As a new European report published today draws attention to the health risks in acquiring new companion animals, OneKind calls for people to be more curious about where their pets come from.
As part of a new Pet Origins campaign, OneKind is carrying out a survey covering both domesticated and non-domesticated species, to establish how much pet owners actually know about the origins of the animals they decide to take into their homes.
The fashion for acquiring exotic, non-domesticated species, originating either from the wild or from breeders, continues to grow. The legal market for wild animals globally accounts for millions of birds, apes, and amphibians with the EU as the second largest importer of live reptiles in the world. In addition, the illegal trade in wildlife is ranked third in size behind drugs and arms trafficking. The wild animal pet trade is not only a serious health risk for humans, it is also an ecological disaster, as most species are caught in the wild.
The new report by Eurogroup for Animals, of which OneKind is a member, illustrates the high risk of zoonoses from wild animals kept as pets. Zoonoses are diseases which are passed from animals to humans with sometimes fatal consequences. With an ever growing number of these animals imported, sold and kept in the EU the threat of disease increases and prevention policies are becoming urgent. At a meeting of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Animal Welfare in Strasbourg this morning, MEPs were asked to support measures to restrict the import of wild animals.
Raccoons, snakes, gerbils, and iguanas are popular new companion animals which are often kept within the house and handled by children. Owners are often unaware that with the new pet comes a great risk of illness. From life threatening viruses such as rabies and the plague to salmonella and tuberculosis, the European report provides an overview of the main diseases and the animals that carry them.
The fashion for unusual pets is described by Eurogroup as “an animal welfare catastrophe”, as millions of wild animals are forced into inappropriate role of a pet. With living conditions unsuitable for wild animals and animals suffering from inappropriate care and handling many are abandoned with very little chance of finding new owners.
Eurogroup is calling on the European Commission to include the protection of companion animals, including restrictions on the keeping of wild animals as pets in the new Animal Welfare Strategy due to be adopted in December. OneKind supports the Eurogroup initiative and also stresses that people have a responsibility to consider the health and welfare problems involved in the supply of new companion animals.
Increasingly, when people buy animal-derived products, they want to know where they have come from – where it was bred, born, and reared, and in what sort of conditions. But for some reason, they don’t always ask these questions when they acquire a live animal as a pet.
The Eurogroup report makes an important contribution to our understanding of the different problems inherent in the fashion for unusual pets. Lawmakers, the public and the commercial trade need to address these, and the effects they can have on health, the environment and animal welfare.
The OneKind Pet Origins survey opens on 1 November - sign up for our e-updates to be notified.