The zoo director and president of the Association of Zoo Directors, Jörg Junhold, has today described the proposal by Federal Minister Cem Özdemir for a positive list for exotic animals as “criminalization of pet owners” in a ZDF interview (Morgenmagazin). The President of the German Animal Welfare Federation, Thomas Schröder, described this argument as hypocritical and ignorant of animal welfare.
“The Federal Minister wants to strengthen animal welfare with a positive list, which is the right way to go. The President of the Association of Zoo Directors wants to continue to allow animal cruelty, which is the wrong approach.
The planned positive list clarifies which animal species are allowed to live in private hands - because there are no objections to keeping them from an animal welfare, nature conservation or species protection point of view. Anyone who rejects such a regulation for the future is ignoring reality and tolerating exotic wild animals being kept en masse in living rooms and children's rooms because the necessary expertise is lacking and the animals' needs cannot be met.
We finally need clear rules for keeping exotic animals! It is simply wrong to claim that our animal protection laws in Germany are already strict enough: there are no specific requirements even for keeping pets such as cats or rabbits. If we then discuss which animals may be kept privately in the future, it should not just be about banning exotic “dangerous animals” - such as lions, tigers or crocodiles. It is also about millions of reptiles, amphibians and exotic mammals, such as marmosets or white-bellied hedgehogs, which are not dangerous but often suffer silently. A positive list for keeping animals in private hands is a good way to improve the situation of these animals in the future. Because then anyone who thinks they want to keep an exotic species that is not on the list will have to prove that their own keeping of the animal is compatible with animal welfare.
It is also a fact that the private keeping of exotic wild animals is a burden on charitable animal welfare. The few specialized rescue centers for exotic animals in Germany are overcrowded and can hardly keep up with requests from people who want to surrender their animals. Many animal shelters do not know how to accommodate the demanding species that pet owners want to get rid of - because they are overwhelmed or can no longer afford the costs. It is not uncommon for exotic animals to be abandoned. If the zoo director thinks that there is no need for regulation, then in future zoos should act as drop-off points for exotic animals instead of animal shelters.”
