Revealed: The number of dangerous wild animals being kept in Warrington
YOU could be living next door to a dangerous wild animal in Warrington.
A survey by Born Free, an animal charity, has revealed that nearly 4,000 dangerous wild animals are licensed to be kept privately in Great Britain.
In Warrington, four dangerous wild animals are licensed to be kept privately.
Three of these are servals – a wild cat native to Africa.
The animal requires a license to be kept privately and Born Free is ‘very concerned’ by the risk that servals pose when kept as pets.
It ‘strongly advises’ against keeping them as pets.
The other dangerous wild animal recorded as being kept in Warrington is a spectacled caiman – a crocodilian reptile found in Central and South America.
They are classified as ‘dangerous reptiles’, with adult males growing up from six-and-a-half to eight feet in length.
Born Free has previously called for a review of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 to make the law stronger and better able to protect both animals and people.
As of 2020 in Great Britain, 3,951 dangerous wild animals were licensed to be kept privately.
This covered a total of 210 private addresses across 129 local authorities.
The dangerous wild animals can range from lions, to tigers, to crocodilians, and venomous reptiles.
