MORE than a hundred thousand wild animals including crocodiles, monkeys, sugar gliders, and Gila monsters are being legally sold in pet shops across the UK despite being unsuitable pets, according to a new report from global animal welfare charity, World Animal Protection. The study used data obtained via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to UK local authorities, on licences to sell animals as pets in the UK. It found nearly 2,000 pet traders licensed by 283 different councils had permission to sell shockingly high numbers of wild (non-domesticated) species, otherwise known as exotic pets . Licenses indicated that the maximum numbers of exotic pets permitted for sale in the UK at any one time included at least 64,810 reptiles, 54,634 amphibians, 23,507 birds and 6,479 mammals.
Venomous snakes, crocodiles and monkeys for sale in the UK last year, research into exotic pet sales finds
More than 200 chipmunks were licensed for sale by local councils in 2019
Crocodiles were for sale in the Forest of Dean and Stoke on Trent
More than 200 chipmunks and 118 venomous snakes were licensed for sale in the UK in 2019, an investigation into the exotic pet trade has found.
Despite a ban on the sale of monkeys as pets likely coming into force next year, 31 marmosets and other non human primates were put up for sale by traders, according to World Animal Protection.
A new study, published in the journal