دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی سازگاری حیوانات خانگی: استفاده از سیستم برچسب زدن برای کمک به رفاه حیوانات - الزویر 2018

abstract

Exotic pets are essentially animals that are non-native to a region and/or nondomesticated. The trade in and keeping of exotic pets has been frequently criticized for the commonly inhumane and harmful practices that are associated with supply and keeping, including animal welfare, species conservation, invasiveness, and public health and safety. Relatedly, a growing issue is that of unwanted exotic pets handed to animal care centers due to their overly demanding requirements and the confiscation of animals suffering from abuse. Mis-selling exotic species as “easy to keep” or “beginner” animals is widely regarded to be a major common and problematic factor. Efforts, after pet acquisition, to educate sellers and keepers to improve animal welfare and public health issues have proven unproductive. We propose that a system is required that facilitates decision-making at the interface between sale and purchase sectors and that uses clear evidence-based labeling. We review current options for developing such a pet labeling scheme and recommend a novel approach based on the EMODE (“easy,” “moderate,” “difficult,” or “extreme”) pet suitability assessment tool to provide a preventative educational approach to alleviating the multifactorial issues of concern.

Conclusions

Animal welfare, public health and safety, and species and ecological conservation have endured decades of sufferance and harm as the result of the exotic pet trade being significantly out of reasonable control. Regulations, whether mandatory or as codes of practice, have failed to prevent or abate the range of issues concerned. Post animal acquisition educational “cures” have not worked, and best evidence implies that this trend will continue, given that the more we learn about animal needs, the more apparent it becomes that they cannot be met in the restrictive conditions of domestic captivitydand arguably also within the professional zoological sector.

There is a strong and urgent need for an objective, balanced, and proportionate means of labeling pet animals (particularly exotic species) to facilitate informed decision-making by prospective purchasers and safeguard animal welfare, public health, species conservation, and the environment. Current and future remedial emphasis needs to be directed at prevention and hence focused on preacquisition information and decision-making. The use of positive lists in conjunction with the EMODE-based pet labeling scheme would be strongly and mutually self-augmenting.

The EMODE-based pet labeling scheme we propose offers a long overdue approach to bringing pet animal trading in line with other industries that are already obliged to comply with relevant standards and therefore responsible product description and selling, and also benefits from its user-friendly design, independence, and evidence-based structure. Proposal of a pet labeling scheme does not, however, imply condonation of trading or keeping exotic pets but rather aims to promote much needed greater responsibility within the industry.