Toland Elaine, Bando Monica, Hamers Michèle, Cadenas Vanessa, Laidlaw Rob, Martínez-Silvestre Albert, van der Wielen Paul
Animal Protection Agency Foundation, Werks Central, 15-17 Middle Street, Brighton BN1 1AL, UK.
PETA Foundation, 501 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Dec 10;10(12):2371. doi: 10.3390/ani10122371.
The trading and keeping of exotic pets are associated with animal welfare, conservation, environmental protection, agricultural animal health, and public health concerns and present serious regulatory challenges to legislators and enforcers. Most legislation concerning exotic pet trading and keeping involves restricting or banning problematic species, a practice known as "negative listing". However, an alternative approach adopted by some governments permits only the keeping of animals that meet certain scientifically proven criteria as suitable in respect of species, environmental, and public health and safety protections. We conducted an evaluation of positive lists for the regulation of pet trading and keeping within the context of the more prevalent system of restricting or prohibiting species via negative lists. Our examination of international, national, and regional regulations in Europe, the United States, and Canada found that criteria used for the development of both negative and positive lists were inconsistent or non-specific. Our online surveys of governments received limited responses, although telephone interviews with officials from governments either considering or developing positive lists provided useful insights into their attitudes and motivations towards adopting positive lists. We discuss key issues raised by civil servants including perceived advantages of positive lists and anticipated challenges when developing lists of suitable species. In addition, we compare functions of negative and positive lists, and recommend key principles that we hope will be helpful to governments concerning development and implementation of regulations based on positive lists.
外来宠物的交易和饲养涉及动物福利、保护、环境保护、农业动物健康以及公共卫生等问题，给立法者和执法者带来了严峻的监管挑战。大多数关于外来宠物交易和饲养的立法都涉及限制或禁止有问题的物种，这种做法被称为“负面清单”。然而，一些政府采用的另一种方法是，只允许饲养那些在物种、环境以及公共卫生和安全保护方面符合某些科学验证标准的动物。我们在通过负面清单限制或禁止物种这一更为普遍的体系背景下，对外来宠物交易和饲养监管的正面清单进行了评估。我们对欧洲、美国和加拿大的国际、国家和地区法规进行审查后发现，用于制定负面清单和正面清单的标准不一致或不具体。我们对政府进行的在线调查收到的回复有限，不过，与正在考虑或制定正面清单的政府官员进行的电话访谈，为了解他们采用正面清单的态度和动机提供了有益的见解。我们讨论了公务员提出的关键问题，包括正面清单的明显优势以及制定合适物种清单时预期会遇到的挑战。此外，我们比较了负面清单和正面清单的功能，并推荐了一些关键原则，希望能对政府制定和实施基于正面清单的法规有所帮助。
