Pennsylvania’s forbidden pet

After the United States Department of Agriculture published a petition four years ago, requesting that it amend the regulations and standards pertaining to physical contact with dangerous and exotic animals, the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C., agreed.

Later, the state legislature adopted strict exotic pet laws that they said were designed to protect the public in the event those animals got loose — a measure supported by the Humane Society.

Now, a Pennsylvania State Rep. Jeffrey Pyle, R-60, is considering crafting a new proposal that would allow residents to have hedgehogs as pets.

“I offered the legalization of hedgehogs a while ago and got it passed out of the House, but it failed to be considered in the Senate,” Pyle said Tuesday regarding the former HB575.

“Within the bill were a few other species such as sugar gliders. Am I going to offer it again? I really haven’t given it much thought but since it was filed years ago, my responsibilities have changed and increased but I still believe the bill was solid and well founded,” he said.

Apparently, Pyle isn’t the only individual who wants to see the law amended so that residents can have the option of obtaining the prickly little hedgehogs.

In an online petition at change.org, Philadelphia resident Alyssa Zoto said hedgehogs make lovely pets and can be very educational for children by teaching them the responsibility of caring for another life.

Zoto urges the legalization of the animals in Pennsylvania because she said they pose no threat to the state’s eco system and would only benefit the lives of children and adults who adore the creatures.

“Hedgehogs are wonderful pets,” Zoto said.

Further, they are not rodents, but insectivores that, in addition to insects, will eat tiny mammals or small snakes, said Ron Fricke, the vice president of education at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Though the hedgehog is native to England, continental Europe, Africa and Asia, the hedgehog found in the U.S. tends to be the African pygmy, or white-bellied, hedgehog, from central Africa.

American owners have found the hedgehogs to be litter-trainable and quiet, with distinct personalities; these things, along with their small size, make them appealing and easy to have in the home, as far as exotic animals go, Fricke said.

Another argument made in the petition is that African pygmy hedgehogs are legal in all but five states and most of those, such as Arizona and Hawaii, possess warm climates within which African pygmy hedgehogs, if released into the wild, might very well thrive, disrupting native wildlife populations.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission has said it’s illegal to own hedgehogs here because, allowing non-indigenous or non-domestic animals into the state potentially endangers Pennsylvania wildlife by competing with it for habitat and maybe even gobbling it up.

“Hedgehogs cannot survive cool climates below 70 degrees and the cold winters of Pennsylvania would pose a problem if a hedgehog did in fact get out,” Zoto said.

“Therefore, there is no real threat of hedgehogs becoming an invasive species in the state of Pennsylvania,” she said.

Hedgehogs pose little threat to the Commonwealth’s indigenous species and are legal in other states and I see no reason why they shouldn’t be here, Pyle said on Tuesday, noting that he’s again considering introducing legislation to legalize the pets.

“It is still very early in the session. Committees have not yet been formed and it remains to be seen who ends up on which ones,” he said.

“When I offered the bill initially, I sat on the Fish and Game committee where the bill was first heard. I haven’t been on that committee for some time.”