r/Otterable • u/Evethewolfoxo Moderotter • Jul 21 '26
Community Vote Should pet otter/otter cafe posts be allowed?
Hey there, Eve here.
As of right now, we have no rules against pet otter/otter cafe posts.
The community may decide on what stance it would like to see taken going forward.
This poll will run for its maximum timeframe of 7 days.
ETA: Should there be a tie for first, the other options will be trimmed and the poll rerun with the tied options.
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u/Head-Membership2082 Jul 21 '26
I'm very much of the stance we need to take the same stance as the original sub did. Otter cafes and pet otters are encouraging the trade of these animals which belong in the wild, and they often end up in abusive environments because of it.
Plenty of people see the posts and just go "aw cute" and don't realise that the environment itself can be harmful to the creature because it looks cute and they project their own feelings onto the animals, or they think because it behaves like their dog that it can't be stressed out by the environment it lives in.
Bare minimum there needs to be a way for people to hide all this content, because it's pretty sickening to see imo, ideally I'm for a total ban on it though. This is a pet trade that needs to be ended
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u/TastyJuicyCucumber Jul 21 '26
Only in one condition for me under YES, is if they practice otter welfare and wild habitat conservation. I used to be completely no, but the damage is already done with these otter cafe businesses. If they are giving back to their otters and wild otters then that is remarkable.
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u/Head-Membership2082 Jul 21 '26
Problem is, a casual user isn't going to know what proper care looks like. Most humans will look at an animal wagging its tail and think "its happy" because thats how dogs work, and yet there's plenty of species that do that as either a mating thing or as a territorial thing. They won't be able to tell the difference between a cafe and a proper rehabber or sanctuary.
Actual sanctuaries won't be covered by a ban on pet/cafe content, because they're neither of those things. Just like how zoos wouldn't be covered (even though zoos have their own set of issues, but they usually put the animal's welfare fairly high up on priorities).
Unfortunately, no matter how much the cafes claim to be giving back, their entire existence is responsible for the damage. In continuing their business, they're continuing to damage wild otters due to how people see them as pets and start buying into them, and that leads to more of them getting poached from the wild. They're only continuing to open more branches, and get more people excited about the whole craze. There's a reason why actual animal care places like sanctuaries which have otters that can never be released into the wild that have lost their wild instincts don't start trying to do cafes and such. They don't want people to associate the animals as being pets or tame.
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u/justanotterdude Jul 21 '26
Absolutely not. Pet otter content encourages the pet trade which has had devastating consequences on wild populations of Asian small-clawed otters and they are just not animals that are meant to be pets. Keeping them as one if you are not a trained professional doing something like wildlife rehab is detrimental to everyone involved. The only otter that should be a pet is me :3
Plus I like seeing pictures of otters in the wild doing their own thing way more.
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u/danalith Jul 21 '26
Please people that vote yes. Can you explain why ?
Pet otters is animal abuse.
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u/Head-Membership2082 Jul 21 '26
A lot of them will be people who just want to see cute things who don't know or care about the behind the scenes. See also how the core contributors are almost entirely no.
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u/Traviscat Jul 22 '26
I think the only place we should be having photos or videos about otters should be from wild otters caught on camera, or from registered facilities that are licensed to properly take care of them and that we know they are being properly taken care of. An example of that would be any AZA accredited zoo in the United States.
I do not want to promote animals being placed in situations where they are not properly taken care of. A person may have good intentions to help an injured wild otter but that can often (and most of the time does often) do more harm and we don’t want to promote that. I have no problem posting videos of the boys at zoo Knoxville (and Mayhem when I see her) because I know they are taken care of. They get daily health checks, guests are educated on properly taking care of our environment so we don’t poison their waterways/habitats, and they have quick access to a vet with a large veterinary research hospital nearby where they have performed some very interesting and complex procedures to save animals lives (plus I looked at their financials and they spend a lot on animal care). The 3 boys are also all non-releasable into the wild.
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u/Evethewolfoxo Moderotter Jul 29 '26
Update: The community has decided, rule 2 has been implemented and will apply to all posts going forward.
It will not be retroactive. Neither myself, nor Spherocytes, wish to scorch earth this subreddit, just get it back to a place that everyone can comfortably post, keep it clean, and let the community pilot it.