Part VI The Abuse of Animals by Agents of the State
Legal and Illegal Theriocide of Trafficked Animals
The International Pet Trade
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Legal and Illegal Theriocide of Trafficked Animals 457 The International Pet Trade The transnational trafficking of pets is, together with habitat loss, a major threat to many species and is also known to have caused species extinction This is the situation whether animals are trafficked illegally or legally: The legality of trade [of animals] does not guarantee its sustainability By default, trade is legal unless a motion is successfully brought before CITES to demonstrate negative impacts Therefore one can assume that there is legal trade that is damaging because of outdated conservation assessments or lack of motivation to bring the case before CITES (Busch et al 2014, p 673) Reptiles and birds are the species most trafficked for the pet market and consequently the species that are most often seized in the EU and beyond elsewhere (van Uhm 2015) Parrots, of which millions have been trafficked in recent decades (Tella and Hiraldo 2014) are of particular concern, together with many of the reptile species that are trafficked which also are threatened with extinction (Natush and Lyons 2012) According to interviews with reptile keepers, reptiles provide great sources for fascination and are kept also as collector items (Sollund 2013a) van Uhm (2015) states that seizures of live animal species in the illegal wildlife trade in the EU consist mainly of live reptiles (tortoises), followed by birds (parrots) and incidentally mammals (primates) An overview of major international seizures within the EU in 2013 revealed that 1,570 live reptiles were seized (TRAFFIC 2015) EU TWIX6 seizures show that more than 30,000 live reptiles were confiscated in 2001–2010 in the EU (van Uhm 2015) Between 2000 and 2003, the EU imported 2.8 million wild CITES-approved birds (FAO 2011) Reptiles are thus highly sought after as pets (or collector items) of whom many are trafficked from South East Asia, especially Indonesia, due to its biodiversity and lack of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) law enforcement (Lyons and Natush 2011) According to Lyons and Natush (2011), the pet trade in reptiles threatens many species that are suffering from drastic decline, among them tortoises and freshwater turtles While reptiles trafficked to Norway may be purchased at Terraristika Hamm in Germany, an international reptile expo notorious for selling wild-caught reptiles, and reptile owners in Norway claim even reptiles sold in zoo shops in Denmark and Sweden appear to be wild caught (Sollund 2013a), their place of origin is hard to determine European Union Trade in Wildlife Information eXchange database http://www.eutwix.org/