00:00Pretty fish, dangerous reptiles, and even cute tiger cubs.
00:06Do you know what all these animals have in common?
00:08They're being kept as pets in European homes.
00:12In the European Union as well, there's a strong hobbyist culture,
00:15particularly for reptiles, birds, amphibians, and aquarium species.
00:20The EU, generally speaking, has quite high purchasing power.
00:24It has a single market. It's one of the largest single markets.
00:27And there is, this kind of equates to a strong demand for the pet trade.
00:32Online platforms have also made this kind of cross-border sale
00:36within the EU and globally also much easier.
00:39Altogether, it makes the exotic pet trade one of the EU's biggest wildlife trade sectors.
00:44The problem? Not every animal gets here legally.
00:47And it can involve a lot of suffering.
00:55The interest in keeping exotic pets at home or collecting them
00:58has led to a vast global trade in thousands of species.
01:02In the EU, the main destination countries for both legal and illegal trade of exotic animals
01:08are France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
01:14Germany, in fact, has one of the largest markets for reptiles and amphibians in Europe.
01:20But the EU isn't just a destination.
01:22Its big airports and ports also serve as key transit points
01:26for trade that goes from Latin America to the Middle East and Asia
01:30or from Africa to Asia.
01:34So, most of this trade is actually legal.
01:37But wildlife trafficking does represent a major problem.
01:40In some cases, threatened animals get taken from their habitats
01:44and travel concealed in luggage by plane or in shipments across the globe.
01:50The species are often kept in, you know, containers for a significant period of time.
01:55They're not fed and watered properly.
01:57Kept in, you know, quite a small proximity to one another as well.
02:01So, there is a high mortality rate as well for the transport of live specimens.
02:11But how do you know if trading an animal is legal or not?
02:15That depends on a few things.
02:17First, its classification according to CITES.
02:20This is the main international framework for protecting wildlife by regulating trade.
02:26It gets implemented by national laws
02:29and divides protected animal species into three categories.
02:33Appendix 1.
02:34No commercial trade in wild animals of these species is allowed.
02:38That's the case, for example, for most pangolin species.
02:42In Appendix 2.
02:43Species trade is allowed but is controlled in order to avoid overexploitation.
02:48The European eel is one such species.
02:52Appendix 3 includes species that are protected at the level of a specific country
02:56and for which trade is permitted.
02:59But it has to be approved by the country first.
03:02Secondly, not every exotic fish or iguana on the market
03:05is seized directly from its respective ocean or forest.
03:09Some are also sold from captive breeding programs.
03:12But here's the thing.
03:14For a lot of exotic pets, it's actually difficult to know
03:17whether they were caught in the wild or bred in captivity.
03:20CITES permits can be faked
03:22and sometimes animals that were caught in the wild
03:24get declared as captivity bred.
03:27And some experts warn that animals from captivity are not a solution.
03:31So when we talk about exotic pets,
03:33usually we talk about animals that are wild by nature.
03:37So whether they have been captured from the wild or bred in captivity,
03:40inherently they have wild.
03:41And they have not evolved to live in our living rooms or in our backyards.
03:48Police operations and customs controls regularly seize wild animals across Europe.
03:54The NGO traffic recorded 3,500 live animals across thousands of seizures
04:00that were likely destined for the pet trade in the EU in 2023.
04:05They make up 28% of all wildlife seizures.
04:08But enforcement in the EU is not easy.
04:11The situation with the exotic pet trade in the EU is messy.
04:15It's a patchwork of regulations, which means that in some member states,
04:19you can keep certain animals as a pet and you can breed them and trade them.
04:24Whereas in a neighboring state, this is not allowed.
04:27And a good example is Germany and the Netherlands.
04:30In Germany, you can keep monkeys and servals and other types of animals.
04:36Whereas in the Netherlands, this is prohibited.
04:38This not only makes things more complicated for law enforcement, but also for citizens.
04:43It's why some organizations like AAP are calling for an EU-wide positive list.
04:49This tool would inscribe all the species in which trade is allowed
04:52on a list common to all member states.
04:55Trade in all other species would automatically be prohibited.
04:59It would be a first step to better protect exotic wildlife in Europe.
05:04We can sort of look at this, addressing this in three ways.
05:07One really important point is kind of clear and harmonized rules across the EU.
05:13Second is really strong enforcement, especially online,
05:16because online cybercrime has been boosted significantly over recent years,
05:19especially for the pet trade.
05:21But also increasing efforts to reduce consumer demand.
05:26That's really important as well.
05:30So while it can be exciting to own rare or dangerous creatures from far away,
05:35the safest option for humans and animals alike may be to stick to more local pets.
05:41Thank you.
05:42Thank you.
05:43Thank you.
05:49See you next time.
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