Expensive snake keeping
“Electricity guzzlers” among pets – Animal shelters fear a wave of exotic pets being sold
A ball python colored “Spider”. A few years ago, snakes like these were very popular and expensive. In the meantime, many such exotic animals end up in animal shelters.
© Imagebroker / Imago Images
Animal shelters in Germany expect that they will have to take in large numbers of reptiles because of the high electricity costs. A current case from Hamburg shows the problem.
In mid-September, something happened in Hamburg that animal rights activists have been warning about for months: in the parking lot of the animal shelter on Süderstraße there was a box with the inscription “Warning: Snake” with the note that the living content was “to be given away” or “to be given away”. . The Hamburger Tierschutzverein (HTV) reported on its website about the case under the headline “Electricity too expensive? Four royal pythons abandoned in the animal shelter parking lot” and suspected that the former owner or owners wanted to get rid of the reptiles because of high energy costs.
Animal shelters see black for keeping exotic animals
“And so four more snakes flooded the exotic station of the HTV,” the animal rights activists summed up. “The skyrocketing electricity prices paint a bleak picture for the future of keeping exotic animals.”
Reptiles are currently among the problem animals in German animal shelters. On the one hand, this is due to the price of electricity and, on the other hand, because the “snake hype” that existed a few years ago has now died down. A good ten years ago, snake lovers paid five-digit sums for some pythons with unusual coloring, many of these bred animals are now considered hard to sell.
The currently already high energy costs could rise further in the coming months – bad news for keepers of snakes and other exotic animals. The terrariums in which some of these animals are kept imitate a tropical climate of 30 degrees around the clock. That is why reptiles are considered “electricity guzzlers among pets”, as HTV vet Danilo Saß said in an interview with the HTV in April of this year star formulated.
Animal rights activists throughout Germany sounded the alarm around World Animal Day this Tuesday. Due to rising energy costs and generally high inflation, the German Animal Welfare Association fears a new wave of pet sales and even the demise of many animal shelters. Some people who got an animal during the corona crisis can no longer or do not want to keep it because they no longer have that much time – or can no longer afford to keep the animals. The problem affects animals of all kinds, including dogs, cats, small animals and even reptiles.
High electricity costs, vet fees are increasing
In an interview with the dpa news agency, Hester Pommerening, consultant for the Animal Welfare Association, listed the high cost of living and energy as well as the cost of animal feed and visits to the vet as reasons for the crisis in which the animal shelters see themselves. Since the beginning of the month, the new fee schedule for veterinarians has caused the costs of veterinary treatment to increase. Pommerening described the situation in the animal shelters as tense, and there were even admission stops for some animals.
In the current energy crisis, reptiles find it particularly difficult to be rehomed once they have ended up in an animal shelter. Because nobody knows how much electricity prices will rise in the coming months. The costs should therefore seem almost incalculable to many animal lovers – and discourage them from adopting snakes such as those recently released in Hamburg.
Sources: Hamburg Animal Welfare Association“Southwest Press“, with material from dpa