Expert warns of issues and risks in exotic pet trade

​THE global exotic pet trade valued from $31 billion to $43 billion annually is seen as a threat to both animals and humans.

This is the view of Neil D’Cruze, Technical Expert for Animals in the Wild at World Animal Protection, who wrote an article about how the exotic pet trade is cruel to animals and a health risk to humans. He also presented factors that influence demand for exotic pets and what would likely discourage purchase.

A gecko clutches a man's finger. The exotic pet trade has a criminal underbelly that causes much animal sufferings.

The study revealed that most patrons of exotic pets seemed less concerned about information related to animal welfare and conservation consequences, so these will not deter their consumption choices.

Exotic pets such as snakes, parrots and tropical fish are subjected to severe suffering during capture, transport, sale and continued captivity. Over exploitation of these animals leads to severe decline in their populations, making the exotic pet trade a conservation issue, too, wrote D'Cruze.

To know what drives people from purchasing exotic pets, researchers at the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) built a website to test if raising public awareness could influence people’s attitudes towards buying an exotic pet. 

The study revealed that most patrons of exotic pets seemed less concerned about information related to animal welfare and conservation consequences, so these will not deter their consumption choices.

In contrast, the study showed that buying exotic pets become far less appealing when people realize the risks to their own health and the legal consequences they could face. For example, unusual pets from the wild could transmit diseases like E. Coli and bird flu, D'Cruze pointed out in his article. 

In summary, the research results suggest that “potential exotic pet owners may be motivated to avoid outcomes that might directly harm them, but not their pets”. This selfish reason, however, presents an opportunity to reduce demand for exotic pets by drumming up awareness on how it can directly harm consumers.

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