00:00pretty fish dangerous reptiles and even cute tiger cubs do you know what all these animals
00:07have in common they're being kept as pets in european homes in the european union as well
00:13there's a strong hobbyist culture for particularly for reptiles uh birds amphibians and aquarium
00:19species the eu generally speaking has quite high purchasing power it has a single market
00:25um it's the largest one of the largest single markets and there is this kind of equates to a
00:30strong demand for the pet trade um online platforms have also made this kind of cross-border sale
00:36and within the eu and globally also much easier altogether it makes the exotic pet trade one of
00:42the eu's biggest wildlife trade sectors the problem not every animal gets illegally and it can involve
00:48a lot of suffering the interest in keeping exotic pets at home or collecting them has led to a vast
00:59global trade in thousands of species in the eu the main destination countries for both legal and
01:06illegal trade of exotic animals are france spain italy the netherlands belgium and germany germany in fact
01:15has one of the largest markets for reptiles and amphibians in europe but the eu isn't just a
01:21destination its big airports and ports also serve as key transit points for trade that goes from latin
01:28america to the middle east and asia or from africa to asia so most of this trade is actually legal
01:37but
01:37wildlife trafficking does represent a major problem in some cases threatened animals get taken from their
01:44habitats and travel concealed in luggage by plane or in shipments across the globe the species are
01:51often kept in you know containers for a significant period of time they're not fed and watered properly
01:56um kept in you know quite a small proximity to one another as well so there is a high mortality
02:03rate
02:03as well for the transport of live specimens
02:11but how do you know if trading an animal is legal or not that depends on a few things first
02:18its
02:18classification according to citis this is the main international framework for protecting wildlife by
02:25regulating trade it gets implemented by national laws and divides protected animal species into three
02:31categories appendix one no commercial trade in wild animals of these species is allowed
02:38that's the case for example for most pangolin species in appendix two species trade is allowed but
02:45is controlled in order to avoid over exploitation the european eel is one such species
02:52appendix three includes species that are protected at the level of a specific country and for which trade is
02:58permitted but it has to be approved by the country first secondly not every exotic fish or iguana on
03:05the market is seized directly from its respective ocean or forest some are also sold from captive breeding
03:11programs but here's the thing for a lot of exotic pets it's actually difficult to know whether they
03:17were caught in the wild or bred in captivity site these permits can be faked and sometimes animals that
03:23were caught in the wild get declared as captivity bred and some experts warn that animals from captivity
03:29are not a solution so when we talk about exotic pets usually we talk about animals that are wild by
03:36nature
03:36so whether they have been captured from the wild or bred in captivity inherently they have wild and they
03:42have not evolved to live in our in our living rooms or in our backyards
03:48police operations and customs controls regularly seize wild animals across europe the ngo traffic recorded
03:563 500 live animals across thousands of seizures that were likely destined for the pet trade in the eu
04:03in 2023 they make up 28 of all wildlife seizures but enforcement in the eu is not easy the situation
04:12with the exotic pet trade in the eu is messy it's a patchwork of regulations which means that in some
04:18member states you can keep certain animals as a pet and you can breed them and trade them whereas
04:24in a neighboring state this is not allowed and a good example is germany and the netherlands in germany
04:31you can keep monkeys and servals and other types of animals whereas in the netherlands this is prohibited
04:38this not only makes things more complicated for law enforcement but also for citizens it's why some
04:44organizations like aap are calling for an eu-wide positive list this tool would inscribe all the
04:51species in which trade is allowed on a list common to all member states trade in all other species would
04:57automatically be prohibited it would be a first step to better protect exotic wildlife in europe we can
05:04sort of look at this addressing this in three ways one really important point is kind of clear and
05:10harmonized rules across the eu um second is really strong enforcement especially online because
05:16online cyber crime has been boosted significantly over recent years especially for the pet trade
05:21but also increasing efforts to reduce consumer demand that's really important as well
05:31so while it can be exciting to own rare or dangerous creatures from far away the safest option for humans
05:37and animals and animals alike maybe to stick to more local pets
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