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Ten ideas to prevent more exotic pets from being abandoned

2020-06-21T08:41:44.931Z


Keeping a dog or cat at home is as respectable as that of other pets if animal welfare, health security, legal and responsible ownership are ensured and the animals are raised from captive breeding


The tradition of petting can be traced back to the domestication of cats and dogs, but today's pet species number in the thousands. Dogs and cats now compete with other mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and even invertebrates.

For some people, concepts like tenderness and company are hardly applicable to these new exotic pets, especially if the furry of the house is a tarantula. For others, the term pet falls short for what it means to care for exotic species, even more so if they need advanced aquaculture techniques.

Acceptances of the term pet aside, the fact is that keeping a dog or cat at home is as respectable as that of other pets if animal welfare, health security, legal and responsible ownership are guaranteed and the animals come from breeding in captivity.

Young specimen of yellow-eared turtle. Fernando Pablo Castro Gutiérrez de Quevedo / Wikimedia Commons

Now, the times in which there were in the houses any animal as a pet, even for public safety, cannot go back. Furthermore, the conservation status of exotic species, along with abandonments and escapes, requires greater regulation and differentiation between mere pet owners and hobbyists who keep animals with great scientific and technical knowledge.

If not everyone who has a bicycle at home is a professional cyclist, it cannot be said that everyone who has, say, an aquarium at home is an aquarium lover. It is neither an ecologist nor an ecologist who abandons classic or exotic pets in the natural environment "for their good", but an irresponsible, hopefully uninformed.

For some, tarantulas (this one is from the Monocentropus balfouri species ) may be pets. Marc Domènech Andreu, Author provided

Dropouts and biological invasions

One of the most serious problems in the legal trade in exotic pets is the risk of causing biological invasions. These occur when a species, assisted directly or indirectly by man, establishes populations outside its native range and causes negative effects. Among them, predation or competition for food resources with native species and the introduction of pathogens.

State and community legislation are not immune to the growing problem of biological invasions. There are blacklists that prohibit the possession, marketing, transport and release of species for which there is scientific evidence of the risk of invasion.

The abandonment of any pet is also criminalized in article 337 bis of the Penal Code, although it is not easy to identify the culprit.

Along with the legislative route, there is the educational work of the associations, including those of aquarium and terrarium fans who reinforce the message against abandonment and in favor of responsible purchasing through triptychs with codes of conduct and environmental awareness events.

Ban, an effective measure?

The ban on the sale of invasive species is very effective in removing banned species from the face-to-face trade, as we demonstrated in a recent article.

However, our study also shows that donations to wildlife centers and the release in the wild of individuals of prohibited species that have been commercialized for decades, such as the popular red-eared turtles ( Trachemys scripta elegans ) or yellow turtles ( Trachemys scripta scripta ), have not been reduced for at least the first seven years after the law came into force. Something totally expected due to the sale of millions of newborn turtles that existed and the longevity of these reptiles.

But our article shows an even more interesting fact, as well as worrying. Trade replaces prohibited turtle species with others of the Pseudemys, Graptemys, Chinemys and Ocadia genera (some authors include the latter two in the Mauremys genus ), among others. They are sold the same at a low price and cause the same problems to their adult owners due, for example, to their large size or odors caused by poor maintenance.

In addition, there is a potential risk of high abandonment for some species that, even with low risk of invasion in our latitudes because they are tropical, are released by their owners to the natural environment or donated to wildlife recovery centers due to their problematic possession. .

Therefore, in conjunction with environmental awareness campaigns and invasive legislation, stricter pet ownership legislation that reduces the risk of abandonment is necessary to avoid the ethical problem of an animal dying after being released or causing impacts if fears.

No pet, whether traditional or exotic, should roam without control outside due to the threat it poses to native fauna. Accidental loss of pets can lead to further biological invasions.

More effective regulation against pet abandonment

The following decalogue of measures for better regulation of pet ownership is the result of our experience with fish, amphibians and reptiles. These are generalities that apply to the ownership of all pets, although each type of pet trade has its unique characteristics and we recommend an analysis by groups of animals to make more specific proposals:

1. Improve biosecurity measures at the facilities. Whether private or public, and regardless of their type and purpose. Aquaculture facilities have been an important focus of introduction of species linked to the aquarium trade.

2. Obligation to acquire specific training and a license to have pets. In this way, when the animal allows to be microchipped, both it and its owner can be unequivocally identified from the moment of sale.

3. Obligation of countries to guarantee health security. It must be certified by both the sending and receiving state in the sale of breeding animals in national captivity or in the country of origin of the species, taking into account emerging diseases of fish, amphibians and reptiles. This sale should be subject to demand depending on the availability in the receiving country of unwanted pets of those species that will be offered for adoption through the wildlife recovery centers or put up for sale again if the host made it a trade.

4. Regulate the supply of species according to the size of the adults and the type of accommodation of the owners. In an apartment of 40 square meters, it is difficult to keep an iguana of more than one meter of maximum adult size in optimal conditions.

5. Do not offer juveniles of species that reach average adult sizes on the free market at low prices, but do allow the sale of larger individuals so that future owners are more aware of their adult size and less thoughtful purchasing is reduced. as has happened with the sale of water turtles.

6. Grant special species possession permits. For those that, although not being offered to the general public, can be acquired by members of official aquarium and terrarium amateur societies to contribute to the knowledge of their biology, ecology and the development of techniques applicable to captive breeding programs with the obligation to inform the administration of its results.

7. Prohibit the sale of inappropriate habitats for long-term maintenance of pets. Examples are crystal ball fish tanks or small plastic turtle islands. It should also be mandatory to carry out a regular veterinary review of the animals to guarantee their welfare.

8. Actively pursue illegal traffic and Internet sales. In electronic commerce of species between individuals without a zoological nucleus, neither animal welfare nor the training of new owners can be guaranteed.

9. Encourage dialogue between fans of exotic animal care and academics. The calm debate and exchange of experiences facilitates an inclusive study of exotic animal species from which all parties benefit. It can be useful to create lists of pets allowed by groups.

10. Increase inspection by experts. Exotic pet trade technical inspection committees can be created on the advice of officially registered academics and specialized hobbyists. The great diversity of species is not a problem per se in the management of trade, it only requires people with the taxonomic and biology knowledge of the appropriate groups as occurs in the management of the natural environment.

Alberto Maceda Veiga is a professor and researcher in Zoology at the University of Barcelona. Josep Escribano-Alacid is a marine biologist, collaborator of the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona and Albert Martínez-Silvestre is a veterinarian and scientific director of CRARC (Center for Recovery of Amphibians and Reptiles of Catalonia).

This article was originally published in The Conversation Spain.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-06-21

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