It has taken a full 23 years for the Netherlands to come up with clarity on which animals may be kept as pets – and especially, which may not. The first 100 of the more than 400 exotic mammals being kept by private individuals in the Netherlands have now been assessed and put on one of three lists. Besides the positive list and the short list of forbidden pets – two species of deer – there is also a list of pets which may only be kept subject to regulations. On this list are a number of squirrels, hedgehogs and species of swine. Hopster coordinates the drawing up of the positive list.
Exotix Pets
‘A historic moment,’ says Wageningen animal researcher Hans Hopster of the publication of what has been dubbed a ‘positive list’ of permissible pets.
