K-Days shuts down exotic pet vendor
K-days organizers have shut down a vendor who was selling sugar gliders, a small marsupial, on the midway after complaints from the public.
"We've asked them to vacate their space," said Northlands' spokeswoman Lori Cote.
Cote said she didn't know why the vendor was approved to sell exotic pets on the fairgrounds.
"I can't speak to that," she said. "I wasn't a part of the decision."
Sugar gliders are nocturnal, gliding possums native to Australia. They are named for their appetite for fruit and their ability to glide from tree to tree.
The compact animals have large eyes making them an attractive, impulse buy, said Ciera Kozak, president of Canadian Sugar Gliders Society, who filed a complaint with K-Days.
She says organizers made the right decision.
"I applaud K-Days for that," she said. "It makes me happy that there won't be as many re-homed sugar gliders."
Kozak said vendors often do not tell buyers that sugar gliders are not easy pets to keep.
"They give them to moms and dads who want this cute little pet but they have no idea that they're nocturnal animals," Kozak said.
"They're not a domesticated little Chihuahua type of pet that you can have in your house and let your kids cuddle. They don't tell them that they need to be fed bugs."
The company responsible for the booth at K-Days said it goes out of its way to deter customers from impulse buying.
"Every potential customer is told to go home to do their due diligence before making a long term commitment," Matt Grant, a regional representative for Sugar Bears, said in an email.
"We only sell animals with the complete set up which includes a veterinarian-recommended cage with food and vitamins as well as all the supplies," he said.
"The price point for a single set up is between $600-$1,000 when all said and done. This is hardly 'priced to move'."
