Reptile keepers are under attack!

Animal rights campaigners traditionally attack reptile keeping in one of three ways.

But they have begun to use a new weapon that's even more dangerous and could ban the keeping of all but a few species of reptiles.

RRK's Tony Wigley talks about what's being done to protect reptile keepers from this worrying new threat.

It's time to wake up and take notice.

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SCRIPT

This is me in the late 1980s looking fabulous. The photograph was taken at the Serpentarium, which is probably the biggest reptile house in Europe at the time. And I was working with some amazing species and I got to know pretty much everybody who was anybody in reptile keeping back in those days. And at the time, I honestly thought that I knew everything that there was to know about reptile keeping, but clearly looking back, I was wrong.

Today, we know so much more about reptile welfare and husbandry than we did in the 80s. So it's not just my fashion sense that's improved in that time. So if that's true, then I've got a question to ask you. If we're better at husbandry and welfare than we were in the 80s and 90s, then why are we facing more hassle from animal welfare groups than ever before?

It's a bit of a trick question because really animal rights campaigners aren't interested in animal welfare. And while many people think that animal rights and animal welfare are the same thing, they're really not. In a nutshell, animal welfare is all about making sure our animals thrive in captivity. Whereas animal rights aims to stop humans from interacting with animals at all, whether that be guide dogs, pets, farming, any interaction at all. Animal rights people want to ban it all.

Animal rights campaigners generally attack us on three fronts, the first of which is welfare. Now we've already said that animal rights campaigners aren't interested in welfare really, but they use welfare as a way to attack us because it pulls on the heartstrings of politicians and legislators and journalists, and most importantly, the donating public.

According to animal rights campaigners, reptiles simply can't be kept well in captivity, and we all know that that's complete rubbish. We know that captive pet reptiles are routinely outliving their wild counterparts, and we know that by any measurable, quantifiable, credible statistic, that reptiles have better welfare than most other pet taxa.

According to the FBH, the Federation of British Herpetologists, they say that there's around 8.8 million reptiles kept as pets in the UK. At the same time, in 2022, the National Centre for Reptile Welfare, which is the biggest reptile re-homing charity in the world, they re-homed about 1,500 animals. That's just 0.02% of the UK's reptile population. That doesn't sound like a reptile welfare crisis to me.

Now, can we ever completely eradicate reptile welfare issues? Well, of course not. There'll always be people who don't care for or keep their animals as well as they could, but on the whole, reptile keepers do a pretty good job, and reptile welfare and husbandrytechniques are improving at an impressive rate.

Conservation is the second way that animal rights campaigners attack reptile keepers, and they go about it in a couple of different ways.

First, they claim that most of our pet reptiles are snatched from the wild, and this, of course, simply isn't true. More than 95% of the reptiles we keep in the UK are captive bred, and the numbers are pretty similar in Europe and the USA as well. And it's worth remembering that the reptiles that are wild caught for the pet trade are a tiny fraction of those that are wild caught for the skin trade.

The CITES trade database showed that in 2023, only 2,644 Asian water monitors were exported for live pets, whereas almost a million were exported for the skin trade, and they were most certainly dead. And it was a similar story for reticulated pythons. Only 793 were exported for pets, whereas 336,717 were exported for skins. So if animal rights campaigners are really interested in reptile welfare, then maybe they've got bigger fish to fry, so to speak. But remember, their aim isn't looking after animals and keeping them alive. Their aim is to stop us keeping them because they don't agree with it.

Another line of attack for conservation-focused campaigning is invasive species, and animal rights campaigners will routinely overemphasise the risk of reptiles becoming invasive. And they do this to scaremonger politicians and legislators into creating overreaching legislation.

A good example of this is the ban on Lampropeltis gechula. Lampropeltis gechula is a type of kingsnake, and they've become invasive in Gran Canaria, which is part of a group of islands that's actually closer to Africa than it is to Europe. However, animal rights campaigning has forced a ban on Lampropeltis gechula across the whole of Europe, when anybody who knows this animal knows that this species can't become invasive in places that are colder, such as the UK or Poland or other cold areas of Europe. And so by anybody's reckoning, a ban on Lampropeltis gechula across the whole of Europe is both unnecessary and unjust.

The third means of attack is public safety, and again, they go about this in a couple of different ways.

The first is to claim that reptiles are a danger to humans, both to keepers and to the general public. So let's have a look at the facts to see if that's true.

So every year, the NHS routinely runs a survey to find out why patients arrive at accident and emergency departments, and as part of that survey, they log if any patients arrive because they were attacked by animals. So can you guess which animal sends most people to the hospital? Of course, the main culprit is dogs. But can you guess which is the safest pet you can keep, the pet which sends the fewest number of people to hospital? Well, that's fish. So let's try to guess which animal is second least likely to send their owner to hospital. And of course, that's reptiles.

In years gone by, the NHS survey used to give us lots of information, and often we would know the stories behind the statistics which sent those people to hospital. But nowadays, we only have very bare statistics. But looking back, we can see some of the stories behind those statistics, and we know why those people ended up at hospital.

So one such story was a lady who'd been cutting grass to feed to a locust, and her locusts were to be fed to lizards.And because she clipped her finger with the scissors,and because that grass was supposed to be fed to locust and then to lizards,that was recorded as a reptile-related injury. And another story was a gentleman who thought he saw a snake, turned and ran away, stepped on a rake, which hit him in the face. And that was also recorded as a reptile attack.

So the stories behind the statistics are really important because that adds context and gives us the facts, and it helps us to understand exactly how rare true reptile-related injuries are.

The other common focus of a public safety campaign is zoonoses. These are diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. If you listen to the propaganda from animal rights campaigners, your crested gecko could be a vector for the next global pandemic. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the risks are predictably minimal.

Of course, you can catch salmonella from your reptiles and from the reptile food, but this risk can be easily negated with simple hygiene by just washing your hands and perhaps not slobbering your reptile with kisses.

In around 2006, an animal rights organisation launched a campaign to fund legal action for anybody who caught salmonella at a reptile show. And can you guess how many people took them up on the offer of legal help? Absolutely zero. Statistically, you're more likely to catch salmonella from the contents of your fridge. Of course, from contaminated chicken, but there's even a recent outbreak caused by contaminated lettuce, so even vegans aren't safe from salmonella poisoning.

So to recap, animal rights campaigners have an arsenal of weapons with which to attack us, but over the last 10 years or so, they've focused on one specific goal. And that goal is positive lists. It sounds like a good thing, right? A positive list. Well, trust me when I tell you, it's not.

So what is a positive list? Well, a positive list is essentially a list of animals that the government allows you to keep, and anything that's not on that list is banned. They're also sometimes known as white lists because a white list is the opposite of a blacklist. And so positive lists or white lists have essentially become the holy grail for animal rights campaigners because they look as if they would solve all of the problems that we've discussed before, which makes them pretty attractive to uninformed politicians.

However, in reality, positive lists are a very bad idea, and there's a list of unintended consequences. So let's have a look at the facts.

Positive lists are unnecessary because, as we've already discussed, reptile welfare issues are few, public health risks are minor, and the reptile pet trade is essentially benign in terms of conservation. So what is there to be achieved through a reptile keeping ban?

Well, very little, according to most experts, but there are plenty of unintended consequences should a positive list become law.

Positive lists are unenforceable and this is something that we've seen time and time again.

For example, reptiles were banned completely in Norway between 1977 and 2017, but in that time the Norwegian government estimated that there were at least 110,000 reptiles being kept by keepers who had chosen to ignore the ban. There was even a thriving commerce sector of stores and reptile equipment suppliers catering to these underground reptile keepers.

Other countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Croatia, Malta, Lithuania and Norway have had positive lists in place and they seem to be equally unenforceable. In fact, everywhere a positive list has been made law, it's been ineffective and that's because people simply ignore unfair laws.

Positive lists are bad for welfare. Far from fixing an imaginary welfare crisis, positive lists are known to cause animal welfare issues. We already know that people will ignore an unenforceable positive list and they'll continue to keep reptiles anyway. But those people who keep illegal species won't be able to go to breeders meetings, won't be able to confer with knowledgeable experts, and worst of all they won't be able to take their animal to a vet. So how is that going to be good for welfare?

Positive lists will stop us from learning about reptiles. It should be known that most of the advancements and most of the progression in reptile husbandry has come from private keepers. It's not from researchers or scientists or from zoos, it's private keepers who have made all the advancements in husbandry and breeding. So if we ban people from keeping reptiles, that rich vein of knowledge and science and learning will cease.

So what's the plan? How are we going to address the issues caused by animal rights campaigners?

Well in terms of positive lists, the next two years are going to be critical and that's because the EU has commissioned a study report into the viability of imposing a positive list across the whole of Europe. So now more than ever it's vital that we fight our corner. We must assist and inform policymakers and we must let people know what's at stake.

If a positive list is given a green light in Europe, that'll have a snowball effect across the rest of the reptile keeping world. So it's vitally important that we protect ourself against what could probably be the most significant threat we have ever known. So what is being done to protect responsible reptile keepers?

Well over the last 20 years or so there's been quite a lot happening behind the scenes.

We've got REPTA in the UK protecting reptile keepers there, USARC is active in America and DGHT and BNA are both doing good work in Germany. What they are is essentially firefighting units. Whenever there's problematic legislation being proposed these guys put their underwear on the outside and put a cape on and they fly to the rescue and work by lobbying politicians and legislators to create more suitable legislation. And for the last 20 years they've done a great job and we'd be in a lot of trouble without them and considering the meagre budgets that they work with and when we compare those budgets with the massive budgets that the animal rights organisations have they've certainly been punching above their weight and it's vitally important that these organisations continue to be funded.

But it's becoming increasingly evident that simply lobbying governments and relying on facts and science and common sense isn't always enough.

Let me give you an example. In 2016 a risk assessment was submitted to the Spanish government saying that ball pythons could become invasive in Spain. Now of course to all of us who know anything about reptiles at all know that this is a ridiculous notion and that the West African habitat of the ball python is nothing like the Mediterranean regions of Spain and it's obviously laughable to think that ball pythons could become invasive there.

Now thankfully that dubious report was ridiculed and then put in a drawer and forgotten about but in 2019 an eco-activist rose to a position of authority in the Spanish government and when they found that dubious report they decided that it would be a good way to ban ball pythons and so overnight ball pythons were banned and the ban was imposed across the whole of Spain.

Obviously the reptile keeping community in Spain was outraged and the Valencian Herpetological Society decided to take the new law to court. During the case the Herpetological Society presented such robust evidence and science and facts and information to the court that everybody thought that the ban would be overturned but at the end of the case the judge decided to keep the ban anyway and this was largely because of the pressure imposed by animal rights organisations. And this is just one example of how pressure from animal rights organisations and ideologies against reptile keeping can win over against facts and science and data.

So let's come back to that question I asked at the beginning of this presentation. If we're so much better at animal welfare and reptile husbandry today then why are we getting more pressure from animal rights campaigners today than ever before?

Well we believe the answer to that question is because our opponents have control of the narrative. So why is that?

We all know that today most people get their opinions and their politics and their ideologies online and mostly via social media. And I think we can agree that animal rights campaigners have become very good at exploiting social media to harvest support and harvest donations and create more power for themselves and I think we all know that as a reptile community we haven't done such a good job as they have.

Animal rights campaigners can essentially say what they like about us and their misinformation goes largely unchallenged and when we look at the problem this way we can see why animal rights groups have generated so much support and so much power. They're winning their battles more often because they communicate so well and they're influencing a lot of people and every time this misinformation appears online people in the reptile community say that somebody should do something.

This is why we launched Responsible Reptile Keeping. As an organisation we create engaging content, informative and shareable media. We produce videos, podcasts, magazines, documentaries and a whole range of social media. We're essentially a dedicated media department for the international reptile community and our content is open source, shareable and internationally relevant. And we support the work of those advocacy organisations that are fighting on our behalf.

We launched Responsible Reptile Keeping because we need the reptile community to take control of the narrative. We need to counter the misinformation being peddled by animal rights organisations and we're doing this by creating content that millions and millions of reptile keepers all over the world are sharing to defend their hobby.

We're literally recruiting an army of supporters who are fighting back and sharing our content when they see misinformation online. It means our voice can be heard wherever the conversation about reptiles is happening. It means our supporters can be there to respond every time the animal rights campaigners are broadcasting propaganda online. And we know that our content is being viewed by legislators, politicians and civil servants across the world. We know that it's reaching the people who need to be influenced. Our job is to show people the truth about responsible reptile keeping and slowly but surely we're taking control of the narrative.

The RRK project has the power to expose the animal rights misinformation and we're exposing their radical campaigners for what they are. We're turning the tide so that responsible keepers and businesses get the support that they deserve.

So what can you do to help?

Well, there are three things you can do.

Firstly you can join Responsible Reptile Keeping as a member, the more people we have as members obviously the more funding we have but more importantly the more members we have the more of a voice we have around the table where these debates are occurring.

The second thing you can do is support the brands that support us with funding. You'll see a list of these brands on our website. These businesses see the value in what we're doing and we think they deserve your support and business.

And finally it's enormously helpful if you can like, share and comment on the content that we produce online. Not only does this help the social media algorithms but it also helps to spread the RRK message far and wide.

So now you know the issues that the reptile community is facing and it's up to you to decide whether you want to be part of the solution.

Responsible Reptile Keeping is here to fight alongside the other lobbying groups and to protect responsible keepers and businesses and together we'll make sure that our voice is heard loud and clear.

We're making sure stakeholders and legislators know the facts and we're pushing back against the propaganda and the lies being peddled by animal rights campaigners.

If you're a responsible reptile keeper we ask that you join us in this fight because it's more important now than ever before.