07/14/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19VKXkDhvL/
🚨 CALL TO ACTION – THE TIME TO FIGHT IS NOW 🚨
‼️ As of right now, 2,136 people have signed the BC SPCA’s petition calling for changes to the Controlled Alien Species (CAS) legislation in BC — aiming to ban more “untraditional” pets like servals, and potentially many more species.
This is not just about one animal — this is the beginning of a broader push to ban responsible private ownership of a wide range of species that are already safely and successfully kept under strict regulation.
🛑 If you care about exotic animals, science-based husbandry, or your rights as a responsible keeper — we NEED YOU to speak up.
📬 TODAY, WE NEED YOU to send the following email, POSTED AT BOTTOM OF THIS POST AS WELL AS POSTED IN THE COMMENTS, before it’s too late.
🔗 [email protected]
Let them know:
✔️ Bans don’t stop people from owning these animals — they just drive them underground. This leads to worse outcomes for animal welfare and public safety.
✔️ There are no properly funded or equipped facilities in BC to take in displaced exotics like servals. Where will those animals go?
✔️ Abandonment, illegal release, and quiet suffering will increase — just like it has in other countries that tried this.
✔️ Animal rights groups are pushing an agenda, not science. Their goal is to eliminate all exotic animal ownership — not improve welfare.
✔️ This is reactive, fear-based legislation — not a solution rooted in evidence or compassion.
👀 Silence right now means surrendering your rights later. The government is listening to voices calling for bans, we need to be louder.
💥 PLEASE SHARE. PLEASE EMAIL. PLEASE STAND UP FOR OUR COMMUNITY.
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Subject: Strong Opposition to Proposed Ban on Servals and Other Exotic Species under CAS
Dear Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship,
I am writing to formally oppose the proposed amendments to the Controlled Alien Species (CAS) legislation that would ban servals and other additional exotics in British Columbia. While these changes may be well-intentioned, they would be catastrophic for both animal welfare and responsible exotic animal stewardship in this province.
Banning these species will not eliminate demand or ownership — it will simply drive them underground. When keepers fear legal repercussions, they far are less likely to seek veterinary care, proper support, or disclose animals in need of surrender or rehoming. This leads to unseen suffering, as animals may languish in poor conditions, injured, ill, or abandoned, with no access to professionals who could help them.
There is currently no facility in British Columbia equipped or funded to house and care for displaced exotic animals like servals. If ownership of these species is banned, what is to become of the animals already here? Without real solutions for surrender or transitional care, animals will be left in limbo — or worse, illegally released, euthanized, or trafficked. This is not protection. It is abandonment by policy.
We need only look to other countries to see the results of such bans. Following exotic animal restrictions in several European jurisdictions, animal abandonment increased dramatically, and rescue networks were overwhelmed. In many cases, animals were left to suffer in secret, out of reach of any welfare support, and law enforcement was ill-equipped to deal with enforcement or care.
Furthermore, this type of policy sets a dangerous precedent. If bans are enacted based on species’ popularity or public image — rather than data, individual keeper responsibility, or husbandry outcomes — reptiles, amphibians, birds, and invertebrates will be next. Animal rights organizations pushing for these bans do not stop at cats — they oppose the keeping of any non-domestic species, regardless of scientific nuance or individual care standards.
It is also important to recognize that many of the calls for bans on exotic animals are driven by animal rights organizations that routinely exaggerate or fabricate statistics to support their agenda. These groups often rely on isolated incidents, outdated information, or undocumented claims to paint a misleading picture of exotic animal ownership. Their goal is not better welfare through regulation — it is the complete elimination of all exotic animal keeping, regardless of the quality of care or scientific evidence. This approach does not help animals; it vilifies responsible keepers and promotes fear-based policy-making rather than informed, balanced decisions rooted in facts.
This is not a solution rooted in science or welfare. It is reactive, emotion-based legislation that ignores the real-world consequences to animals already in care, and those that will be acquired regardless of legality. These animals deserve better than to be treated as liabilities.
Bans will not stop people from keeping these animals — but they will stop them from doing it safely, openly, or humanely.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[City, BC]
[Optional: Exotic Animal Keeper | Educator | Animal Advocate | Concerned Citizen]
