Exotic Pets Trade

Angela Watkinson Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the exotic pets trade.

I pay tribute to a number of organisations that have been active on this agenda: the Born Free Foundation, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Blue Cross and the British Veterinary Association. The other day I was fortunate enough to attend with a number of colleagues an excellent drop-in event in the House organised by Born Free as it launched its campaign to raise awareness of the problem of the trade in exotic pets. It also came up with some recommendations. I have several questions to ask. Is there a problem with the trade and the keeping of exotic pets? Is the current law adequate? What can be done?

An exotic pet is a rare or unusual animal that is generally thought of as a wild species and is not typically kept as a pet in a domestic context. According to the animal welfare charity OneKind, 1,000 different species of mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, and more than 150 different fish species, are kept as pets. There are many examples that colleagues will know about, including boa constrictors, numerous amphibians, primates, anacondas and African pygmy hedgehogs. The list goes on and on.

The Pet Food Manufacturers Association estimates that the exotic pet population in the UK, including fish, now totals 42 million, which is absolutely staggering; the number of reptiles and amphibians alone kept in this country is now anywhere between 2 million and 7 million. A lot of the huge increase in the numbers has been brought about by the phenomenon of internet sales, which I will come on to in a moment. First, I want to consider welfare concerns. Exotic animals have not undergone the same process of domestication that dogs, cats and many other conventional pets have.

[Dame Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster) (Con)]

I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for allowing me to intervene so early in his remarks. Does he agree that a lot of people purchase exotic pets without proper research and with no understanding of their complex needs, and that those pets are then abandoned because people cannot cope with them?

[Mr Bellingham]

One of the problems is that the potential buyers’ expectations are often completely unrealistic. They often buy small animals that become very big animals.

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[Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)]

As always, Mr Owen, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. May I apologise in advance for being slightly under the weather and say that I might not be as energetic or as enthusiastic as normal?

I congratulate the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (Mr Bellingham) on securing the debate. His knowledge of the topic is impressive and he gave us a tour de force this morning. He set out clearly the scale and nature of the trade in exotic pets. As he pointed out, more than 1,000 species of animal are involved in the pet trade, with the evidence suggesting that more than 50% of pet shops sell exotic species of some sort, with 25% selling exotic amphibians, 25% selling exotic birds, mainly parrots, and 17% selling exotic mammals, such as raccoons and hedgehogs, as has been pointed out. Even worse, some 42% of pet shops sell exotic reptiles such as alligators, cobras, chameleons or endangered tortoises. It is also estimated, however, that a staggering 20% of calls to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals about reptiles are made because they are no longer wanted by their owner.

I want to provide some local context. In South Yorkshire we have 66 licensed pet shops. Recent research by Blue Cross and the Born Free Foundation shows that 25% of them sell reptiles of some sort, with many not even displaying information on what kind is being sold—which underlines perfectly the point made earlier. That is an important point, because if a shop does not know the species, it will not know how the pet should be looked after and will certainly not be able to tell the customer how to care for it.

Thirty per cent of pet shops in South Yorkshire also sell exotic birds, usually labelled simply as “parrots”. Even worse, one in five of the shops in South Yorkshire sells exotic mammals of some sort, with one even selling meerkats. Under no circumstances should meerkats ever be kept as pets, but that example typifies one of the major drivers at play in the trade, which is the role of fad and fashion in governing the decision to buy. To be frank, those individuals who want a meerkat should stick to collecting the stuffed toys on offer from Compare The Market and steer clear of the real thing.

What, in turn, drives buyers’ trends in the pet market? I suggest that one of the drivers is that people far too often see exotics as cute and cuddly. Most people, however, do not have the knowledge of the specialist requirements attached to looking after such animals, and the animals suffer as a result.

[Dame Angela Watkinson]

Does the hon. Lady agree that any revised legislative framework should place responsibility not only on people selling pets, but on people buying them? People should be responsible enough to find out what an animal needs before they take it on.

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[Sir David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Owen. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale) on securing the debate. He is on urgent Council of Europe business this morning, but I will tell him that my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (Mr Bellingham) ably moved the motion in his place.

I do not mean to chastise my hon. Friend, but throughout my time in Parliament I have consistently raised issues concerning animal welfare. Therefore, if anyone has any time to spare, they will see in Hansard that everything that has been said this morning I have said before. Indeed, in 2002, together with Ann Widdecombe—I am still a Member of this place; Ann Widdecombe is appearing in pantomime in Windsor and doing a good job, but she is here with me in spirit—I introduced a Bill to protect endangered species. Indeed, we got Brigitte Bardot involved in the campaign, but even that did not do any good.

I therefore say to the Minister that there is no point in having debates where we feel good at the end but nothing happens. I want a slightly better answer from him, in terms of how his civil servants brief him, than the one I got from my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Richard Benyon), who was the Minister in 2012 and doing a splendid job. I am very much in favour of Ministers saying, “Yes, we can do this,” and standing up to the advice they are given.

None of these issues is original. The dramatic change is the power of the internet. We have all just fought general election campaigns, where we go canvassing. When I knocked on one door, I saw a cat with spots and thought, “My goodness—now they are keeping leopards.” Over the years, the Amess household has kept all sorts of animals—we have drawn the line at giraffes because we do not have ceilings high enough for them—but my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Mrs Murray) will be aware that, in September, I inaugurated the Westminster responsible pet ownership competition. The point of that was that owning a pet is a big responsibility. I understand how the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Angela Smith) feels on this issue.

We all know that small animals are cute. Puppies are cute and a little alligator, 6 inches long, looks cute, but then it grows. The level of irresponsibility of the people buying these pets is absolutely ridiculous. That is why, over the years and with other colleagues who have been consistently interested in animal welfare issues, I have tried to change things.

[Dame Angela Watkinson]

My hon. Friend will know better than anyone that the capacity of rehoming centres is at its limits, so the problem of exotic pet abandonment must be limited through legislation. Otherwise, it will continue and we will reach crisis point.

[Sir David Amess]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. My hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall and I recently returned from a trip to Cyprus, where my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr Burrowes) and I were presented with two common tortoises called Fama and Gusta. However, because of certain issues, those two tortoises, which we wanted to rescue, are still on the beautiful island of Cyprus and, under the arrangements in place, we would have had to get a mortgage out on the Palace of Westminster to bring them back. I have contacted the Minister for Tourism in Cyprus to see if some kind carrier could do us a favour, so that at least my hon. Friend could have a happy Christmas with his family by rescuing the two tortoises.

I have proposed and supported many early-day motions concerning animal welfare legislation. Indeed, the Protection against Cruel Tethering Act 1988, which was in my name, was on the statute book. I have tried to do something about the Pet Animals Act 1951, dogs Acts and other matters.

Recently, Southend Cats Protection came to my surgery and drew my attention to exotic cats. I was informed that over recent years ownership of new, exotic cats has become popular, including bengals, savannahs and chausie ocicats, which have become widely available on the internet —I say to my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk that the power of the internet has changed things—and while many come from registered, reputable breeders, many others put profit before the animal’s welfare and, on the cat’s looks, sell them, with no checks made, to unsuspecting buyers who are unaware of the high maintenance involved.

Those breeds are demanding and require much human interaction. They need a lot of daily exercise and a large territory, including places for vertical climbing. I assume they do not just go up curtains—perhaps they try to walk on the ceiling. They often like to play with water, so they must be in their element at the moment. They have a high prey drive and, while many will get on well with dogs, they are often cat-aggressive and will actively seek out neighbouring cats to hurt to maintain their territory. My constituent explained how the cats can become destructive through boredom and can respond aggressively to being disciplined or handled. There are common reasons for those cats to be relinquished and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) said, rescue charities are increasingly being asked to take them. Given the traits of these cats, however, charities cannot accept them, because they cannot meet their needs. These cats are very expensive to maintain.

Over the years, I have kept many birds—of the feathered variety. Many people keep birds—budgerigars, canaries and a number of common parrots—in captivity as companion animals, and I am very comfortable with that. However, the majority of birds imported through Heathrow airport come from places such as South Africa, South America, Singapore and the Czech Republic. It is absolutely ridiculous to bring back humming birds, given the cruelty involved in netting them. A large range of species, including macaws, lovebirds, toucans and birds of prey, are kept. The number of species is estimated to approach 1,000. Many of those species are now kept in the UK, and that is very cruel—these birds are taken out of their natural habitat, and they are not well looked after in captivity.

The RSPCA does a splendid job—I might be slightly critical of its ever-changing management, but its ordinary members do a splendid job. However, it certainly supports my concerns about the keeping of exotic birds. It recently reported that 80 dead exotic birds were found at the bottom of a cage they shared with a boa constrictor—a boa constrictor for goodness’ sake! Many of the other birds in the cage were on the verge of death. Of the 80 dead birds, two were zebra finches—I know they are fairly common—and one was a bronze-winged mannikin, which had died as a result of head trauma after attempting to escape from the snake. The snake was curled up in the water bowl, so the birds were traumatised because they could not get anything to drink. During the inspection, budgerigars were also found to be suffering from skin complaints and a mite infestation.

I have touched on the ten-minute rule Bill I sought leave to introduce in 2002. In 2012, I asked the then Minister what plans he had to amend legislation such as the Pet Animals Act 1951. I think the civil service told him to say there was no requirement to change the legislation, but that is ridiculous—that is not a good enough answer. In 1983, when I was first elected to this place, and David Mellor was the lead Home Office Minister on this issue, we served on a Committee looking at a Bill—the first such Bill since 1911—to amend animal legislation. Furthermore, given what my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk said about the power of the internet in this regard, we need to get up to speed.

I welcome the debate, but it should not just be a talking shop; we should change the legislation and make sure that any new legislation is actually enforced. It is Christmas, with the nativity and all of that, and this should be a happy season for not just human beings, but animals as well.