{"id":554287,"date":"2026-06-25T23:28:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/554287\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:28:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:28:20","slug":"gracie-the-giraffe-why-are-exotic-animals-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/554287\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie the giraffe: Why are exotic animals in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In mid-June, a giraffe named Gracie escaped from a ranch in Texas located about 100 miles west of San Antonio. An intensive search \u2014 including helicopters and drones \u2014 is still underway in Texas Hill Country, and a $5,000 award awaits whoever finds her.<\/p>\n

Like many charismatic animals who\u2019ve escaped their confines<\/a>, Gracie has gone viral. But the attention paid to her escape is largely lighthearted. Social media users are sharing AI-generated images<\/a> about what Gracie might be doing on her \u201cvacation\u201d<\/a> from the ranch (eating pizza<\/a>, visiting downtown San Antonio<\/a>), while local and national news outlets are publishing frequent updates on the search, sometimes in whimsical<\/a>, quirky<\/a> language.<\/p>\n

I get it. A giraffe. On the run. In Texas? It\u2019s a captivating story. But if you look a little closer at the life from which Gracie escaped, the story becomes less lighthearted.<\/p>\n

Much the same can be said for other viral animal moments in recent memory, like Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo, and Punch the monkey<\/a>. Both are adorably cute animals, yet they live in small, unnatural enclosures \u2014 an uncomfortable fact that the internet has been all too eager to collectively set aside for a moment of entertainment. Gracie\u2019s story isn\u2019t so different.<\/p>\n

Gracie is a reticulated giraffe \u2014 an endangered African species \u2014 who otherwise lives at Cedar Hollow Ranch in Leakey, Texas. It isn\u2019t a ranch in the traditional sense, but, rather, an exotic animal breeding operation. Cedar Hollow breeds giraffes, as well as a variety of other ungulates \u2014 hooved animals \u2014 native to Africa and Asia, like the barasingha (a deer species), bongos (an antelope species), and aoudads (a type of sheep), several of which are endangered, threatened, or vulnerable in the wild.<\/p>\n

When I asked Cedar Hollow\u2019s manager Vick Jones why they breed giraffes, he said that they sell them to people who \u201cenjoy having wildlife\u201d (of which there are a huge number in Texas alone. Some 5,000 ranches<\/a> or large landholders there have exotic animals). They have also sold giraffes to zoos. Jones didn\u2019t say which ones, but there are a number of small exotic zoos in the area that allow visitors to hand-feed giraffes and interact directly with various other wild animals.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Gracie the giraffe. Real County Animal Rescue-Shelter<\/p>\n

In other words, these wild species are captively bred for lives far from their native ecosystems and sold for vast sums of money \u2014 upward of hundreds of thousands of dollars<\/a> \u2014 to be kept essentially as wild pets or as entertainment in zoos, which confine animals in enclosures a tiny fraction of their natural range and which are poorly regulated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Cedar Hollow\u2019s giraffes may be the relatively lucky ones. Of the ungulates bred there, many are destined for other ranches \u2014 not as high-priced pets, but as hunted game. According to a report<\/a> from Wildlife Partners, a company that works with ranchers on exotic wildlife breeding, Texas has some 500 ranches open to the public to hunt exotic animals \u2014 and approximately 2,500 additional private ranches where at least some exotic hunting is done. And all of those animals have to come from somewhere.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s legal and actually somewhat straightforward to breed and sell non-native, \u201cexotic livestock\u201d in Texas, like giraffes and other ungulates \u2014 even some that are endangered in the wild. And it\u2019s a big business<\/a> in the state, with more than two million exotic animals across 135 species, valued<\/a> at $1.5 billion annually.<\/p>\n

When I asked Jones if the other animals at Cedar Hollow \u2014 the exotic antelopes, deer, and sheep \u2014 are raised for hunting, he said, \u201cNo, we don\u2019t raise any for hunting. \u2026 If they go someplace, and they wind up in that situation, that\u2019s not on us.\u201d However, Cedar Hollow\u2019s owner said<\/a>, in 2018, that these animals are bred for collectors and for hunting ranches.<\/p>\n

Inside the US canned hunting industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

A hunting ranch may sound somewhat quaint, but they operate a particularly cruel type of hunt called a captive or \u201ccanned hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe canned hunting experience allows people to basically get a guaranteed kill,\u201d Devan Schowe, a campaigns manager at the wildlife protection nonprofit Born Free USA, explained to me. \u201cThey lure the animals to these feeding stations that they feed them at every day for their whole lives, and it\u2019s enclosed, so the humans on the hunt and the animals are all in a fenced-in area.\u201d<\/p>\n

These fenced-in areas can be large, Schowe said, so, sometimes, there is a chase element. But, \u201cthe animals cannot escape, so they\u2019re being hunted in their own enclosures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Customers pay thousands of dollars to go on these hunts and take home a \u201ctrophy\u201d body part, like antlers and horns. One famous Texas ranch, which has been described<\/a> as the \u201cDisneyland for exotic game hunters,\u201d lets you shoot a zebra for $6,500 or an emu for $1,000. While many of its clients go on \u201csafari\u201d style hunts, traversing large ranches with a guide, they can also hang out in air-conditioned \u201cblinds\u201d \u2014 small towers \u2014 drinking and playing cards until a surveillance system sets off an alarm to let them know an animal is nearby for them to shoot.<\/p>\n

Texas dominates the US canned hunting industry, and its roots can be found in the middle of the 20th century, when ranch owners began buying up \u201cexcess\u201d<\/a> exotic animals from zoos. While canned hunt opportunities aren\u2019t hard to find in other states \u2014 from Pennsylvania, to Florida, to Ohio \u2014 around 26 states have fully or partially banned them. A lot of Americans are uncomfortable with the practice, though; a recent hunting industry survey<\/a> found that 50 percent disapprove of canned hunts and only 30 percent approve.<\/p>\n

While endangered and threatened species like some of these ungulates are protected by the Endangered Species Act, a loophole<\/a> in federal law that was created by a Texas lawmaker exempts three commonly hunted endangered species, allowing them to be legally hunted. In Texas, it\u2019s illegal to hunt exotic animals considered to be dangerous, like lions and tigers, but there are no limits<\/a> on how exotic animals deemed non-dangerous are killed, or how many, so long as they\u2019re killed on private property; you just need a hunting license and the landowner\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n

The conservation question<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cedar Hollow Ranch says its breeding work contributes to the greater good of conservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow else are you going to help save a species, help preserve a species, if we don\u2019t have ranches in Texas and ranches in other parts of the United States now that have room and people to protect these animals?\u201d Jones proposed to me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pervasive argument in the exotic breeding and canned hunting industry, and there are a handful<\/a> of examples<\/a> of exotic animals bred in Texas that have been shipped off to their native lands in an effort to rebound their wild populations. But animal<\/a> advocates<\/a> suggest<\/a> that the conservation message is used to shield their true motive: profit.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it is hard to follow how raising endangered, exotic species to be kept as pets, shot in enclosed areas, or offered up in pens to zoo visitors constitutes \u201cprotecting\u201d them, or how it meaningfully helps vulnerable populations in Africa and Asia, where their threats<\/a> are largely habitat loss for agriculture (especially cattle grazing<\/a>), poaching, and climate change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scimitar-horned oryxes in a pen at Tommy Oates\u2019s livestock auction business, where he deals in exotics. Karen Warren\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Sweisthal, who owns Tejas Taxidermy, stands next to a zebra head in his shop. Karen Warren\/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Instead, animal advocates<\/a> argued<\/a>, these activities normalize the idea that we can do what we want to animals.<\/p>\n

I asked Jones whether the company asks its buyers why they\u2019re purchasing these wild animals, and he said he doesn\u2019t. \u201cWhy should I?\u201d he asked me. \u201cThey have a right to own those animals. And once they\u2019re their animals, sir, they have a right to whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of Gracie the giraffe is a reminder that there\u2019s often a darker side to the viral animal moment of the month \u2014 one that those who stand to profit from that darkness would rather not have come to light. That much was evident when I called Cedar Hollow Ranch. Jones repeatedly said I was being disrespectful by asking questions about its breeding practices, and who it sells its animals to, and what they\u2019re used for.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the only person that has had this kind of questioning,\u201d Jones said about the many journalists whose calls he\u2019s answered while Gracie has been on the run. \u201cI\u2019m sorry I answered your phone call.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Swati<\/p>\n

Swati Sharma<\/p>\n

Vox Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n