this is there are thousands of exotic animal rescues most of these rescues are filled to the brim with in tata cameras that were treated poorly now of course with government funding and up to money that from donations like you guys we can expand these out exotic rescues and get more animals into good homes so before I can expand out before we can expand government funding I'm going to ask of you of finding sadak rescue online or somewhere near you and help them out give them something they might need or they might or they might be asking for thank you very much