Pet lovers eagerly gathered around a container to snap photos of meerkats at a Beijing pet fair, each selling for $320, while nearby a raccoon paced nervously in a cage slightly larger than it.
Crowds of people from all over China flocked to the cavernous exhibition halls for the annual pet fair, where exotic animals are a more common sight than cats or dogs.
The exotic pet industry is experiencing rapid growth with a market close to 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion), Chinese state media have said.
An estimated 17.07 million people in China have exotic pets, Xinhua reported last year, and animal rights groups have raised concerns about welfare standards.
Unconventional pets are particularly popular among young people, with videos on how to raise them widely shared on social media platforms.
An 18-year-old man, putting down a deposit for a meerkat, told AFP he was convinced the animal would be easier to raise than his previous cats and dogs.
“I think raising exotic pets is really just child’s play in comparison,” said Xiong, who had traveled to Beijing from Jiangxi province.
He had previously bought a sugar plane – a palm-sized nocturnal possum sold in the same store – and said he found it easier to raise exotic pets as they did not experience separation anxiety like dogs.
It was a “pretty hassle-free” experience, Xiong said.
“When you want to interact, it’s happy to engage with you, but when you’re not in the mood, it’s perfectly content to play by itself,” he told AFP.
The reptilian report
In another part of the fair, rattlesnakes and spotted geckos squirmed in round plastic containers as people shopped for their latest reptile.
Yang Xurui brought his Argentine green snake to the fair, where he told AFP he was looking for new exotic pets.
“I consider it a friend of mine,” said Yang, 24, stroking the slithering creature hanging around his neck.
“Every day, the moment I walk through the door, she stands tall and straight like a giant green onion to welcome me home,” he added.
“She keeps me company while I watch TV, and then, in the evening, she goes to bed alone – marking the end of our day together.”
Yang said he feels a sense of responsibility to dispel the common fear of snakes as pets.
“I want to tell everyone that she is not terrible, that she is not something to be afraid of.”
China’s Ministry of State Security has warned against the exotic pet craze it says is fueled by trend-seekers.
“The trade, breeding, medical treatment and abandonment of these exotic animals carry hidden safety risks,” he said last year, adding that it required “serious attention”.
Animal welfare rules, however, remain lax in China, where pets such as fish, birds and pigs are also commonly sold in shopping malls.
The pandemic, meanwhile, raised fears that animals could be carriers of diseases, including Covid-19, which was widely believed to have originated in bats.
Lack of knowledge
Authorities in China should target traders, breeders and retailers who depend on the business — and its expansion — for profit, said Peter Li, a specialist in China’s animal protection policy at the University of Houston-Downtown.
Businesses engaged in the sale and transport of exotic animals are said to have used misleading labeling, withheld critical information and engaged in deliberate fraud to move these animals through supply chains, Li told AFP.
Abandoned exotic species can reproduce rapidly in the wild, creating significant ecological pressures on local environments, while the diseases they carry can pose public health risks, he said.
Public awareness in China about wildlife protection has improved significantly, but some consumers of exotic pets still lack sufficient knowledge before buying such animals, conservation charity WWF told AFP.
“Some consumers may not be fully aware of which species are legal to own, whether specific permits are required, the different levels of difficulty of caring for different species, the long-term financial costs,” he added.
At the fair, 26-year-old Zhang Yue agreed that bringing some animals “into human-inhabited environments can lead to various consequences.”
However, Zhang told AFP that he would still consider owning a sugar jet as they are “absolutely adorable”.
