A look at South Carolina’s exotic pet trade

Editor’s Note – The following is the first part in a series on the exotic pet trade. Look for further entries in upcoming issues of The Greer Citizen.

David Meeks has been working with exotic animals for more than 40 years, since Spartanburg’s Cleveland Park Zoo closed down and he and his father took in some of its animals. That was the start of M&M (Meeks & Meeks) zoo near Inman. Eventually, David bought out his father’s share and the zoo became Hollywild Animal Park, which it remains today.

Meeks named the park for it’s frequent contributions to Hollywood films. Over the last three decades, his animals have appeared in 60 feature movies, including the blockbusters “Days of Thunder” and “Prince of Tides.” Meeks even appeared alongside one of his own tigers in Michael Mann’s 1986 thriller “Manhunter,” the first entry in the popular Hannibal Lecter movie series. 

His prolific travels, studio connections, knowledge of animals and work as Hollywild’s executive director have provided him with a clear look into something that typically remains hidden from the general public – the exotic pet trade. 

“People ask me if I think a person should have a dangerous animal and I tell them that I think they should have it so long as they’re qualified to handle it,” he said.

The exotic pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry that refers to the buying and selling of non-indigenous animals for non-commercial purposes. It includes animals as small as insects and as large as tigers. The more dangerous species include apes, big cats (lions, leopards, cougars), wolves, bears and certain giant or poisonous snakes (cobras, pythons). 

In 2010, the World Wildlife Fund estimated about 5,000 tigers are privately owned in the U.S., roughly 2,000 more than what exist in the wild. Unsurprisingly, not all of these owners are equipped to handle such beasts, which makes occasional tragedies inevitable. 

In 2003, a captive tiger fatally mauled a 10-year-old boy in Millers Creek, N.C., about 20 miles east of Boone. The child was sweeping near its cage when the animal grabbed him and pulled him through a hole a dog had dug under its fencing. A year prior to that, a boy in Pickens County was also bitten by his family’s pet tiger but survived.  

Of course, animals that big and powerful are dangerous to even the most well-versed handlers. Everyone remembers the tiger that nearly killed entertainer Roy Horn during a 2003 show in Las Vegas. 

“All big cats have the potential of being dangerous,” Meeks explains. “You can train a tiger to sit and stay and come and all that stuff. As long as everything’s going his way and he’s not frightened or hurt, he’ll do what you say because he’s learned it. But as soon as you frighten him, he doesn’t think anymore. He acts on instinct, and that’s what gets you in trouble. Once instinct kicks in, the tamest leopard in the world can do the same damage one in the wild can do.”

Sadly, one of Meeks’ good friends learned this lesson firsthand in May of 1988. Against Meeks’ advice, shock rocker Joe Savage bought several leopards for his stage show.

“I told him, ‘It’s going to cause you nothing but trouble. You don’t need it,’” Meeks recalls, pointing at the hair standing up on his arm. “I told him he was going to bring that leopard out and something would go wrong. I told him I just wouldn’t do it and he shouldn’t do it.”

Weeks later, one of Savage’s leopards escaped its cage and killed his two-year-old daughter. 

Meeks says that’s the problem for many exotic pet owners: they do not consider all of the scenarios and variables beforehand. He asserts a responsible owner not only researches the breed, but has a special veterinarian in place to examine and treat the animal as well as a plan drawn out should the pet escape. 

But as cautious as he is, the Hollywild director tries to remain open-minded when he talks to potential pet owners. He says people are more informed about exotics than they once were, and he’s known his share of owners who’ve established superb health care and living conditions for their animal. 

“I know a couple that have seven gorillas right now as pets and, my gosh, is the facility great. And it’s not very far from here,” he says. 

Meeks also claims that owning an exotic pet is less dangerous than owning a car and, even though they are sensationalized by the media, attacks on humans remain extraordinarily rare. 

“If it’s gory enough, people will love it and it will sell a lot of papers,” he says. “But the fact is dogs kill more people every day than exotics ever thought about killing.”

Far more often, it’s the animal’s welfare that is compromised in such arrangements, as they often become malnourished or sick under a private owner’s care. A captive 130-lb cougar, for instance, can require as much as 10 pounds of raw meat per day, and requires expensive veterinary care. 

When Meeks consults a potential owner, he does so with as much concern about the animal’s well being as the owner’s safety and liability.

“I don’t try to play animal god with them, because it’s not for me to say who should or shouldn’t have them,” he says of prospective exotic pet owners. “All I do is tell them what they’ve got to consider and tell them they need to make sure the animal is safe and make sure that they have enough experience with those animals to take care of them properly.”

The next segment of this series will be a look into the S.C. laws and ordinances in the state counties and cities in place for owning, selling and buying exotic animals.