I'm mostly talking for the UK here.
It's pretty terrible in general. The majority of vets here are primarily run first hand as businesses, giving out overpriced medication which isn't even needed in some cases. Rescues centres here are constantly at max capacity, and won't take in some animals if they don't meet a criteria due to taking too long to rehome, black cats being one example as people don't want a "boring" black cat. In general animals are sought after for their looks and age, rather than their personalities which is a huge problem as so many people can't look after the animal if it becomes too much for them. At the cat sanctuary I work at we try to match the right cat for the right person. We generally don't want to rehome a kitten with an old person as we receive so many calls about elderly owners dying or going into care and the cat having no where else to go. When people visit the sanctuary we make sure the elderly are aware of this, which isn't an easy subject to converse.
Animals sanctuaries aren't all innocent either though unfortunately, some of which are more interested in statistics than the animals themselves. It's not difficult to shout "we rehomed x amount of animals this year aren't we amazing" if you only take in the easily rehomable colours and breeds, so it may be best to do a little research into the rescue before you adopt.
What's scary is so many people are ignorant of the facts above. It's not taught in schools and never really touched upon anywhere else. The major problem is people seem to see pets as walking stuffed animals, they don't realise that all animals are different and will need a PROPER upbringing.
So with the above said I think you'll my thoughts on exotic pets is pretty self explanatory.
Deus also makes a good point about farm animals too yo.
