BRIGHTON and Hove City Council has taken a national lead on responsible pet-selling. The Animal Protection Agency praised it for adopting measures to reduce ‘impulse’ pet purchasing and encourage ‘informed decision-making’ when our four-legged friends are bought from pet shops. BEN LEO reports how the city council is the first in Britain to take up the scheme.

PETS are for life – not just for Christmas. The memorable quote has started making its seasonal appearance as the country prepares for December 25.

But although the phrase is age-old, Brighton and Hove City Council is keen to ensure its message has not been lost.

The authority is the first in the country to adopt a scheme from the Brighton-based Animal Protection Agency that will help pet buyers understand the responsibility they are taking on when they swap cash for anything from dogs and cats to exotic spiders, snakes and lizards.

The APA is promoting a system of categorising pets as ‘easy’, ‘moderate’ ‘difficult’ or ‘extreme’ to keep – known as EMODE after the different categories.

From January 1, the council will ask pet shops to hand out leaflets to anyone thinking of buying a pet.

The scheme was voted in at a Licensing Committee meeting on November 20.

At the same meeting, councillors voted against insisting pet shops were licensed.

The scheme where traders would have to show a council-issued licence was criticised for being unscientific and too closely linked to vested pet trade organisations.

As a result, it has been taken up by only 28% of local authorities across Britain.

Speaking about Brighton and Hove’s decision to adopt the EMODE scheme, Elaine Toland, director of the Animal Protection Agency, said: “As a Brighton-based organisation that helped to develop EMODE, we are particularly proud that the initiative has been adopted on our doorstep and we are looking forward to pet shops taking this on.

“Pet shops that hand out the EMODE leaflet signal commitment to responsible pet-selling and should inspire greater confidence in prospective purchasers.

“We are delighted that EMODE is rapidly gaining support and has also received the ‘thumbs up’ from UK central government.”

Councillor Stephanie Powell, chairwoman of the licensing committee, pictured inset, said: “The buying of pets, especially exotic animals, is the root cause of a whole raft of animal welfare and environmental problems.

“It was therefore very important for the Greens to ensure Brighton and Hove City Council genuinely tackled this issue by adopting the EMODE initiative.

“This is the first council in Britain to do so and I hope many more follow our lead.”

It is hoped the new EMODE system will prevent situations where animals are dumped in streets and on doorsteps by owners who cannot look after them. They include an incident in Eastbourne last year, when a 5ft female boa snake was abandoned on the doorstep of another snake owner in a poor condition.

In June this year, another boa was found among food and bedding donations left outside the RSPCA centre in Patcham, Brighton.

A letter from the snake’s former owner said “unseen personal and financial issues” meant they could no longer look after it.

Most recently, on December 1, a heavily pregnant cat, which had gone into labour, was left in the pouring rain outside Lost Cats charity in Brighton.

Luckily a charity volunteer spotted the cat and managed to deliver her four kittens.

Lara Jay, 72, of Eastern Road, Brighton, has owned her pet kingsnake Cleo for the past ten years.

Although she admits snakes are “relatively easy” to look after, she said the new EMODE system sounded “positive” for people buying other animals.

She added: “Snakes can go quite a while without eating and you can go away for a few days on holiday and only have someone tend to them now and then.

“I bought Cleo from a pet shop and my previous one from a reptile garden centre so I was given all the information I needed before I took her home. I know there will be people who jump into it who won’t have all the information.

“The new system sounds like it will prevent any snakes or other pets being abandoned once the owner realises how much effort is needed to keep them.”

Ms Toland said pet shops could opt out of the EMODE scheme – but stressed it was in the interests of everone for traders to take part. She said: “It’s not enforceable, no. But pet shops have told us they support the scheme if owners are left satisfied and it prevents animals coming to harm.”

 

Animal Protection Agency: fighting the trade in wild animals as pets

THIS Brighton-based charity campaigns for improved legislation to protect animal welfare.
The group opposes the trade in wild animals as pets and works to expose the “wasteful practices and consequences” of the trade.
It works alongside government agencies and local authorities such as Brighton and Hove City Council to build public support and awareness.
The APA is not-for-profit organisation and is run on public donations and cash raised from fundraising events.
Its work includes carrying out undercover investigations and comprehensive data gathering on the UK trade in wild animals for pets.
One of the APA’s more recent campaigns, Hands Off Exotics, stated that keeping exotic animals as pets is a “hobby of ignorance”.
A statement on its website says: “Exotic pet keeping is a ‘hobby’ of ignorance, where animal keepers know little about the biological needs of their captives and where sellers rely on this uninformed market.
“APA’s educational campaign will provide insights into the misinformation that surrounds animal keeping and hopefully persuade people to steer clear of exotic pets.
“There may always be unscrupulous people willing to trade in wild animals for short-term profit. Without consumer demand the trade will collapse.”

 

The Animal Protection Agency said people buying pets needed to address the biological needs of any animal, public health and safety issues and the “general responsibilities” of keeping animals in the home.
The APA said some animals are clearly easier – or less demanding – to keep than others but many are “far more difficult to care for than people might believe”.
The EMODE system is a tool designed by scientists and vets. It is now available for people to use to determine whether certain animals may make suitable or unsuitable pets. EMODE classifies animals as ‘easy’, ‘moderate’, ‘difficult ’or ‘extreme’ in terms of how challenging they are to keep. 
When considering whether to buy an animal or not, people should consider:

  • The biology and behaviour of animal species and types
  • The welfare needs of the animals according to the ‘five freedoms’ principles
  • The degree to which impartial and qualified husbandry guidance is available
  • The potential public health and safety risks that animals may present to their keepers and others

Which category is your pet in?

Your pet will be placed into an EMODE category depending on how many points they score in the questionnaire, which is given to new pet owners.
Simply add the points together to see which category your pet is classed in

Foundation Question:
Which class or group of animal does the species or breed belong to?
Assign the animal the number of points indicated.
Invertebrate: 5 points
Fish: 5 points
Amphibian: 18 points
Reptile: 18 points
Bird: 18 points
Mammal (unusual): 18 points
Mammal-primate: 20 points
Domesticated animal: 10 points
Dog or cat: 5 points
Specific questions:
If answer is ‘yes’, assign five points. If answer is ‘no’, move to next question.
Is the animal an especially sensitive species (eg marine tropical fish, chameleon, human-imprinted bird, bat); or an especially small and/or delicate animal (eg stick insect, neon tetra fish, newt, baby crested gecko); or an especially sensitive breed (eg bulldog, great Dane, Bengal cat)?
Does the animal have a long potential lifespan (eg more than ten years)?
Does the animal have specialised feeding habits that can make its dietary requirements subject to restricted supply (eg unusual live food or unusual plants)?
Does the animal require a specialised habitat/microhabitat (eg is the animal dependent on sharing its life with a particular plant)?
Is the animal poisonous, venomous, capable of growing large or inflicting appreciable injury at any point in its life?
Is anyone in the household/extended circle immunocompromised (eg less than five years old, elderly, pregnant, diagnosed with HIV or another immune disease, drug user, receiving chemotherapy such as cancer and anti-rejection drugs)?

Check points to find score

Easy: One to 10 points
Moderate: 11 to 20 points
Difficult: 21 to 30 points
Extreme: 31 to 40 points