Wayne State University recently held an event called “Let’s Get Wild” during its “Final Frenzies Week.” The event featured numerous animals from a business called Animal Rentals. A monkey, Geoffroy’s cat, African hedgehog, tarantula, fox, chinchilla, cockroach, and python were brought to the university for students to touch, hold, and have their pictures taken with.

Captive exotic animals lead lives that are barren and boring—devoid of anything they would experience naturally in the wild. Those used for traveling show-and-tell ventures endure intense confinement, living and traveling conditions that are physically and psychologically harmful to them, and the stress of constant handling.

Exotic animals are often aggressive, and they can also carry communicable diseases such as herpes B, pox viruses, measles, rabies, hepatitis, tuberculosis, salmonella, ringworm, and other bacterial, viral, and fungal infections. Many of the students at the event handled the python and draped him around their necks, and one person was bitten by the monkey.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited Animal Rentals numerous times for failure to comply with the minimum standards of care established in the federal Animal Welfare Act. In 1995 the USDA issued an official warning to Animal Rentals for failure to correct repeated violations concerning veterinary care, structurally sound caging, and recordkeeping.

Please write a polite letter to the president of Wayne State University. Let him know that as an institution of higher learning, the university has an obligation to set an example for its students. Ask him to implement a policy prohibiting the use of exotic animals in university events:

Irvin Reid, President
Office of the President
Wayne State University
4200 FAB
Detroit, MI 48202
313-577-2230
313-577-3200 (fax)
idreid@wayne.edu

Thank you for helping animals,