Speciesism

Speciesism may occur towards bearded dragons versus other species due to their appearance. Because they lack that big, round-eyed, furry haired look, many people will discredit them for being good pets, and will more than likely overlook them when searching for small animals in the pet store. It is in human’s nature to admire an animal with the “juvenile-like” look (big, round eyes, flattened, broadened face, etc.) because these are the same characteristics human babies contain. People naturally want to own and take care of animals that look like babies. A great example of this is an occurrence at the humane society at which I volunteer at during the school year. This humane society takes in rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. on a weekly basis, and these small animals get adopted out fairly quickly. I have noticed that these species usually find new homes within a couple weeks. At the beginning of the school year, a bearded dragon came in and was put up for adoption. I observed that it was fair-tempered and very healthy. It is common for infrequent species that come in to get adopted out extremely quick because of their rarity there. Unfortunately, this was not the case. It took the beardie quite a few months of getting overlooked to finally find a home. It takes mice and rats multiple months to find homes too. I believe this is a case of speciesism and adopters naturally being drawn to juvenile characteristics that bearded dragons (and mice and rats!) just do not have.