News & blogs

Under pressure from the French authorities, three circus chimpanzees were handed over to AAP yesterday. The youngest one was kept as a pet his whole life, both others retired in 2006 after years of doing circus shows and film performances. The circus family still kept them in the circus, often separated from each other in a circus wagon. For fear of criticism from the circus world, the transfer had to take place anonymously and at a secret location in northeastern France.

Due to corona related travel restrictions and attempts by the circus to solve this in a...

A study we published today reveals that exotic pets frequently carry zoonotic viruses, bacteria or parasites - diseases that animals can transmit to humans. Of the exotic pets rescued by AAP in the last five years from ten EU Member States, 13.7% carried one or more potentially dangerous zoonoses. Among the rescued exotic stray animals – which are believed to be escaped or released pets – the prevalence of zoonoses was a staggering 50%.

As scientists have been warning for years, wild animals are a source for both known and unknown pathogens that can be...

Saturday April 24th 2021 it's World Veterinary Day; a moment to celebrate the important work that AAP’s veterinarians and animal caretakers perform every single day to improve and sustain the health of our animals. On this international day, we also want to thank the veterinarians of the Royal Dutch Veterinary Association (KNMvD) for their support for the Positive List for pets.

Deformed servals and lions without teet

Every single day, AAP’s veterinarians and caretakers tend to the animals in our rescue center with the utmost love and care. They work...

Exciting news from the Mediterranean! Cyprus has just enacted a regulation that, for the very first time in Cypriot history, defines which animal species are allowed to be kept or sold as pets on the island. Their chosen regulatory instrument? A Positive List.

Prior to entry into force of the Positive List, the Cypriot laws allowed for uncontrolled imports of exotic animal species as pets. Now, with the Positive List in place, only the possession and sale of a limited number of mammal species - namely dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits and rodents - is allowed. Pigs,...

Our call to the European Union: develop an EU positive list and prevent unsuitable pets from entering European households!

In many European countries, it is completely legal to have a spider monkey, serval, baboon or cougar as a pet. The European Union is one of the largest markets for exotic pets in the world; there are millions of exotic animals in European households.

The exotic pet trade is a booming business, but it involves animal suffering and risks for humans (disease transmission or injury) and the environment (decreased biodiversity...