Why we need to wipe out internet pet trade

POTENTIALLY lethal and able to grow up to 30ft long, the reticulated python is not the kind of animal that anyone would want to keep as a pet. It was this very creature that Barry Cowan, of Bathgate, unwittingly brought into the home he shares with his three-year-old daughter after making the unwise decision to buy a pet online.

Luckily for Barry, he was alerted to the fact that the royal python he thought he had purchased was in fact a more dangerous species, and he was prompted to warn Evening News readers and to call for the selling of dangerous animals on the internet to be banned.

Advocates for Animals agrees with Barry. In fact, it's not only the online sale of dangerous animals that is of concern to welfare organisations. We believe the internet is an inappropriate place for any live animals to be traded as pets.

Trade on the internet thrives because it is easy, cheap and anonymous. It encourages impulse buying and it is almost impossible to monitor the trade. And because the trade is unregulated nobody knows the true scale of the problem.

It seems that people have a desire to own ever-more unusual animals and it is of concern that exotic species, such as reptiles, are increasingly being bought and sold as pets on the internet, without a thought about their welfare needs.

Most such animals have very specific and complex nutritional, environmental and social requirements, and unfortunately they are often purchased by unsuspecting people who are not aware of the resources and commitment needed to care for them in the proper manner.

Fewer than 50 per cent of vets treat exotic animals at all. Consequently, animals can suffer terribly or are dumped when they're no longer wanted.

The keeping of exotic animals as pets also raises conservation concerns. Some are endangered species and their sale via the pet trade is one of the factors that can contribute to the threat of extinction.

There is also the risk that a non-native animal could escape - something which could also constitute a hazard to native species either by infecting them with any exotic disease they may carry or by establishing populations which can end up competing with native wildlife for food or habitat.

It should also be noted that exotic animals carry diseases that could be transmitted to humans.

The internet is also widely used for the illegal sale of wildlife. Endangered species are being traded in huge numbers with no legal safeguards.

Live animals, including chimpanzees, gorillas and tigers, as well as body parts such as ivory and rare turtle shells, have been found for sale.

Many of the animals are being targeted by poachers to meet the demands of wealthy consumers around the world, as well as being traded as "pets".

The high profits and low penalties of the illegal wildlife trade, coupled with the low risk of detection on the internet, provides little or no deterrent to organised criminal groups.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has produced a code of practice to educate website owners in the role they can play in stopping illegal wildlife trade.

The code covers aspects such as internal policy and practice, education of users, reporting by users and co-operation with agencies.

Last month, measures to face escalating levels of illegal trade via the internet were overwhelmingly adopted by parties associated with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

The decision to confront this anonymous and as-of-yet unregulated trade came just days after internet shopping website eBay - which already has a policy not to sell live animals - announced a new global policy banning all cross-border trade in elephant ivory.

The new Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act allows Scottish ministers to create a much more robust regime to govern the sale of animals and this will include internet sales.

But we believe this does not go far enough and that the time has come to ban the keeping of certain species altogether.

We suggest that the Scottish Government should draw up a list of the most vulnerable animals as soon as possible, to prevent them ending up as the victims of a misguided quest for ever-more extraordinary pets. Until then, people should consider whether it is wise to buy a live animal without seeing it and sellers should ask themselves whether this is a responsible way to trade.

We would also like it to be mandatory for companies and individuals who sell animals as pets to provide information on the needs of the animal and how they should be cared for.

While this would be easy enough to implement for sales from pet shops, it would be much more difficult to do for on-line sales of animals.

This is one of the reasons why we are asking anyone considering getting an animal not to do this on the internet. If there's no demand, then the trade will stop.

Each year, millions of birds and reptiles are stolen from the wild, while dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, fish and other animals are mass-produced to supply the pet industry.

But the problem of unwanted pets is not only caused by commercial enterprises - individual owners, perhaps thinking it is natural, are also contributing by allowing their pets to produce offspring.

There are already too many animals in need of good homes without adding to the problem.

It really is a shame that some people prefer to pay what are often large amounts of money to acquire an unusual, designer, trendy or pedigree animal when rescue centres across the country are full of unwanted pets which face being killed because homes cannot be found for them.

One could ask what this says about our culture and our claim of being a nation of animal lovers.

If you are considering taking on a new pet, please think twice before buying a purpose-bred animal from a pet shop, breeder, or the internet.

Instead, visit a rescue centre and consider caring for one of the hundreds of thousands of wonderful abandoned and unwanted animals that otherwise face being destroyed.

Giving a loving home to an animal that really needs one can be a hugely rewarding experience.

• Ross Minett is the campaigns director at Advocates for Animals.