Next to the West Third Ring Road stands a building called Guanyuan Plaza. Flanked by residential apartments and bustling traffic, it is an unremarkable sight. Boring, even.
But go underground and you will discover that the plaza is full of inhabitants from all over the world. There are chinchillas from South America, bearded dragons from Australia and turtles from the Philippines.
Officially called the ‘New Guanyuan Bird and Fish Market,’ the basement market houses animals of the exotic variety. There are ‘normal’ pets for sale, too, but why buy a boring cat when you can own a snake?
The owner of a store in the market, Fanga, tells us: “People are attracted to exotic animals because they look cool and are easy to live with.”
Fanga (header image), 26, quit his editorial job at Tencent before opening his store. “I’m very happy now,” he says. “My girlfriend thinks I have no free time because I work on the weekend. But I feel like I have more freedom; I like being with animals.”
The small store is the realization of Fanga’s childhood dreams. Posters of animated toad-like creatures wearing robes and holding forked weapons decorate the shop window, while inside there are tanks full of snakes, lizards and baby frogs.
A pet store in Guanyuan Market
“I’ve liked these types of animals since I was young,” he shares. “My family had frogs.”
He’s not the only one with a hankering for weird animals. Judging from the clientele passing through the market – children, students, couples and middle-aged people – the thirst for exotic pets is a wide-ranging phenomenon.
Outside Fanga’s store we meet Wang, who has just fed his baby black kingsnake at another pet shop downstairs – with pinky mice. He keeps his snake at the market because his family at home disapproves.
“I’m going to Xi’an for college soon so I will take the snake with me then,” he says. “My roommate doesn’t know yet. If they don’t give me their permission, I’ll have to come up with another plan. Most pet shops ask for money as rent, so maybe I will just have to keep it secretly in my room.”
A stealthy plan. Yet not all share Wang’s family’s distaste for snakes. They seem to be on sale at every other store at Guanyuan Market. Other popular exotic animals-turned-pets include foxes and monkeys.
Both of these animals experienced an increase in demand this year due to their portrayal in pop culture and social media. The hit animated film Zootopia, which includes an adorable fennec fox character, led to an increase in online searches in China for the rare (and endangered) animal. Meanwhile blog posts of ‘cute’ thumb monkeys (pygmy marmoset) were all the rage circa-Year of the Monkey celebrations. Selling for RMB30,000, the world’s smallest monkey species – about the size of a thumb – does not come cheap. Nor does it come legally, as the pygmy marmoset is an endangered species.
A fennec fox
These animals may make for a novel, if illegal, pet but they come with their own nuisances, according to shop owner Liu, who we meet on the other side of the city at a pet market in Shilihe. Liu and her husband manage a cat store but they know a lot about niche pets.
“Foxes have a very strong smell,” she says. “My husband used to have a white fox but the smell was so strong he couldn’t take care of him any longer, so he gave it away. He had a monkey too, but it also had a really bad odor.”
Liu’s husband still has the contacts to get hold of a fox; you just need to tell him what breed you are after. He does not have any monkey contacts. But you know who does? The Internet.
One online monkey dealer assures us that his monkey-for-sale is “non-aggressive since it’s very young” while another offers to deliver a Japanese snow monkey via truck, provided we send “several thousand” yuan in advance.
We decline. Still, it seems that the process of getting your paws on an exotic pet is as simple as buying a top off Taobao. The question of whether you should is not so easy. Buyers are advised to consider whether the animal has been shipped into the country – and through legal channels – or if it is part of a domestic breeding program, as well as the endangered status of the species.
A frog for sale at Fanga's Guanyuan Market pet store
There are many reasons against keeping an exotic animal as a pet. The first being animal welfare – as many exotic animals in China are not part of a domestic breeding program, they arrive via trafficking.
The transportation process is brutal, according to the assistant manager of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) China, Li Lishu.
“If you’re taking away a wild species you are disrupting the ecosystem and also bringing great harm to the animals,” says Li, a trained biologist. “A study showed that in the trade for parrots, for every one bird that survives on its way to market, 10 die along the way. Animals that are transported from continent to continent suffer stress and emotional tragedy after being separated from their families.”
WCS is an American organization committed to protecting wildlife and wild places. It has offices around the world and has been operating in China since 1996.
“We try to address [illegal trade] by supporting both enforcement organizations and government cooperation,” Li says before noting a worrying trend: “We have noticed, especially in Guangdong, that trade for animals like turtles has shifted towards the pet trade. In the past trade for turtles was mainly carried out by zoos. I think this reflects trends in other places [in China], including Beijing.”
Indeed, we often see turtles for sale around Beijing – sometimes just out on the street. But, they are not as harmless as they seem. Turtles and other reptiles carry Salmonella bacteria, which is easily spread to people. The risk is so serious that selling small turtles in the United States is now illegal.
Plus, certain turtle species are endangered or protected by legal conventions, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), of which China is a member state. This is the case for many exotic animals. Those under national-level protection in China include gold pythons, golden eagles and sables (a species of marten), while state-protected animals include monkeys.
It is possible to get government licenses to breed or access protected animals, though the process is difficult. But online trading makes it easier for people to operate without a license undetected, though there are heavy penalties for those caught trafficking illegal animals. (“Especially for traders, but also owners,” explains Li.)
A Canadian man was recently handed a five-year prison term and a USD17,000 penalty for attempting to smuggle exotic turtles from the US into China. Campaigners such as Li hope that these punishments, along with increased education, will help deter people from illegal trading.
Fish at Guanyuan Market
“We are trying to raise people’s awareness and I think the Chinese Government is doing a great job with enforcement,” she says. “This problem is a global issue. Different companies and individuals play a different role along the trade chain, so if you want to crack it, you have to crack the whole network. It requires collaboration between countries, departments and sectors.
“It’s a difficult challenge for human beings to [curb] our greed and desires,” she admits. Li cites the example of a blog about a recent exotic animal expo in Shanghai, which attracted comments such as: “The wild animals will be gone [in the future] anyway, so why not let us keep them in a facility where we can provide for them a good life.”
Ethics and the law aside, there’s one more crucial reason against keeping wilder pets: practicality. No matter how much you ‘love’ your exotic animal it typically needs special attention. Away from their natural habitats, animals have particular environmental demands. Snakes, for example, require a controlled environment with the correct temperature and humidity.
Fanga, the Guanyuan Market shop owner, does not see this as a huge issue. “Customers can ask me [how to care for the animals],” he offers.
Yet other exotic animals require more than a heat lamp to stay content. As Liu the fox-expert from Shilihe says: “We don’t recommend you get a fox because they smell and are anti-social. If you really like foxes, you should go to the zoo to see them.”
Images by Holly Li and additional reporting by Emma Huang
[Fennec fox image via Getty]
For more information about WCS in China, click here.
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