Our Discussion Forums offer veterinary & animal welfare professionals a platform to engage with, discuss and reflect on some of the most pressing animal welfare issues. Over the years we have covered important exotics topics such as: Exotic animals in captivity: can we meet their welfare needs?, Non-traditional companion animals (exotics): legislation or self-regulation?, and Investigating parasite burdens of rhinoceros calves. We have highlighted a few of our exotics sessions below.
Don’t forget to download our reflective learning guide to help you get the most out of our sessions. For some of our videos we have put together a list of questions for you to consider whilst watching, so be sure to read the video descriptions for these.
In this debate session we focus on the exotic pet trade, the complexity of husbandry requirements of exotic animals and the suitability of current animal welfare assessment frameworks among other themes.
Luke O'Connor presents his AWF-funded research project 'Investigating parasite burdens of orphaned Rhinoceros unicornis calves, orphaned juveniles and wild rhinos in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India'.
It has been argued that poor welfare in the pet trade is harming “exotic pets”. In the context of government consultations on animal establishment licensing in 2016, this debate sought to discover what may be aspirational and practically achievable in legislation and owner education efforts to improve the welfare of exotic pets kept in the UK. This debate is particularly interesting in assessing where we are five years later - what we have actually achieved, and what aspirations for the welfare of exotic pets still need to be met.
