Penguins, flamingos could be added to Toronto's list of banned pets

insidetoronto.com
June 7, 2017
By David Nickle

If your pet penguin Tuxedo enjoys a walk in the park, you might want to think about locating outside the city if new exotic pet prohibitions proposed by city staff come into effect.

Penguins will join flamingos and cranes on the list of animals to be banned in the city along with existing bans on exotic pets like elephants, kangaroos, tigers, non-human primates, and all venomous animals.

The city also bans big reptiles - which grow to more than two metres - and crocodiles and alligators.

City licensing staff have been conducting a review of the policy over the past year, and determined that the bird species were the only ones to add to that list.

According to the report, it is not that penguins or the other species pose a particular risk to anyone - it is simply that the animals' welfare needs would not be met.

Staff saw no reason to change the already stringent reptile restrictions.

The report will come to the June 14 Licensing and Standards Committee.