News & blogs

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...

Last Friday, we finally got the chance to take action for tigress Luli. After being rented out for circus shows and other cruel entertainment for years, her owner loaned the animal to Spain's Parque de Peña Escrita almost ten years ago. However, due to lack of funding, the park had to close down in 2015, after which most of the animals were outplaced to rescue centers and zoos. Luli was unlucky: her owner refused to give her up. In February this year, the park finally arranged ownership of the 15-year-old tiger to make her rescue possible. Then, due to the Covid-19 limitations, we...

The European Union is feeling green this week! Virtual events are being held all across the EU and in the European capital Brussels this week to talk about one thing: How the EU can better protect and restore nature and biodiversity.

We’re so happy to see that the EU recognizes that we can’t discus biodiversity protection without also looking at the millions of exotic animals that belong in the wild, but still end up in European homes as pets.

Today, EU officials and experts met online to discuss whether the EU is doing enough when it comes to regulating...