“Unbelievable ! Pythons and tarantulas are sold on the 2ememain site! That’s not normal at all!“, protests Sylvie (assumed name), who pressed the orange Alert us button, attaching a screenshot of the ad:
The image has something to challenge, but it is not that rare. On resale sites or even on social networks like Facebook, publications of this type still flow regularly. Problem: the sale of animals online has been banned since 2017 in Wallonia and 2018 in Brussels.
To buy or sell them, you must have authorizations. In the Walloon Region, keeping exotic animals is subject to holding a class 2 environmental permit.
Questions then arise: can this traffic be dangerous? Is it controlled? Who are these people who post these kinds of ads and why?
Compulsive shopping
“Repti-shop” has been an approved retailer of exotic animals for 5 years. Its owner, Arnaud, sheds light on the reasons for these online ads. “Most of the time, it comes from people who bought an animal on a whim and only realize afterwards that it is a heavy task to take care of it.“, he explains.
Social networks have accentuated the situation
Because even if an animal like a snake or a tarantula seems more “static” than a dog or a cat, maintenance and equipment are still necessary. “A snake grows, so it will be necessary to renew its terrarium, food, provide it with an ideal temperature. Not to mention the money that will have to be spent to obtain the animal, so additional costs will have to be added“.
Would social networks have accentuated the problem? On the side of the Wildlife Care Center, we are in the affirmative. “Let’s say that with the networks, it increases the number of shares and misinformation. So yes, we can say that it helps sellers to show themselves and buyers to find an animal more easily.“, says Audrey Bosq, a trainer in the center.
What profile do these sellers have?
“People are not necessarily aware of the concepts of well-being, temperature level, etc. These are compulsive purchases, without real information about the species in question.“, explains Audrey Bosq.
For Arnaud, from the Repti-shop store, there are two types of sellers on the Internet. “There are those, as I said, who bought a little too quickly and want to get rid of the animal. If they bought it in an approved trade, the animal can no longer return to a classic sales circuit, so they use the Internet to try to sell and possibly make a small capital gain.“.
The second category pointed out by Arnaud is perhaps even more problematic. “Then there are those who do real traffic, who have no authorization to sell and unfortunately this happens more and more“.
Traffic difficult to control
If some sellers are in good faith and simply ignore that the sale of animals online is prohibited, others know it very well and try to circumvent the rules.
It can be dangerous for humans
“Facebook and eBay, for example, have joined the coalition to fight online wildlife trafficking“, explains Déborah Van Thournout, spokesperson for WWF. “But the controls remain difficult, because these traffickers use coded language not to be detected and then speak of “exchanges” or “d’adoptions”.
While this traffic is illegal, it can also be dangerous. “In addition to the global threat that this traffic causes on biodiversity, it can quite simply be dangerous for humans who can find themselves confronted with exotic diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans.“.
“A snake is not a dog”
To avoid compulsive purchases and resales that can happen behind, Arnaud has some simple advice to give. “First of all, you have to understand that a reptile is not a dog. It’s not a toy. You don’t take a snake out to hug it. It’s a bit like fish, but without water: we don’t hug them either“.
On the Repti-shop side, we are also working on prevention to avoid seeing an animal sold again on an internet ad a few months later. “As soon as a customer walks through the door, they are asked what their expectations and desires are. We warn of the costs, the responsibilities that this implies. Then, we ask a lot of questions about the reception that will be reserved for the animal and from there, we see if the customer is conducive to acquiring one.“.
