What sort of animals are kept as exotic pets?
There are at least 13,000 species in the international pet trade, of which over 10,000 are vertebrates¹. In the UK there are very few restrictions on what animals can be legally kept as pets - including meerkats, macaws, snapping turtles and scorpions.
Pet dealers tend to trade species that are popular at a particular time, which may be influenced by media-driven fads²˒³. However, there is an enormous diversity of species available online. See our campaign calling for greater restrictions on what animals can be traded and kept as pets.
