List of permitted pets is “absurd,”say animal lovers
A list of permitted pets is “fundamentally unfair”, the National Council for Animal Lovers (NRD) said last week. “In the Netherlands, Germany and France you’re allowed to keep a muntjac but not in Belgium,” a spokesman lamented.
Last week the government’s official journal published a list of species which may be kept by Homo sapiens belgicus. It includes Bennett’s wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus), Campbell’s dwarf hamster (Phodopus campbelli), the Roborovski dwarf hamster (Phodopus roborovskii), the African pygmy mouse (Mus minutoides) and the Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus). But no muntjac, which is a type of deer.
Cervophiles, however, can content themselves with the red deer (Cervus elaphus), the Sika deer (Cervus nippon), the chital (Axis axis or Cervus axis) or the fallow deer (Dama dama). Animals on the list of 42 permitted species may be kept as companion animals, as well as bred and traded. In addition to the exotic species above, the list also includes the cat, dog, rabbit and horse, pig, hamster and guinea-pig. For all others, a permit is required.
The last list produced by the public health ministry was struck down by the Council of State on an application by the NRD, and the latest list is a replacement. Unusually, it consists of precisely the same 44 species. The difference, according to the ministry, is that members of the public may now petition to have their favourite species added to the white list.
“The list was and is drawn up arbitrarily,” said Roger Van Look of the NRD, which has been battling the white list since it was introduced in 2001. “Someone with no experience can keep an Asian buffalo [Bubalus bubalis] on his balcony, but breeding Sugar gliders [Petaurus breviceps] is forbidden. The whole situation is absurd.”
