# Scottish Government Motion: Online Sale of Exotic Pets



## Central Scotland Reptiles (Nov 23, 2008)

You will all remember the mass outrage that ensued after Richard Lochhead announced that he was giving his backing to the Animal Rights Groups Exotic Pet Review? 

You will also remember the mass panic, infighting, the name calling, the 'it will never happen' attitude and the complete lack of coordination on the part of the reptile keeping community? 

Well as the majority of keepers were like 'rabbits caught in the headlights' the Animal Rights Groups were quietly going about their business and gained further traction with the Scottish Government:

Motions, Questions and Answers Search - Parliamentary Business : *Scottish Parliament

I was at this meeting on Tuesday night (the only voice for 'our' side I may add) and although there was a great deal of spin within this presentation I kept thinking to myself that we have brought the majority of this poop to our own doorstep - either through our lack of coordination, greed or through sheer indifference to the many issues that to the outside world are completely unacceptable. 

I am loathed to give my own views on 'the future' in a public forum suffice to say that I have and will be making these clear to the various stakeholders both in attendance at this meeting and those interested parties that should be involved. 





*I have purposefully not created this post in the Club Section of this Forum because I do not and did not attend this event as a representative of any Club or Society. Also, just to confirm I do not and did not claim to speak on anyone elses behalf other than my own. *


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## Central Scotland Reptiles (Nov 23, 2008)

Something else I have been thinking about lately was not necessarily *what* the Blue Cross actually said in this presentation - but *why* they said it in the first place. 

Animal Welfare is a VERY emotive subject and I doubt anyone would disagree that any legislation change with this as a core value, would be widely supported from both sides of the fence. This being the case a campaign based solely on welfare improvement (from the Animal Welfare Groups perspective) would unlikely receive the kind of support needed to gain any meaningful traction in terms of achieving their (the phasing out of animals being kept in captivity - both privately and within the zoological community) end result. 

So what were they actually getting at? Throughout the presentation they gave statistics (which we all know can be manipulated to support whichever arguement you want) on public opinion - *the same general public that vote for the law makers.* Statistics such as:

x number or percentage of people are against reptile keeping.
y number or percentage of people are concerned about the possibility of disease transmission.
z number or percentage of people are concerned about the possibility of non native animals prowling our countryside.
Very little of the presentation was actually focused on improving the welfare of animals in captivity because they were learned enough to know that this was not the hook that would gain the MSPs longer term support. 

Maybe we need to approach the defence of our hobby from a completely different angle and one which these law makers can actually relate too?

a number or percentage of the british public actually keep reptiles / birds / exotic mammals / ornamental fish etc
b number or percentage of the british public are directly or indirectly employed by the reptile / bird / exotic mammal / ornamental fish trade.
c number or percentage is added to the UK purse by the sale directly or indirectly of reptiles / birds / exotic mammals / ornamental fish.
d number or percentage of the british public visited a zoo or animal collection within the last year.
Thoughts?


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## wagg (Feb 6, 2014)

Awsome counter points. Would be very interesting to see these figures.


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