scholarly journals Information About Zoonotic Disease Risks Reduces Desire to Own Exotic Pets Among Global Consumers

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom P. Moorhouse ◽  
Neil C. D'Cruze ◽  
David W. Macdonald
Keyword(s):  
Species Conservation ◽  
Random Order ◽  
Zoonotic Disease ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Treatment Information ◽  
Disease Information ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
Conservation Marketing ◽  
Exotic Pets

Demand for exotic pets is a substantial driver of the illegal wildlife trade. Previous work has suggested that this demand could be reduced by conservation marketing messaging highlighting the potential consequences to individual purchasers, in the form of zoonotic disease risks, or legal ramifications. Such work, however, has been limited only to respondents from culturally Western countries, and has not accounted for how underlying attitudes to the keeping of exotic pets may influence desire to own one, or affect the effectiveness of demand reduction messaging. We surveyed 1,000 respondents in each of Brazil, China, USA and Vietnam, showing each five mammal, bird, and reptile pets in random order. Each pet was accompanied with either a “control” statement, describing the species' diet, or one of four types of “treatment” statement describing zoonotic disease, animal welfare, legal or species conservation consequences. Respondents were asked to rate how much they would like to own the pet on a 1–10 scale. All respondents demonstrated decreased desire to own a given exotic when shown any of the types of treatment information, but disease information provoked the greatest decrease, relative to controls (a mean decrease of 26.9%, compared with 16.2, 17.9, and 18.9% for legality, welfare and conservation information, respectively). We also found that respondents with the highest stated likelihood of purchasing pets possessed a series of beliefs that could facilitate this purchase while maintaining an ethical self-image: in particular they believed that shops were well-regulated, and that they were able to distinguish captively-bred from wild caught animals. In summary all respondents of any nationality were motivated particularly to avoid the risk of zoonotic disease, and we recommend that demand reduction campaigns leverage this desire, particularly in the new context of COVID-19.

Legal versus Illegal Wildlife Trade: Zoonotic Disease Risks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos A. Bezerra-Santos ◽  
Jairo A. Mendoza-Roldan ◽  
R.C. Andrew Thompson ◽  
Filipe Dantas-Torres ◽  
Domenico Otranto
Keyword(s):  
Zoonotic Disease ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Illegal Wildlife Trade ◽  
Disease Risks

scholarly journals Surviving the Wildlife Trade in Southeast Asia: Reforming the ‘Disposal’ of Confiscated Live Animals under CITES

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 439
Author(s):  
Shannon N. Rivera ◽  
Andrew Knight ◽  
Steven P. McCulloch
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Live Animal ◽  
Wild Fauna ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
In Captivity

Increased focus on the illegal global wildlife trade has resulted in greater numbers of live animals confiscated by authorities, increasing the need to manage these animals responsibly. Most wildlife seizures take place in Southeast Asia, with global demand for live animals fuelling much of the trafficking. Guidelines for the ‘disposal’ of live specimens are provided by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), although individual Parties must implement provisions through national laws and regulations. ‘Disposal’ is the term used for the management of illegally traded wildlife upon confiscation. Confiscated live animals can be euthanised (i.e., killed), repatriated to their native country and released, or kept in captivity. This study investigates barriers to proper care and disposal of confiscated live animals in Southeast Asia, where roughly one quarter of the global multibillion dollar illegal wildlife trade takes place. Interviews were conducted with 18 professionals working within conservation, wildlife crime, and confiscated live animal management. Eight limitations to the proper care and disposal of confiscated wildlife were identified: (1) political will, (2) policy, (3) funding, (4) capacity, (5) expertise (6) attitudes and behaviours, (7) exploitation, and (8) corruption. Based on interviews, we propose seven key reforms to support the efficient and humane management of illegally traded wildlife for national authorities and CITES parties. These are wildlife seizure management, legislative support, enhanced political will, demand reduction, global participation, registry of rescue centres, and terminology change. This research highlights major barriers to the proper care and disposal of live confiscated animals and proposes key reforms to improve the conservation of threatened species and the welfare of millions of illegally traded animals.

scholarly journals Reptile smuggling is predicted by trends in the legal exotic pet trade

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Stringham ◽  
Pablo García‐Díaz ◽  
Adam Toomes ◽  
Lewis Mitchell ◽  
Joshua V. Ross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Lag ◽  
The United States ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Live Animal ◽  
Pet Trade ◽  
Reptile Species ◽  
The Us ◽  
Disease Risks ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Species Being

Western countries are less frequently implicated in illegal wildlife trade (IWT), contrasted with other transnational consumers, yet substantial evidence suggests that they contribute prominently. Live animal smuggling presents a suite of biosecurity concerns, including invasive species and disease risks. Here, we compared the live alien reptile species smuggled to Australia (75 species) to the legal trade of live reptile species in the United States (US) and constructed a Bayesian regularized model to predict the species most likely to be of greatest future smuggling risk to Australia. Australia has particularly strict import laws barring the entry and keeping of alien reptiles and maintains detailed biosecurity seizure records. Almost all smuggled reptile species were found in the legal US exotic pet market (98.6%), and we observed an average time lag of 4.2 years between a species first appearing in the US market and its subsequent detection in Australia. A species popularity in US pet stores, popularity on international online markets, and the number of years in US import-export records were all positively associated with the probability of species being smuggled to Australia. Our predictive model provides a much-needed early-warning guide for future biosecurity enforcement of the IWT and provides a framework for anticipating future trends in wildlife smuggling.

scholarly journals Thirty-six years of legal and illegal wildlife trade entering the USA

Oryx ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Therese Bager Olsen ◽  
Jonas Geldmann ◽  
Mike Harfoot ◽  
Derek P. Tittensor ◽  
Becky Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
Country Size ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Main Region

AbstractThe USA is the largest consumer of legally, internationally-traded wildlife. A proportion of this trade consists of species listed in the Appendices of CITES, and recorded in the CITES Trade Database. Using this resource, we quantified wildlife entering the USA for 82 of the most frequently recorded wildlife products and a range of taxonomic groups during 1979–2014. We examined trends in legal trade and seizures of illegally traded items over time, and relationships between trade and four national measures of biodiversity. We found that: (1) there is an overall positive relationship between legal imports and seizures; (2) Asia was the main region exporting CITES-listed wildlife products to the USA; (3) bears, crocodilians and other mammals (i.e. other than Ursidae, Felidae, Cetacea, Proboscidea, Primates or Rhinocerotidae) increased in both reported legal trade and seizures over time; (4) legal trade in live specimens was reported to be primarily from captive-produced, artificially-propagated or ranched sources, whereas traded meat was primarily wild sourced; (5) both seizures and legally traded items of felids and elephants decreased over time; and (6) volumes of both legally traded and seized species were correlated with four attributes of exporting countries: species endemism, species richness, number of IUCN threatened species, and country size. The goal of our analysis was to inform CITES decision-making and species conservation efforts.

scholarly journals Endangered Exotic Pets on Social Media in the Middle East: Presence and Impact

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonarda B. Spee ◽  
Susan J. Hazel ◽  
Eleonora Dal Grande ◽  
Wayne S.J. Boardman ◽  
Anne-Lise Chaber
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Negative Comments ◽  
Exotic Animal ◽  
Exotic Pets

The popularization of exotic pets on celebrity social media in the Middle East has led to questionable impacts on exotic pet demand and threats to species conservation. The objective of this study was to identify exotic animal species featured on Middle Eastern celebrity social media account posts, the public perception of those posts, and their potential impacts on exotic pet demand and conservation (for global-scale extrapolation). Public social media accounts of highly influential persons from oil-rich Middle Eastern regions were manually investigated to evaluate subject demographics, species features, and post information (likes, comments) between January 2017 and August 2018. Twenty-five subjects possessed active social media accounts, from which 418 social media posts were extracted based on their inclusion of a privately owned exotic animal. SPSS Version 25 was used for frequency and descriptive analyses of these posts, in addition to comment analyses to evaluate quantitative (emojis) and qualitative (text) audience perceptions from a total of 10 social media posts of CITES Appendix I- or II-listed species. A greater frequency of positive than negative comments was observed (n = 8017), demonstrating the higher likelihood of social media promotion rather than negation of the exotic pet trade. Public education on wildlife conservation and exotic animal trade risks is imperative for successful conservation and welfare protection.

scholarly journals Pet husbandry and infection control practices related to zoonotic disease risks in Ontario, Canada

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W Stull ◽  
Andrew S Peregrine ◽  
Jan M Sargeant ◽  
J Scott Weese
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Zoonotic Disease ◽  
Disease Risks

scholarly journals The Vulnerable fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus and other globally threatened species in Cambodia's coastal mangroves

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ret Thaung ◽  
Vanessa Herranz Muñoz ◽  
Jeremy Holden ◽  
Daniel Willcox ◽  
Nicholas J. Souter
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Threatened Species ◽  
National Park ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Camera Traps ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Wildlife Sanctuary ◽  
Illegal Hunting ◽  
Manis Javanica

AbstractThe Vulnerable fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus faces a perilous future in South-east Asia. It was last sighted in Cambodia in 2003. We deployed 16 camera traps at four sites in southern Cambodia during January–May 2015 to determine if the fishing cat was still present in the country. Eight photograph/video captures of fishing cats were recorded from the mangroves in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary and one from Ream National Park, but there were no records from Botum Sakor National Park or Prey Nup. A number of other globally threatened species were also photographed in Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary: the Sunda pangolin Manis javanica, the hog deer Axis porcinus and the large-spotted civet Viverra megaspila. We learnt of the killing of an alleged fishing cat at the Sanctuary in July 2015 in retaliation for raiding fishing nets. Illegal hunting and capture of fishing cats for the wildlife trade were reported by local informants at all sites. We provide photographic and video evidence of the fishing cats and highlight the importance of Cambodia's mangroves for threatened species conservation.

scholarly journals Framing rhino horn demand reduction in Vietnam: Dismissing medical use as voodoo

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Scott Smith
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Four Frames ◽  
Demand Reduction ◽  
The Media ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Rhino Poaching

According to Milliken and Shaw (2012) a surge in illegal rhino poaching in South Africa since 2006 was linked to increasing demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. This article examines one of the key frames, the ‘Voodoo Wildlife Parts’ (VWP) frame, which Environmental Non-Government Organisations (ENGOs) in Vietnam have been using in rhino horn demand reduction media campaigns. The VWP frame emerged from the findings of a research project that investigated the news frames present in the media outputs of seven ENGOs, both local and international, opposing the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) in Vietnam.  This article will briefly outline the four frames that emerged from that research, then discuss the two subthemes of the VWP frame and its scientific basis and the nature of the feedback from journalists and the public that influenced the frame’s production.

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