Last time, this blog explained briefly why people (from a king to an actress) used to have big cats and exotic animals - one of the main reasons was so that they could use it as a status symbol. But it was deemed in 1976 that the keeping of specific dangerous and wild animals was to be regulated through the provision of a license. This Defra website expresses that the details of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 (DWAA) are to ensure that the "private individuals who keep dangerous wild animals...do so in ways that create no risk to the public". The DWAA also regulates the keeping of the dangerous wild animals through a licensing regime from the local authority.
It is curious to note some of the animals that are listed on the DWAA 1976 (modification) (no. 2) Order 2007 including from the Marsupial family three types of kangaroo, a walleroo and the Tasmanian Devil; members from six families of the primate group; armadillos and anteaters; members of the Canidae, Felidae, Hyaenidae, Mustelidae, Ursidae, Viverridae of the Carnivore group; members of the Odobenidae, Otariidae and Phocidae families of the Pinnipede group (these include some of the heavier weight seals) to name but a few - the whole list can be found here.
Even before the modification to the list in 2007, landowners and animal hoarders had to find a dispose of the animals that ended up on the list. Even for the curious have a look, the aardwolf (see below) is excepted from the Hyaenidae family, and see what other animals made or missed the list.
Aardwolf - Proteles cristatus
Source: Britannica.com
So what did the animal hoarders and landowners do after the DWAA came into existence in 1976 - it would be thought that some were licensed, killed, sold to wildlife parks or zoological gardens and some may have been let loose - although it should be said that these are only potential answers.
There is quite a comprehensive web page about the Alien Big Cats and the UK Government on Kithra's Alternate Miscellany with over 15 web links. I will come back to this page and other similar pages when I revisit this subject sometime soon, but how has your land or activity been hampered by alien, dangerous, invasive or wild species?
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