Preventing people from abandoning exotic pets that threatened biodiversity

Abandoning exotic pets is an ethical problem that can lead to biological invasions that threaten conservation of biodiversity in the environment. An article published in the journal Biological Invasions, whose first author is the researcher Alberto Maceda Veiga, from the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), reveals that the release of invasive species in the environment has not been reduced despite the regulation that prohibits the possession of these species since 2011.

Other participants in the study, which goes over the regulation of the national catalogue of exotic invasive species, are Josep Escribano Alacid, from the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona, Albert Martínez Silvestre and Isabel Verdaguer, from the Amphibians and Reptiles Recovery Centre of Catalonia (CRARC), and Ralph Mac Nally, from the University of Canberra (Australia).  

From buying impulsively to abandoning exotic pets

The study shows that, from 2009 to 2011, more than 60,000 exotic animals causing trouble to the owners were recorded in the northern-eastern area of the peninsula, but these figures do not correspond completely to the animals that were abandoned. “The main reason people abandon their pets is because they buy impulsively, and some of these species can easily reproduce once they are released”, says Alberto Maceda, member of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the University of Barcelona.

“In general, people get an animal very easily when it is young and cute, but when it grows up and causes trouble, they abandon it. Not all people do what it takes regarding the responsibilities of having a pet, it’s a responsibility that lasts many years for those animals who live long, such as turtles”.  

Foot picture: According to the new study, commercial criteria to sell exotic species should be modified and buyers should be more responsible regarding this possession.