Captive Breeding Exotic Pets Offers No Fix for Traded Wildlife

BRIGHTON, England, September 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Captive-breeding wild animals for the pet trade has long been championed as the sound alternative to taking them from the wild. However, a new article entitled 'Captive breeding - saving wildlife? Or saving the pet trade?' published in the world's leading environmental magazine, the Ecologist, firmly dispels this myth. The article, welcomed by the Animal Protection Agency, highlights the inhumanity associated with captive-breeding exotic pets, and the dearth of evidence for its benefit to species conservation. 

Trapping and transporting animals from the wild is well known for its association with high mortality rates (for example, estimated to be 80-98% for aquarium fish) and threats to species conservation. Exotic pet traders promote - and some academics and governments gullibly believe - that captive-breeding efforts provide the remedies.

However, captive-breeding endeavours frequently rely on a continued supply of wild-caught animals as 'breeder' stock. Also, popularising captive-bred animals can correspond with greater demand for cheaper wild-sourced ones. The article also raises the fact that even the specialist captive-breeding organisations provided no evidence of successful species conservation or reintroduction results from captive-breeding wild animals as pets.

The author, biologist and medical scientist, Clifford Warwick: writes: "The exotic pet industry is a major constituent of global wildlife abuse and ecological harm that cannot be fixed through any means other than positive lists (species independently verified as 'safe' to sell and keep) or outright bans. Yet, with tedious inevitability, captive-breeding proponents misleadingly point to its conservation 'benefits', and many others jump all too eagerly onto this 'politically correct' bandwagon."

Exotic animals, such as reptiles and amphibians, raised in intensive or "hydroponic-style" captive breeding conditions are currently flooding the market. Whether wild-caught or captive-bred over 90% of fish and 75% of reptiles die within their first year in the home. Once the survivors become unmanageable and unwanted, there are few sanctuaries with suitable facilities to take them in - leading to yet another animal welfare catastrophe.

Says the article's author:

"Captive-breeding wild animals for the pet trade is sometimes not only a front for wild-caught and illegal trade, but also a conservation red-herring. Low welfare standards and high-stress production compound this failed paradigm. Traders and keepers may be blinded by their vested interests, but governments and some other observers need to open their eyes more widely to see the true shades and colours of captive-breeding pets." 

• The article entitled 'Captive breeding - saving wildlife? Or saving the pet trade?' is available to read here: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2985202/captive_breeding_saving_wildlife_or_saving_the_pet_trade.html

Animal Protection Agency

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For more information or to interview Clifford Warwick, please contact Elaine Toland on +44(0)1273 674253 or out of hours on +44(0)7986 535024.