Reporters investigate the legal and ecological risks behind the heterogeneous economy

Recently, the "strange fish" crocodile eel has appeared in many places, some of which are caused by the release of breeders, which has aroused public concern and heated discussion about exotic pets.

"Rule of Law Daily" reporter recently found that the pet market is no longer just the world of dogs and cats, with snakes, lizards, geckos-based climbing pets have won the favor of many people, rabbits, parrots, turtles and other animals have gradually entered the eyes of private breeders.

Pet lovers generally contact the seller through the Internet, and the seller sends it by mail. Some of these pets are used by breeders for ornamentation, and some are publicly sold, including various online shopping platforms, offline pet cafes, pet stores, etc.

However, the booming exotic pet market poses a challenge to biosecurity. Some people raise exotic pets out of curiosity and follow the trend, but do not understand their characteristics, and once they cannot meet psychological expectations, such as "no relatives", "big taste", "difficult to raise", etc., they will abandon it. Some of the pets that are abandoned may pose dangers to others, and some may threaten the indigenous ecological balance because they are exotic species.

Who are the keen pets? What is the threshold for breeding heterogeneous pets, and what are the dilemmas faced in the treatment of their illness? Around the "life and death" of the pet and its possible risks, the reporter conducted a comprehensive investigation.

feeding

The cost of eye companionship is high

Short from Qingdao, Shandong Province, is a snake keeper who has more than 20 corn snakes and a pair of house snakes. He said that the corn snake is the most common pet snake, with a docile temperament, mature development, and the price of the basic introductory breed is relatively close to the people.

"Compared to cats and dogs, climbing pets is quieter and more worry-free. Raising for about 3 years, you can let it grow from seven or eight grams to three or four hundred grams of adults, and when it breeds to see the small snake break the shell, it is very fulfilling. Talking about his original intention of raising snakes, Short said.

Good looks are another reason for the popularity of exotic pets. Zhang Xian, who works part-time in fox adoption and rescue, raised his first pet fox in 2016 because the fox "looks good", can bring visual satisfaction to the breeder, and when feeding, it will respond to the owner, "as if it is spoiling".

According to the "2021 China Pet Content Value Research White Paper" released by iResearch, the attention of exotic pet content that meets the curiosity of users has gradually increased, accounting for between 5% and 15% of the popularity of cute pet content.

But in most cases, the beauty is short-lived, replaced by the cumbersome and expensive of raising a pet.

Short's main expense is to prepare a snake cabinet for pet snakes to live in, and the ongoing expense is food. The staple food of snakes is rats, and frozen rats are generally sent to home through frozen transport, which needs to be refrigerated and stored, but needs to be thawed when feeding. In addition, snakes are warm animals, breeders need to prepare heating pads and temperature control, but also regularly bathe the snake, clean up the scales and odors on their bodies, and prevent skin diseases and parasites.

The breeding procedure of ferret keeper Wu Dong is more complicated. He prepared many supplies for ferrets, such as food bowls, exclusive toilets, and a double-decker cage with enough space for ferrets to move; Because ferrets are afraid of heat, they need to prepare cool mats, ice mats or cooling boards in the summer; If the host is away from home to turn off the air conditioning, a small fan needs to be placed; In winter, you need a plush and thick hammock. In addition to the basic configuration, Wu Dong also purchased many toys, special shower gel, hair cream and towel bags that allowed ferrets to drill into them. In terms of food, in addition to high-quality staple foods, he also prepares many small snacks that are fed during interactions, as well as nutritional creams, teeth grinding and teeth cleaning snacks.

Like Wu Dong, more and more pet owners are willing to spend time decorating their pets. However, the reporter found that too much equipment can easily lead to poor cleaning and breeding bacteria, while the production of pet supplies lacks supervision and the quality of goods is uneven. Merchants generally attract customers with a good appearance, and after-sales lack of protection.

Buying and selling

Feel free to price the goods are not on the board

Where there is demand, there is a market. With people's increasing interest in the pet, the pet transaction has formed an industrial chain, and there are many agent intermediaries between buyers and sellers.

Schott told reporters that it is difficult to buy snakes on e-commerce platforms, so the "snake circle" is usually traded through social platforms. Sellers are mostly individuals, send ordinary couriers, and bear risks; The buyer must record the unboxing video after receiving the goods, otherwise the seller will not be liable even if there is a problem.

Therefore, the main role in this transaction chain is the intermediary, which is generally played by insiders trusted by both buyers and sellers. The transaction process is roughly as follows: the buyer sends money to the intermediary - the seller ships the goods - the buyer receives the confirmation of the goods - the intermediary gives the seller money. If there is a problem or transaction dispute, it is up to the intermediary to decide.

"But 'climbing the circle' has many unreliable agents, and everyone can be an agent, there is no threshold." Short said.

He has encountered such a situation, an agent has no supply, but uses a set of exquisite posing pictures to hype on social platforms, sitting on the ground to start. For example, the market price of albino red snake seedlings is 250 yuan to 350 yuan, and the price of this agent is 780 yuan.

Schott found that there are many agents in "climbing the circle" who do not even have the basic knowledge of raising snakes, relying on false and real news on the Internet to give lectures to buyers. After the buyer buys, the pet snake received is often not on the right board, "even if the agent who has passed the character pass, there is no complete guarantee that the pet is no problem, because the agent has no supply in his hand." Some are still 'generations within generations', where agents continue to recruit agents at their next level, and often the superior of an agent has many layers."

Why does the exotic market need an agent to exist? As a physical seller, Wu Dong gave the explanation that some merchants raised animals in large quantities, they can not afford to sell them all, so they need agents. But agents and merchants are prone to poor information, and both parties may sell the same snake at the same time. Therefore, it may be that the snake has been bought, but the agent will tell the buyer that the snake is still in his hands and continue to send the video of the snake to the buyer.

Because some exotic buyers often use videos to identify the quality of snakes, some agents often photograph sick snakes as healthy. "As long as the buyer watches the video and makes a decision, he needs to pay the deposit first, and when the animal is received, even if he finds that there is a problem, the deposit cannot be refunded." Short said.

In addition, the reporter learned that the price of the pet is unstable, and there may still be a price increase after the buyer pays the deposit transaction. In this case, sellers and agents will continue to drag on shipping, and after the tug-of-war, most buyers choose to return the goods, and the seller will sell to new buyers at a higher market price.

Schott told reporters that the pet transaction is not a pure seller's market, and buyers often cheat goods. After receiving the goods, the buyer does not confirm the receipt of the goods, and reports the seller to the platform to send live products, thus threatening the seller to return the money; After the platform intervenes, it will generally sentence the seller to return the money, and the buyer will achieve the purpose of "white prostitution".

In this trading model, pet disease has become another major hidden danger.

The reporter learned from a number of pet breeders that most of them buy pets through online trading platforms, or sell one-on-one through the introduction of acquaintances, and the "quarantine" is very far away from them. In this regard, pet disease prevention and control professionals are quite worried: "There is no fixed market and clear supply channels for the purchase of exotic pets, and it is not clear where the animals come from, whether they have been quarantined, and whether they carry viruses." ”

A heterogeneous pet doctor who did not want to be named proposed that there is still a big gap in the domestic research on zoonotic diseases of heteropods, and whether the virus carried by it is infectious and pathogenic, how to prevent and treat it, etc., all belong to the field of knowledge gap.

transport

Express mail is uncertain

There are also many problems in the transportation of exotic pets after the sale.

Liu Jiaqi, who has been a special animal veterinarian in Beijing for 5 years, told reporters that all couriers can not mail live goods, common pet consignment includes air and land transport, land transport has high-speed rail, train, special car and car, air transport is the cargo hold of the plane. However, no matter what the method, it is necessary to apply for a quarantine certificate in advance and be undertaken by a professional shipper.

"Because the attention of special animals is not as good as that of dogs and cats, even if someone secretly transports them through express delivery, it is difficult to attract attention in the process." Liu Jiaqi said.

It is true that there are merchants smuggling through couriers. The reporter's investigation found that some merchants tip the express delivery site in the jurisdiction, ask the courier not to pass the security check of this single, and said that the risk of death and injury of the mailed live animal is borne by the sender, and the courier point only needs to be responsible for sending it.

In this case, some merchants only pay attention to whether they can sell animals, do not pay attention to the scientific nature of mailing, and uniformly ship, resulting in attacks and fights and even predators of foreign pets.

Zhang Xian had encountered this situation. Once, she bought two foxes of the same size and age, a red fox and a snow fox, but eventually received a red fox and half a snow fox, "most of the pets have a sense of hunting carved in the bones, animals of different sizes and breeds are not suitable for putting together, and the snow fox is eaten by the red fox."

There are also some merchants that sell foxes in the form of blind boxes, randomly sent, and pets are bumped during transportation, some are tortured to death, and some are injured to varying degrees. Zhang Xian once bought 3 foxes at a time, and the seller told her to send pet consignments, but when she went to pick up, she saw a coal truck responsible for transportation, the fox was placed under the carriage, and the transport did not eat or drink for nearly a week, and two of them were already dying.

For this kind of phenomenon, Liu Jiaqi analyzed that some sellers choose the way of random issuance, saving manpower and material resources, eliminating the elimination of screening, and greatly improving profits. Some farms only have breeding-related qualifications and procedures, insufficient understanding of the pet industry, and no relevant qualifications and certificates, shoddy phenomenon occurs from time to time.

medical

Veterinary scarcity autonomy prevails

A doctor surnamed Jiang from the Pet Center of Nanchang Denuo Animal Hospital, who has been practicing for 8 years, said that as long as the pet is transported, there will be a risk of illness, there will be stress reactions such as heat stroke, and the body cannot adapt to the sudden change of the external environment at the first time, which is prone to a series of metabolic disorders.

Pets are sick and can be cured, but at present, the coverage and professionalism of the pet hospital are still lacking.

According to the doctor, the threshold for a pet doctor is higher, first of all, he must be from a veterinary medicine-related profession, and then he can take the professional veterinarian certificate. At first, there was no professional training in foreign pet treatment in China, and some platforms invited foreign teachers to give lectures in China, and interpreted by translators while speaking. Every time a foreign pet is received, it takes a lot of learning to develop a suitable treatment plan.

According to its admission cases, the study of heterosis treatment is not as mature as that of dogs and cats, but the metabolism of heterophilia is very fast, four or five times that of humans, "so they cannot carry the disease, often the owner finds that the pet is sick in the morning, and is already critically ill in the afternoon."

"Most of the pets are originally wild animals, and they are good at protecting themselves through disguise. As pets, they will forcibly raise their spirits in front of their owners, pretend to eat normally, and immediately wither as soon as the owner leaves. Dr. Jiang said.

Some heterogeneous pet breeders also see these problems, so they generally grope for treatment based on experience. Wu Dong's experience is: small diseases are cured by themselves, and it is useless to cure major diseases.

How do you cure yourself? The reporter noted that many breeders will seek medical treatment on the Internet. According to the data of an online consultation platform, during the "Double 11" period last year, the number of online consultation orders for totoro cats, hedgehogs, turtles and other exotic pets increased by 23 times month-on-month. One of the problems brought about by the search for a doctor is that it has spawned a lot of random online "doctors".

Liu Jiaqi found that there are many so-called pet doctors on the Internet who do not have any qualifications, make diagnoses at will and use drugs at will. A regular special animal doctor, under normal circumstances, the average number of daily admissions is about 5 to 10 cases.

"Pet hospitals vary in size, there are differences in hardware facilities, and the number of doctors hired varies, so the pricing gap is large." Liu Jiaqi said that once the treatment fails, the pet owner will have an opinion; Even if the treatment is successful, there are people who think the price is too high and are dissatisfied. However, there is no relevant institution in China that can resolve such disputes, and reporting cases can only mediate disputes.

Abandoned

Difficult to tame with body odor abandoned

What if I can't cure it or can't afford it? Many pet breeders have chosen to abandon it. The reason behind this, in addition to the large cost of treatment, is also because some exotic pets are aggressive.

For example, the alligator turtle, which behaves like a crocodile, will actively attack as long as it sees something moving. According to the crocodile turtle keeper Wang Zhen, the alligator turtle belongs to the genus of long-necked turtles, a crocodile turtle with a back armor length of 40 cm, the neck can stretch up to 40 cm, so the attack radius is large, and the speed of the outstretched attack is very fast, and it is not easy to let go if it bites something.

The reporter noticed that in some online pet stores, there are many people who abandon foxes, and they play advertising words such as "the little guy is very active, not afraid of birth", "the snow fox is very smart and quiet", "chubby, comfortable to the hand", hoping that someone will receive their pet.

Zhang Xian told reporters that the cost of raising foxes in farms is very low, neither vaccination nor eating high-quality special grains, just feed some low-cost wheat bran, soybean meal and carrion, and fox growth cycle is fast, hormones can be bred in about seven or eight months, a nest of at least five or six, these reasons lead to foxes The price is very low, so there are more people to buy, and usually buy a few at a time. But the fox is difficult to domesticate, and if you put a leash on it, it will bite or try to break free.

"Foxes are the mammals with the highest rate of abandonment, their difficulty in domestication and their ability to taste." Zhang Xian said.

Not long ago, Zhang Xian saw someone on the social platform who said, "The fox I bought is not obedient, otherwise I will kill it, anyway, it is so cheap, I will buy another obedient one." Later, the man beat the fox to internal organs and did not feed it for a week, resulting in the fox's death.

In recent years, Zhang Xian has encountered a significant increase in the phenomenon of alien pet abandonment. For a time, she had to temporarily house more than 30 abandoned foxes in her own self-built house. These foxes have some problems, such as being aggressive and can bite people. In desperation, she donated some of the foxes to the zoo and the climbing pet viewing garden, and gave some foxes with better personalities and smaller months to experienced people to raise.

"If I can go back in time and choose again, I won't have a pet again." Zhang Xian told reporters.

In the view of industry insiders, in the process of human domestication of exotic pets, public acceptance, industrial chain, laws and regulations need to be built simultaneously, which must be a very long process. No matter what kind of pet you keep, you can't make a decision on impulse. Exotic pets are attractive because of their uniqueness, but they may not be suitable for pet breeding in terms of habits, and there are also parts in the "gray area" in terms of trading, so they need to be carefully considered by lovers, and this market also needs more regulations. As far as the functional departments of the government are concerned, it is necessary to strengthen source management, strengthen the port quarantine supervision and law enforcement of inbound goods, means of transport, delivery, passenger baggage, cross-border e-commerce and other channels for the invasion of alien species, and establish and improve an all-round defense system against invasive species. At the same time, the list of invasive alien species is updated in a timely manner, and the public is clearly informed of which exotic pets can be raised and which cannot be raised.

"Only by bringing together multiple parties can we effectively respond to the new challenges of biosecurity." The above-mentioned industry insiders said.

(The pet breeders in the text are pseudonyms) (reporter Zhao Li intern Jia Jingxiao)

Source: Rule of Law Daily