The state animal protection association calls for stricter action in Brandenburg against the private keeping of exotic and dangerous animals. In other federal states there is a dangerous animal regulation, Brandenburg should follow suit here, said the association chairman Rico Lange of the dpa.
According to such ordinances, the keeping of certain dangerous animals for private purposes is not permitted, also to protect the population. According to the ordinance of the State of Berlin, this includes apes, large cats of prey, armored lizards, poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders and scorpions. There may be special permits for some animal species.
The debate about keeping dangerous predators and how to deal with them has flared up again in light of the search for an alleged lioness in Kleinmachnow, south of Berlin. The topic has arrived in politics, said animal rights activist Lange. “There’s movement in there.” In Lange’s opinion, private individuals keep exotic and dangerous animals primarily for “reasons of prestige”. A species-appropriate husbandry is often not possible.
After expert analyzes and laboratory tests, it turned out in Kleinmachnow that no lioness was walking around freely. The sighting was of a wild boar.
The State Animal Welfare Association, to which numerous animal welfare associations belong, is also in favor of introducing a positive list at federal level. Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir (Greens), for example, is pushing for this. From their point of view, any animal that is not on the positive list should no longer be kept privately in the EU. Countries like France, Belgium and the Netherlands already have such a regulation, other countries in the EU are working on it. “Some people get animals that, in my opinion, have no place in private households,” Özdemir said in January. Criticism of a positive list had come from zoos.
Notes on the Berlin regulation on the keeping of dangerous animals of wild species
