US removes 1.5 billion animals from the wild for pets, 2000-2006

Poor regulation of the international wildlife trade has increased the vulnerability of the U.S. to outbreaks of disease and alien invasive species, report researchers writing in Science. Analyzing Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) data gathered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2000 through 2006, Katherine Smith of Brown University and colleagues found that of the more than 1.5 billion live wildlife animals legally imported to the United States during the period, only 14 percent were classified to the level of species despite federal mandates for such labeling. The lack of accurate reporting makes it impossible to “accurately assess the diversity of wildlife imported or the risk they pose as invasive species or hosts of harmful pathogens,” they write. …

U.S. imports 1 billion pet animals from the wild between 2000 and 2006