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Brexit Hampers Zoo Animal Transfers
13 Aug
Summary
- Brexit has significantly increased costs and complexity for zoo animal transfers.
- Animal imports and exports at Twycross Zoo declined sharply since 2020.
- New laws are urgently needed to ease global animal movement for conservation.
Conservationists are urging the government to enact new legislation to streamline international animal transfers, highlighting the impact of Brexit on zoos.
Twycross Zoo reports that leaving the European Union in 2020 has led to considerably higher costs and extensive paperwork for moving animals between the UK and Europe.
This has resulted in a substantial decrease in animal imports and exports, with Twycross Zoo seeing arrivals drop from 33 in 2019 to just nine in the past year. Zoos across the UK have experienced a similar trend, with transfers falling from approximately 1400 annually to around 390.
These challenges impede breeding programs for endangered species, such as the Sumatran tigers and Kordofan giraffes, by hindering the creation of healthy breeding pools and genetic diversity. The government is actively negotiating a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement with the EU to simplify trade and reduce red tape for zoos.
