Exotic animal cafés in Japan: A new fashion with potential implications for biodiversity, global health, and animal welfare

Abstract

Wildlife trade is a multibillion-dollar industry and concerns not only the exploitation of animals for their body parts but is also largely fueled by the demand for exotic pets. We document, in Japan, a recent phenomenon closely related to the pet trade and rapidly spreading in Asia: the display of exotic animals in a café/bar context. We surveyed 142 exotic animal cafés (EACs) by visiting their website and/or social media accounts. We recorded every available exotic animal species, their status based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and Appendix according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We compared the CITES Appendix-listed species imported in Japan during 1975–2019 to the species present in EACs. Most EACs opened in major cities between 2015 and 2017 under the label “owl café.” We recorded 3793 individuals belonging to 419 different species in 137 EACs active in 2019. The most numerous exotic animals were birds (62% – owls 40%) but reptiles (21%), mammals (15%) and to a lesser extent, amphibians (2%) were also found. A total of 403 individuals belonged to 52 threatened species. The majority (60%) of the species identified were CITES-listed (Appendix I: 53 individuals, 9 species; Appendix II:2482 individuals, 235 species and Appendix III:16 individuals, 6 species). While most species present in EACs are mainly imported as “captive bred” in Japan, we found 30 species that were mainly imported as “wild-caught, ” “ranched” or “farmed.” The increase of importations of owl species is concomitant with the openings of EACs, reflecting the demand for owls in Japan. We argue that these EACs promoted through social media: (1) might have consequences for biodiversity as they encourage the purchase of exotic animals and represent a pool of potentially invasive species with their pathogens; (2) present a risk of pathogen transmission due to frequent close interactions with consumers; and (3) raise serious concerns about animal welfare.