The Animal Protection Agency (APA) is calling attention to a new event in the UK that will include a reptile and amphibian market show at a racecourse in June 2021. APA campaigns against the trade in wild animals as pets.

APA is warning that a planned wildlife market at Doncaster Racecourse keeps animals in close quarters. Citing research and evidence that animals in these conditions could transmit disease. Even though trading pets at markets is illegal in the UK, it happens often at Doncaster Racecourse, the APA said.

According to World Animal Protection, Doncaster Racecourse is home to the four times annual reptile market, where ball pythons are sold. This is not ok! Snake breeders and traders breed these animals to excess and without care. They are usually sold after being kept in confined areas and owners are not checked for safety or given much information on handling.  Snakes often escape and turn into invasive species.

The author, Dr. Clifford Warwick, of the Emergent Disease Foundation of the report, “Wildlife-pet markets in a one-health context,” shared, “COVID-19 is but one of a myriad of global pandemics that have origins in or around wildlife markets. Yet this devastating disease might almost as easily have emerged from wildlife markets in the UK. In my view, it is a matter of time until a new pandemic arises, and places such as Doncaster cannot be ruled out as possible future ‘ground zeros’. Wherever many stressed wild animals are gathered and displayed or sold, the health and welfare of animals and people can become serious concerns. This is no time to get complacent about trading wildlife in the heart of the UK.”

Source: VICE TV/YouTube

Sign this petition demanding an end to live animal markets in the United States.

Read more about snakes and the exotic pet trade in One Green Planet, check out these articles:

• UK Government Sent Live Animals to Wet Markets in China for Years Before Coronavirus
• How Coronavirus Pandemic has Proved that Wet Markets and Factory Farms are a Threat to Public Health
• Coronavirus: The Animal Human Transmission Explained
• 10 Zoonotic Diseases that Emerged from Humans Consuming Animals
• The Myth of Domestication: Why Exotic Animals Can Never Really be Pets
• Why We NEED to Stop Buying These 5 Animals as Pets
• These Men Burned a Snake Alive For Fun – Help Get Them Charged With Animal Cruelty
• 5 Animals That are Victims of the Exotic Pet Trade

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