Ball pythons banned – worse to come

Few people believed it could happen, but in 2019, ball pythons, bosc monitors and peninsula cooters were banned in Spain. Since then the Spanish authorities have raided many reptile keepers and confiscated countless animals in their pursuit to prevent people from keeping reptiles and other animals. In 2023 the authorities made new laws that create positive lists, banning almost all pet species including reptiles, mammals, fish, amphibians, invertebrates and birds. We explore the Spanish situation and discuss what can be done to prevent such arbitrary and unjustifiable bans from spreading to other countries.

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That's ridiculous just for one thing. Not only were ball pythons banned, bosc (savannah) monitors and peninsula cooters were banned as well.

Are ball pythons really banned in Spain?

Yes, they are banned and you cannot keep them any more. They performed a risk assessment and they 'realised' that they were an alien invasive species in Spain – which is totally ridiculous.

And they should have performed a risk assessment but the risk assessment was really poor and that was performed by a single person who didn't even sign their risk assessment, so we don't really know who it was.

In 2016 an anonymous report concluded that ball pythons could become an invasive species in Spain. The risk assessment was so poorly conducted that it was ignored.

In 2016 somebody performed that risk analysis and it stayed in a drawer for a long time. But it was at the beginning of 2019 that somebody realised the analysis was there and the committee thought this species should be banned. And the perfect cocktail appeared because there was somebody interested in banning this species, so he had the power to do it and he did it.

Back in 2018, somebody who was just a, let's say, a normal civil servant who was almost doing nothing in the ministry, became responsible for that. I don’t really know if he is an animal rights person but I am quite aware that he is an eco-activist. So this person is very positioned against reptile keeping or any other animal keeping because he thinks that we are dangerous for biodiversity. So that person thinks all kinds of animal keeping should be banned and there should be a very limited positive list of animals that should be kept in Spain.

A positive list is a list of animals the government permits you to keep. Any species not on the positive list is banned. Positive lists are also sometimes known as whitelists.

This person thought the best way to stop people from keeping animals was to include these species in the alien species list just because it's very difficult to remove a species from that list because it costs a lot of money. You can go to court and you can fight it – that's what we did – but we feel that the judge didn't understand a single word.

We brought a very good risk assessment. We had a very good text to present to the judge. But something strange happened, because it was the pandemic era, so everybody wanted to quickly finish things. They did not want that to be around for a long time, they wanted it to end quickly. I think the judge didn't pay attention to it. If you read the text our lawyer brought to the court and then you read the judgment, they have nothing to do... So we were astonished. We have the feeling that the judge didn't pay any attention. He said 'These people are crazy. If our civil servant says this is a invasive species, it must be true – it doesn't matter what these people say.' Because we couldn't convince the judge that their risk assessment was crap.

The Valencia Herpetological Society raised funds to challenge the ball python ban in court. Despite demonstrating that the invasive-species risk assessment was poorly constructed, the judge decided to uphold the ban. Ball pythons, bosc monitors and peninsula cooters are still banned in Spain today. So what did people in Spain do with their ball pythons?

Good question. In fact, I know Spain has plenty of ball pythons at this very moment. What happened? People should register their animals but the actual data says nobody did. So people in Spain are keeping ball pythons and I am pretty sure they are breeding them, they are selling them undercover.

Just imagine if somebody tells you you cannot have your animals because they are invasive, but you are totally sure those animals are not invasive. People don’t really agree with the law. So what's happening? The law means nothing to people and people still keep those ball pythons. Of course, you won't see ball pythons in stores and they won't be offered on the internet. But you can still buy those animals I'm pretty sure.

Do you think people are ignoring the ban because they feel it is unfair?

Yes and this is what is going to happen with positive lists. Bear in mind that if somebody tells you that you might not have the species you have been keeping for 20 or 30 years because they are dangerous or maybe a threat to biodiversity, you won't believe them. You will carry on. You will ignore them.I think that the law hasn't been enforced, I don't know anybody who has been fined for keeping those ball pythons.

As well as the ban on keeping ball pythons, Spanish authorities also raided people who keep other reptile species and seized their animals. These keepers have often owned their animals and been compliant with the laws for decades. So what’s changed?

Well, the law is exactly the same as it was two years ago. So why are people being harassed by the authorities? It's just because there is somebody who wants it to happen. CITES officers in Spain were working for the Ministry of Trade and Industry. But the responsibilities, the competencies, were transferred to another ministry. The ministry has a flamboyant name – The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. They decided the law should be interpreted in a different way. They misinterpreted the law, but in a very ‘ill’ way. And they decided that what was allowed the other day should be prohibited.

And more restrictive laws have just been passed. The laws include positive lists banning almost all pet animals.

There’s a new law that was passed at the end of March (2023) but it will come into force at the end of September (2023). A very different law and there will be positive lists for almost everything. There will be a positive list for fish, for invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, birds – almost everything. There will be a ban for reptiles weighing more than two kilograms. There's one exception – tortoises. But imagine you have a green iguana or a big tegu. It will be forbidden. We asked the government why? They answered they didn't know. So you have to be ready for that raid.

What can be done to change these unfair laws and stop the raids and seizures?

Well, I think that the only opportunity we have is to wait for a change. And the only change we can expect is next December because we have an election in Spain. We want a new government and we have had lots of conversations with the other parties - different from the Socialist party that rule in Spain right now. And they don't support the animal rights cult. Those laws are not aimed at animal welfare and they are very difficult to enforce. It's almost impossible as they need a lot of money to be enforced. They are unenforceable, they are unfair and people simply won't obey. So the best thing to do is simply take them away.

In Spain if you want to take a law away the only thing you can do is wait for another Parliament and for another law, and we have done a very hard job with politicians in Spain because we have had the opportunity to talk to many of them, to explain to them that animal welfare has nothing to do with animal rights. And I think they have understood that.

Five years ago, could you ever have imagined such laws being passed in Spain?

No, absolutely not. The problem is going to grow and grow and grow. But why? Because everything will be bureaucracy and that's what they are looking for – make it complex, discourage people, so if you want to keep animals you know you'll have to face a huge bureaucracy. You'll have to fight for your animals. And you have to tell the politicians that animal welfare is not the same thing as animal rights, it's very different. Animal rights means bureaucracy. Animal rights is not welfare.

What advice can you give to reptile keepers in other countries who want to prevent these issues happening to them?

Well, there are two or three things you may do – the first one is self-regulating, so first things first, you have to be very aware that animal rights groups will be behind you. So you must provide to your animals the highest welfare available.

Second thing – you have to join forces with other people. For example, bird people, fish people, you are their target as well. And I think the third thing you should do is support the organisations that are being the face of the fight.