The Welsh Assembly’s Petitions Committee is currently looking at a petition submitted in March calling for an end to the exotic pet trade in Wales. You can see the full wording of the petition here where you will also see the correspondence between the committee and Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths.
We were alerted to the petition so put together our own response to ensure that the other side of the argument is also heard.
You can read the letter we sent to committee members here.
You can read our information paper here.
This is the letter we sent to the Cabinet Secretary.
It’s important to respond to these campaigns to show there is another side to the debate about exotic pets. We need politicians to see that exotic pets are everyday pets like goldfish, gerbils and geckos. The call for positive lists is heard frequently from animal campaign groups as a way to limit access to ‘difficult’ pets. But as we pointed out in our information to the committee, when Belguim considered a positive list for mammals dogs and rabbits did not make it onto the first list.
The Welsh Assembly’s petitions process enables members of the public who feel strongly about an issue to gather support and submit a petition, asking the National Assembly to consider an issue, problem or proposal that the Assembly or the Welsh Government have the power to do something about. Petitions can change or influence Government policy.
