The growing popularity of the exotic pet market brings challenges to biosecurity [Reporter investigates the legal and ecological risks behind the exotic pet economy]
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
□ Jia Jingxiao, an intern of our newspaper
Recently, "strange fish" crocodile gars have appeared in many places, some of which were released by breeders, causing public attention and heated discussions about exotic pets.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently investigated and found that the pet market is no longer just the world of dogs and cats. Snakes, lizards, and geckos have gained the favor of many people. Animals such as rabbits, parrots, and tortoises are also gradually disappearing. Into the line of sight of private breeders.
Exotic pet lovers generally contact the seller through the Internet, and the seller sends it by post.
Some of these exotic pets are used by breeders for viewing, and some are sold publicly through various online shopping platforms, offline exotic pet cafes, pet stores, etc.
However, the booming exotic pet market brings challenges to biosecurity.
Some people keep exotic pets out of curiosity and follow the trend, but they don't understand their characteristics. Once they can't meet their psychological expectations, such as "not relatives", "tasteful", "difficult to raise", etc., they will abandon them.
Abandoned exotic pets may bring danger to others, and some may threaten the local ecological balance because they are alien species.
Who are keen on keeping exotic pets?
What is the threshold for raising exotic pets, and what difficulties do they face in the treatment of illness?
Around the "birth, old age, sickness and death" of exotic pets and the possible risks, the reporter conducted a comprehensive investigation.
rearing
The cost of eye-catching companionship is high
Short from Qingdao, Shandong is a snake breeder who has raised more than 20 corn snakes and a pair of house snakes.
He introduced that corn snakes are the most common pet snakes, with docile temperament and mature development, and the price of basic entry varieties is relatively close to the people.
"Compared with cats and dogs, crawling pets are more quiet and worry-free. After raising them for about 3 years, they can grow from seven or eight grams to three or four hundred grams. When it breeds, watching the snake break its shell is very fulfilling. " Talking about his original intention of raising snakes, Short said eloquently.
Good looks is another reason for the popularity of exotic pets.
Zhang Xian, who works part-time in fox adoption and rescue, raised his first pet fox in 2016. Because the fox "looks good", it can bring visual satisfaction to the breeder, and when feeding, it will respond to the owner. , "as if acting like a spoiled child".
According to the "2021 White Paper on the Value of Pet Content in China" released by iResearch, the content of exotic pets that satisfy users' curiosity-seeking mentality has gradually gained attention, accounting for between 5% and 15% of the popularity of cute pet content.
But beauty is short-lived in most cases, replaced by the cumbersome and expensive cost of raising exotic pets.
Short's main expense is the snake cabinet for pet snakes, and the ongoing expense is food.
The staple food of snakes is rats. Frozen rats are usually sent to the home through frozen transportation. They need to be refrigerated and stored, but they need to be thawed when feeding.
In addition, snakes are warm-blooded animals, and breeders need to prepare heating pads and temperature controls, and bathe the snakes regularly to clean up scales and odors on their bodies to prevent skin diseases and parasites.
The feeding procedure for ferret breeder Wu Dong is more complicated.
He prepared a lot of supplies for the ferrets, such as food bowls, exclusive toilets and a double-layer cage with enough space for ferrets to move around; since ferrets are afraid of heat, they need to prepare mats, ice pads or cooling boards in summer; if the owner leaves home Turn off the air conditioner, you need to place a small fan; in winter, you need a thickened hammock.
In addition to the basic configuration, Wu Dong also purchased a lot of toys, special shower gel, hair removal cream, and a towel bag that allows the ferret to crawl into it.
In terms of food, in addition to high-quality staple food, he also prepared many snacks to feed during interactions, as well as nutritional paste, teeth grinding and teeth cleaning snacks.
Like Wu Dong, more and more pet owners are willing to spend their time arranging shelters for their pets.
However, the reporter found that too much equipment is easy to clean up and breed bacteria, while the production of pet supplies lacks supervision, and the quality of products is uneven.
Merchants generally attract customers with good appearance, but lack of after-sales guarantee.
buy and sell
Price the goods at will
When there is demand, there is market.
As people's interest in exotic pets increases, the transaction of exotic pets has formed an industrial chain, and there are many agency intermediaries between buyers and sellers.
Short told reporters that it is difficult to buy snakes on e-commerce platforms, so "snake circles" are usually traded through social platforms.
Most of the sellers are individuals, who send ordinary express and bear the risk; the buyer must record the unpacking video after receiving the goods, otherwise the seller will not be held responsible even if there is a problem.
Therefore, the main role in this transaction chain is the intermediary, usually by the trusted insiders of both buyers and sellers.
The transaction process is roughly as follows: the buyer pays the intermediary - the seller delivers the goods - the buyer confirms the receipt of the goods - the intermediary pays the seller.
If there is a problem or a transaction dispute, it will be determined by the intermediary.
"But there are many unreliable agents in 'Climbing Circle', and everyone can be an agent without any barriers." Short said.
He has encountered such a situation, an agent has no supply, but uses a set of beautifully posed pictures to advertise on social platforms, sitting on the ground and raising prices.
For example, the market price of albino red snake seedlings is 250 yuan to 350 yuan, and the price of this agent is 780 yuan.
Short found that many agents in "Climbing Circle" did not even have the basic knowledge of raising snakes, and gave lectures to buyers by relying on false and factual information on the Internet.
After buyers purchase, the pet snakes they receive are often out of stock. "Even an agent who has passed the test cannot completely guarantee that the pet will be fine, because the agent has no supply. Some are still 'generation-in-generation', and the agent is in their own The next layer continues to recruit agents, often an agent has many layers above it.”
Why does the exotic pet market need agents?
As a physical seller, Wu Dong's explanation is that some of the animals raised by some merchants breed in large numbers, and they cannot sell them all, so they need agents.
However, agents and merchants are prone to poor information, and both parties may sell the same snake at the same time.
So maybe the snake has been bought, but the agent will tell the buyer that the snake is still in his hands and continue to send the buyer video of the snake.
Since some exotic pet buyers often use video to identify the quality of snakes, some agents often take pictures of sick snakes as healthy.
"As long as the buyer makes a decision after watching the video, they need to pay a deposit first, and when the animal is received, even if there is a problem, the deposit cannot be refunded." Short said.
In addition, the reporter learned that the price of exotic pets is unstable, and the price may still increase after the buyer pays the deposit.
In this case, sellers and agents will keep delaying delivery. After the tug-of-war, most buyers choose to return the goods, and sellers turn to new buyers at higher market prices.
Short told reporters that the exotic pet transaction is not a pure seller's market, and buyers often cheat.
Buyers do not confirm receipt of the goods after receiving the goods, and report to the platform that the seller sends live bodies, in order to threaten the seller to refund the money; after the platform intervenes, the seller will generally be sentenced to refund the money, so that the buyer can achieve the purpose of "prostitution".
Under such a transaction mode, pet disease has become another major hidden danger.
The reporter learned from a number of exotic pet breeders that most of them buy pets through online trading platforms, or sell them one-to-one through the introduction of acquaintances, and the "quarantine" is very far away from them.
In this regard, pet disease prevention and control professionals are quite worried: "There is no fixed market and clear supply channels for the purchase of exotic pets. It is not clear where the animals come from, whether they have been quarantined, and whether they carry viruses."
An exotic pet doctor, who did not want to be named, pointed out that there are still major deficiencies in domestic research on zoonotic diseases in exotic pets. It belongs to the knowledge gap.
transportation
Express mail is unpredictable
There are also many problems in the transportation of exotic pets after buying and selling.
Liu Jiaqi, who has been a special animal veterinarian in Beijing for 5 years, told reporters that all couriers cannot mail live animals. Common pet consignments include air and land transportation. Land transportation includes high-speed rail, train, special car and automobile. Air transportation is the cargo hold of an airplane.
But no matter what the method is, you need to apply for a quarantine certificate in advance, which will be undertaken by a professional shipper.
"Because the attention of special animals is not as high as that of dogs and cats, even if someone secretly transports them through express delivery, it is difficult to attract attention during this process." Liu Jiaqi said.
It is true that there are merchants smuggling through express delivery.
The reporter's investigation found that some merchants added tips to express delivery sites in their jurisdictions, and asked the courier not to go through the security check, and said that the risk of death and injury of live objects by mailing is borne by the sender, and the express delivery point only needs to be responsible for sending it.
In this case, some merchants only pay attention to whether they can sell animals, but do not pay attention to the scientific nature of mailing, and deliver goods uniformly, which leads to the situation of exotic pets attacking, fighting and even preying on each other.
Zhang Xian has encountered such a situation.
Once, she bought two foxes of the same size and age, a red fox and a snow fox, but finally received a red fox and half a snow fox, "Most exotic pets are carved in their bones. Hunting awareness, animals of different sizes and species are not suitable to be put together, the snow fox was eaten by the red fox."
There are also some merchants who sell foxes in the form of blind boxes and send them randomly. The pets are bumped during transportation, some are tortured to death, and some are injured to varying degrees.
Zhang Xian once bought 3 foxes at one time, and the seller told her to send pets as a consignment, but when she went to pick them up, she saw a coal truck in charge of transportation. The foxes were placed under the carriage. dying.
For this kind of phenomenon, Liu Jiaqi analyzed that some sellers choose the method of random distribution, which saves manpower and material resources, eliminates elimination and screening, and maximizes profits.
However, some farms only have the qualifications and procedures related to breeding, they have insufficient understanding of the pet industry, and do not have relevant qualifications and certificates. The phenomenon of shoddy products often occurs.
medical
Lack of veterinary autonomy prevails
A doctor surnamed Jiang from the Exotic Pet Center of Nanchang Denuo Animal Hospital, who has worked for 8 years, said that as long as pets are transported, they will be at risk of illness, and there will be stress reactions such as heat stroke, and the body cannot adapt to the sudden change of the external environment at the first time. prone to a series of metabolic disorders.
Pets are sick and get treatment, but the coverage and professionalism of exotic pet hospitals are still lacking.
The doctor introduced that the threshold for exotic pet doctors is relatively high. First, they must have a background in animal medicine, and then they can take the professional veterinary certificate.
At first, there was no professional training in the treatment of exotic pets in China, and some platforms invited foreign teachers to give lectures in China, and translators translated them while they were speaking.
Every time an exotic pet is admitted, a lot of learning is required before it is possible to formulate a suitable treatment plan.
According to the case of their admissions, the research on the treatment of exotic pets is not as mature as that of dogs and cats, but the metabolism of exotic pets is very fast, four or five times that of humans. already critically ill."
"Most of the exotic pets are originally wild animals, and they are good at protecting themselves by camouflaging. As pets, they will forcibly cheer up in front of their owners, pretend to eat normally, and immediately wilt once the owner leaves." Dr. Jiang said.
Some breeders of exotic pets also see these problems, so they generally seek treatment based on experience.
Wu Dong's experience is that it is useless to treat minor illnesses by themselves, but it is useless to treat serious illnesses.
How to treat yourself?
The reporter noticed that many breeders will seek medical advice on the Internet.
According to data from an online consultation platform, during the "Double 11" period last year, the number of online consultation orders for exotic pets such as chinchillas, hedgehogs, and tortoises increased by 23 times month-on-month.
One of the problems brought about by seeking medical treatment and asking for medicine is that it has spawned many online "doctors" who are random.
Liu Jiaqi found that there are many so-called exotic pet doctors on the Internet who do not have any qualifications, make diagnoses at will, and use drugs at will.
A regular special animal doctor, under normal circumstances, the average daily admissions is about 5 to 10 cases.
"Vet hospitals vary in scale, hardware facilities, and physicians hired with different years of experience, so there is a big difference in pricing." Liu Jiaqi said that once the treatment fails, pet owners will have opinions; even if the treatment is successful, some people think that the price is too high And dissatisfied.
However, there is no relevant institution in China that can resolve such disputes, and reporting cases can only mediate disputes.
abandoned
Difficult to tame body odor abandoned
What if I can't cure it or can't support it?
Many exotic pet breeders choose to abandon them.
The reason behind it, in addition to the high cost of treatment, is that some exotic pets are aggressive.
For example, the snapping turtle, which behaves like a crocodile, will take the initiative to attack as long as it sees something moving.
According to the introduction of snapping turtle breeder Wang Zhen, the snapping turtle belongs to the genus Long-necked turtle. A snapping turtle with a carapace of 40 cm long can extend its neck up to 40 cm, so the attack radius is large, and the speed of the attack is very fast. , once you bite something, you won't let go easily.
The reporter noticed that in some online pet stores, many people abandoned foxes, and they advertised slogans such as "little guy is very active and not afraid of life", "Xuehu is very smart and quiet", "chubby and feels comfortable" and so on. , would like someone to accept their pet.
Zhang Xian told reporters that the cost of raising foxes in the farm is very low, neither vaccination nor high-quality special food is required. They only need to feed some low-cost wheat bran, soybean meal and carrion, and the fox has a fast growth cycle, and it takes about seven to eight hormones. It can breed in a month, and there are at least five or six foxes in a litter. These reasons lead to the low price of foxes, so many people buy them, and usually buy a few at a time.
But foxes are difficult to tame, and if you put a leash on it, it will bite or try to break free.
"Foxes have become the mammals with the highest abandonment rate for several reasons, such as many buyers, difficulty in domestication and body odor," Zhang Xian said.
Not long ago, Zhang Xian saw someone say on the social platform, "The fox I bought is not obedient, or I will kill it. Anyway, it is so cheap, I will buy another obedient one."
Later, the man beat the fox until its internal organs bleed and did not feed it for a week, resulting in the death of the fox.
In recent years, Zhang Xian has encountered more and more abandoned pets.
For a while, she had to temporarily house more than 30 abandoned foxes in her self-built house.
These foxes have some problems, such as being aggressive and biting.
In desperation, she donated some of the foxes to the zoo and the pet garden, and gave some foxes with better characters and smaller months to experienced people.
"If I can go back to the past and choose again, I won't raise exotic pets again." Zhang Xian told reporters.
In the eyes of people in the industry, in the process of human domestication of exotic pets, public acceptance, industrial chain, laws and regulations need to be built simultaneously, which is bound to be a very long process.
No matter what kind of pet to keep, you can't make a decision on the spur of the moment.
Exotic pets are unique and attractive, but they may not be suitable for keeping as pets in terms of habits. There are also "gray areas" in terms of buying and selling. Therefore, lovers need to consider carefully, and this market also needs more regulations.
For government functional departments, it is necessary to strengthen source management, strengthen port quarantine supervision and law enforcement on inbound goods, means of transport, consignments, passenger luggage, cross-border e-commerce and other invasive channels of alien species, and establish and improve comprehensive coverage of invasive species. defense system.
At the same time, the list of invasive alien species should be updated in a timely manner to clearly inform the public which exotic pets can be kept and which cannot be kept.
"The new challenges of biosafety can be effectively dealt with by combining the efforts of many parties." The above-mentioned industry insiders said.
(All breeders of exotic pets in the text are pseudonyms)
Comics/Li Xiaojun