Recently, a civil compensation case that caused death by raising a "different pet" has once again attracted public attention. The first-instance judgment was announced not long ago, and the six defendants were sentenced to a total of 336,900 yuan in compensation.

text | Zhou Wei

Recently, a civil compensation case that caused death due to raising " strange pet " has once again attracted public attention. In 2018, a Shaanxi woman named Yi Mou purchased a highly toxic national second-class protected animal silver ring snake on the online trading platform . She was bitten by a snake shortly afterwards and died after being sent to the hospital. Yi's parents filed a civil lawsuit against the seller and other relevant responsible parties. The first-instance judgment was announced not long ago, and the six defendants were sentenced to a total of 336,900 yuan in compensation.

Even if this amount increases ten times or twenty times, the lost life cannot be saved. In addition to regret, what we need to reflect on is the problems and crises behind the disorder of the "difficult pet" market, and face it and manage it.

pets have undoubtedly become important family members of the younger generation in China. In addition to the most common cats and dogs, strange pets and pets are also developing rapidly and vigorously under the driving force of the new consumption wave. According to internal data from the pet industry, the market size of non-cats and dogs "small pets" or "extraordinary pets" has reached nearly 100 billion yuan and is in rapid development. "Spread pets" mainly refer to various niche pets that are different from traditional cats and dogs. In a broad sense, the strange pets include various crawling pets, small pets, aquarium pets, etc.

Compared with cats and dogs, "extraordinary pets" generally have the characteristics of small living space, relatively independent, and low feeding costs. They can fully meet the psychology of young people pursuing new and different, pursuing trends, and needing emotional support. They also meet their living conditions and consumption levels. The promotion of online short video platforms has fueled the fire, and various offline merchants have also used exotic pets to create Internet celebrity stores, attracting the public's attention, etc., which all provide consumption basis and social psychological motivation for the breeding of extraordinary pets.

However, it is precisely because these so-called "extraordinary pets" are not traditional "domesticated animals" and are not suitable for survival in human living spaces. They also involve illegal hunting of wild animals and invasion of alien species.

First of all, the potential risks of wildness, aggressiveness, toxicity and even transmission of diseases retained by non-domesticated animals pose threats and hidden dangers to the physical health and life safety of the people. According to scientific research, since humans domesticated the original gray wolf into a domestic dog around 30,000 to 15,000 years ago, there have been dozens of animals completely domesticated by humans. The other animals cannot be completely domesticated by humans for various reasons.

One of the characteristics of non-domesticated animals is that they generally maintain a strong defense mechanism, are sensitive, and are prone to self-defense attacks on threats through poisonous body fluids, claws, teeth, etc. This is also the fundamental reason why breeding spiders, lizards, snakes and other peasants can easily cause injury accidents. The pathogenic microorganism carried by the peer also seriously threatens people's health. A study conducted in the UK found that 27% of hospitalized cases in children under 5 years of age were caused by Salmonella infection carried by reptile . Another study shows that of the 1,410 human diseases surveyed, about 61% are caused by animal pathogenic sources. Of the approximately 200 zoonotic diseases currently known, at least 70 are associated with heterosexual pets.

Secondly, it is precisely because of the nature of non-domesticated animals that cannot be reproduced effectively in artificial breeding environments. A large number of living animals of alien pets are obtained by poaching wild animals. Many of the popular exotic pets in the market are actually wild species at home and abroad, and even endangered species. Illegal poaching and smuggling in the country have seriously threatened the survival of wild animals and the continuation of species.

Hand again, the problem of invasion of foreign species brought about by transnational animal live transactions has also seriously threatened my country's ecological security. In 2010, the 10th Conference of the Parties to the UN "HTM5 Convention on Biological Diversity " set 20 goals for the protection of biodiversity , namely the "Aichi Goal". As one of the 198 Parties to the Convention, our country has performed well. 16 of the 20 goals are promoted normally and expected to be achieved, and 3 of them have been completed exceeding expectations.

However, according to the white paper " China's Biodiversity Conservation " published by the State Council Information Office, my country still has four goals and still has a big gap, including "prevention and control of invasive alien species." The communiqué issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment shows that more than 660 invasive alien species have been discovered in my country, posing a serious threat to agricultural and forestry production safety, food security, biosecurity and ecological security. The "extraordinary pet" market is a breeding ground for all kinds of invasive alien species.

Therefore, standardizing the "sexual pet" market has become an important issue related to my country's ecological security and people's life safety and health. Governance should be strengthened from the following aspects.

First, we must strengthen management rules and regulations from the source, and establish a "black and white list" system on the basis of acknowledging and protecting the objective needs of the "difficult pet" market. The list of animals and plants that can be traded and raised should be updated in a timely manner. Market supervision should be strengthened based on this to avoid the vicious circle of "one-management will die, and one-man release will be chaos", protect legal breeding transactions, and crack down on illegal poaching and smuggling.

Second, the review and supervision obligations and joint liability of various online and offline trading platforms and logistics channels should be clarified to avoid becoming a "safe haven" for criminals to conduct illegal transactions.

3, science popularization education for the public must be absent. Many breeders blindly pursue "extraordinary pets", which has a lot to do with their lack of common sense in wildlife and ecological protection. At a time when humans are facing major environmental challenges, the popular science of protecting wild animals and preventing invasion of alien species based on environmental education should be used to promote as many as possible to the general public, so that the concept of "life is innocent, don't let love become harm" is deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Editing｜ Shen Bin

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