A Murdoch University scientist is among an international group of researchers to call for a labelling scheme for the trade of exotic pets in countries like the UK and the US to help the public make informed decisions on purchases.

Dr Phillip Arena from the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences said the trade and keeping of exotic pets in many countries has been criticised for animal welfare, species conservation, invasiveness and public health and safety concerns.

Exotic pets are described as animals, such as reptiles, that are not native to a region and /or are not domesticated.

Australia, and particularly WA, has very strict restrictions on the importing of exotic animals. For example, sellers of reptiles in WA must be licensed to keep, breed or take reptiles from the wild. Purchasers also require a licence.

But in other countries where rules around the trade in exotic species are more relaxed, the picture is different. It is believed that globally, billions of wild animals are traded annually as pets and death rates are high.

Exotic pet trade ‘out of control’

“Often these creatures are mislabelled and missold in countries like the UK and the USas ‘easy to keep’ or ‘beginner’ animals. When caring for them becomes too difficult because they need more stimulation or space, the unwanted pets suffer abuse, are handed to animal centres or released into the wild to either perish or potentially become an invasive species,” Dr Arena said.

“The exotic pet trade has been out of control for decades because regulations in various countries have failed to prevent or abate the range of concerns.

“We propose an approach that clearly labels exotic pets at the point of sale as ‘easy’, ‘moderate’, ‘difficult’ or ‘extreme’ because efforts to educate sellers and keepers to improve animal welfare and public health have so far proved unsuccessful.”

Dr Arena and his co-authors said a pet labelling scheme across exotic and domesticated species like cats and dogs does not currently exist, but that a system enabled by an algorithm called EMODE and applied in pet stores could clearly inform the public about the realities of caring for an exotic pet.

“The EMODE system and database provides a traffic light indicator flagging the challenges of keeping any animal based on the system’s public health and safety and animal welfare scores,” Dr Arena said.

“The database can be updated to include new species or alter the score of species based on new evidence. Labels can then be created to attach to pet shop enclosures and internet sale sites.

“This system could run in conjunction with permitted lists, which we call ‘positive lists’ of species regarded as suitable to be traded and kept within a household.

“These measures will help to facilitate informed decision making by the purchasers and safeguard animal welfare and public health, as well as bringing pet animal trading in line with other industries that must comply with relevant standards.”

Dr Arena said any such scheme would need to be backed by appropriate legislation.

Dr Arena and co-authors from the UK and the USA published an article on their recommendations in The Journal of Veterinary Behaviour.

Image caption: Exotic pets like the camelion (pictured), should be labelled in a clearer way to help consumers make informed decisions