East Gwillimbury Council OKs sugar gliders as pets

Yorkregion.com
July 30, 2015
By Simon Martin

It’s not every day you change a law, but that’s exactly what 17-year-old Lara and 10-year-old Emma Whatley did.

Their cause? Lifting the ban on keeping sugar gliders as pets in East Gwillimbury.

The sisters were well on their way to acquiring a pair of sugar gliders as pets when they realized the animals weren’t allowed under the town’s exotic animal bylaw.
Instead of giving up the dream, they decided to do something about it.

“Let’s change the law,” Lara said.

After all, if sugar gliders were legal in municipalities such as Newmarket and Toronto, why were they not welcome in East Gwillimbury?

The bylaw banned all marsupials as pets in the town. Sugar gliders are tiny marsupials native to Australia that live in trees in the wild. Their gliders are membranes that stretch from their wrists to ankles and can open to slow descent in the air, similar to a parachute.

The girls contacted Councillor Tara Roy-DiClemente and she told them to make a presentation to council about why it should change the bylaw.

The Whatley girls were uniquely prepared for this because they had already made a PowerPoint presentation to their parents to convince them why they should get two sugar gliders.

“They have lofty ideas and were very thorough in the research,” said Monica Whatley, the girls’ mother.

The presentation was effective at council, too, as members passed a new bylaw last week that exempted sugar gliders from the list of banned pets.

Lara reached into a pouch to show off the latest additions to the Whatley household: Cinder and Birch.

Emma takes care of Cinder and Lara, Birch.

The family has two because gliders are tiny and very social animals that do better in groups. They are also very social with humans.

Emma said Cinder already identifies her as the main caregiver and prefers her to the other family members.

Even though the gliders spend the majority of the day in a dark pouch, there still is some work that needs to be done to take care of them.

The girls have to prepare the meals everyday.

“We mainly feed them fruits and vegetables,” Lara said.

Gliders are nocturnal, so their waking time is generally when everyone else is sleeping. That’s not a problem for Lara.

“I’m a heavy sleeper,” she said.

The gliders join two dogs, a cat and two horses at the Whatleys’ home. Everyone is still trying to get use to each other, Emma said.

While Lara knows having a sugar glider as a pet is certainly unusual, it doesn’t mean they are entirely dissimilar to dogs.

“I think they make very good pets,” she said. “They do like people a lot and like to be petted.”

“Try petting a cat,” Emma added. “They run away.”