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ASAHI SHIMBUN (Tokyo, Japan) 29 September 05 Laws can't keep up with surge in exotic pets--or irresponsible owners
A 4-meter-long Burmese python drew gasps. Further south, a ball python was shying away from equally startled onlookers. An emperor scorpion scuttled in the west, while a crocodile swimming upstream drew curious looks.
These exotic creatures were not found in rain forests, deserts or swamps. They were captured near the concrete jungles of Japanese urban centers.
Government officials suspect these animals were once kept as pets, but they had either escaped from their owners or were abandoned as they grew too large to handle.
Officials fear the growing popularity of "alien" pets will lead to more foreign creatures proliferating in the Japanese wilderness, wreaking havoc on ecosystems.
And laws cannot keep pace with the recent trend, officials say.
One estimate is that about 700 alien species live in the Japanese outdoors-and there is no way of knowing the exact number of species being kept inside.
Although some laws have been strengthened to keep out foreign animals, Environment Ministry officials say legal measures are not necessarily the answer.
"This is an issue that involves the morality of pet keepers," said Katsuhiko Shoji, who heads the ministry's animal protection office. "That needs to be addressed even before we discuss legal issues."
However, pet shops dealing in exotic creatures are mushrooming across the country. Some officials note it is easy for people to obtain rare species through the Internet.
"We can even get you a pink snake," Takayuki Nikaido, 29, president of reptile shop Burden, said.
The shop in Tokyo's Katsushika Ward displays about 600 species in a 70-square-meter floor space. It places orders to breeders overseas and imports alien animals, most of them indigenous to Southeast Asia, Africa or South America.
A 50-centimeter-long white tortoise in the shop carried a price tag of 3 million yen.
Nikaido said an American dealer keeps reptiles in Indonesia in a jungle-like enclosure that is a big as four Tokyo Domes.
A government survey in fiscal 2003 showed that 2.4 percent of pet owners had reptiles, around the same percentage as those keeping rabbits. The ratio of reptile owners was 0.4 percent in fiscal 1979.
According to Yaseisha Corp., publisher of pet business publications, 794 pet shops dealt with reptiles in 2004, more than twice the number a decade ago.
The problem occurs when the pets are abandoned, officials said.
The crocodile, likely cute as a pet, had grown to 1.1 meters in length when it was captured Sept. 21 by a policeman who had to wade in the Sagamigawa river in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture.
It took five police officers about two hours to catch the Burmese python, which was spotted by a man in suburban Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, on Sept. 9.
The ball python was captured this month at East Japan Railway Co.'s Urawa Station in Saitama, while a green iguana was found in another part of the prefecture.
The emperor scorpion, a large but not-so poisonous species, was collected at the home of a business operator in Osaka Prefecture.
Officials say if these creatures are not caught in time, they could cause irreparable damage.
Imported beetles are a current craze among children and can be bought at shopping centers. But if these beetles are released, they could start breeding with indigenous beetles. Red-eared slider turtles, common in North America, have been found in various parts of Japan eating the eggs of indigenous turtles.
The Invasive Alien Species Law, which took effect in June, targets 37 creatures that could endanger people's lives, the agricultural or fisheries industries, or the ecosystem. The law prohibits, in principle, importing, keeping and trading in these animals, including Rhesus monkeys and Taiwan habu snakes.
The Environment Ministry plans to add 42 species to the list. But pythons and emperor scorpions are not likely to be included.
The law banning cruelty to animals was revised in June to impose higher fines against those who abandon animals-from the maximum 300,000 yen to 500,000 yen. The revised law also requires dangerous creatures to have ID chips inserted in their bodies.
"Today's owners want exciting creatures, but tire of them too easily," said Eiichi Takada, an expert on reptiles. "They seem to be losing respect for the mysteries of the living creatures."
Laws can't keep up with surge in exotic pets

YOMIURI SHIMBUN (Tokyo, Japan) 05 October 05 Pet snake boom sparks worry over safety issues
In the Tokyo metropolitan area in September there were numerous accounts of encounters with reptiles not native to Japan, such as pythons, apparently abandoned by their owners.
The spate of reptilian discoveries surprised police who captured them and left reptile experts worried about people's behavior in keeping these rare pets.
Five police officers from Saitama Prefecture's Ageo Police Station were surprised when they arrived at the bank of a river separating Ageo, Saitama Prefecture, and Saitama city a few minutes past 7 a.m. on Sept. 9. They found a four-meter-long albino python with a body as thick as a man's thigh lying in the grass.
When the officers tried to capture the snake, it put up a fierce battle, hissing and entwining itself around the officers' bodies.
After more than 30 minutes of struggle, the officers finally forced the Burmese python into a large garbage bin.
"The snake must have been as desperate as we were," said a 44-year-old officer regarding his first "arrest" of a snake.
Two days later, a 50-centimeter-long ball python disappeared in a park in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The snake was reportedly "having a walk" with its 41-year-old owner and slipped away while the owner was asleep on a bench.
A few days after that, a ball python was found in a plastic container on a platform of JR Urawa Station in Saitama, but it turned out to be a different snake from the one that slipped away in the park.
The 50-centimeter snake was found Monday in a park in Shinjuku Ward and returned to its owner Tuesday.
"Snakes are easy to keep in apartments because they're far quieter than cats or dogs," said Kenichi Yomogida, a 38-year-old company employee in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, who owns 15 reptiles.
He said his snakes are like family. They stay wound around his wrists for hours like bracelets and he feels strong affection toward them when they quietly coil up on his lap as he watches television, he said. He feeds them frozen mice. When they have a hard time shedding their old skins, he helps them by peeling the remaining skin off.
An increasing number of people have started to keep snakes as pets.
An employee of a pet shop in Tokyo said the shop sells six or seven snakes a month mainly to men in their late teens to 30s.
"It seems the owners enjoy keeping snakes in different ways," the employee said. "Some people allow bigger ones to roam free in their homes, while others keep several of different varieties together in terrariums."
"Ball pythons have become extremely popular in the United States over the last five years," said Akira Tomizu, writer of Vivarium Guide, a magazine about reptiles.
According to Tomizu, there are breeders in the United States who specialize in breeding snakes native to Africa, with those of rare colors or patterns fetching high prices, similar to the way colorful koi and goldfish are highly valued in Japan.
Recently, some snakes for sale in Japan have been priced at several million yen, apparently due to their popularity in the United States. There are also individuals in Japan who enjoy breeding snakes.
Many snakes also are sold through Internet auctions.
"I'm afraid that some people may be buying snakes through the Internet without enough knowledge of how to keep them," Tomizu said.
The Japan Snake Center in Gunma Prefecture accepted the Burmese python found in Ageo. A 60-year-old man claimed ownership of the huge snake on Sept. 20, saying an earthquake damaged its cage and the snake, which he had kept for 16 years, escaped through a crack.
The center also accepted the as yet unclaimed ball python found at JR Urawa Station.
Ueno Zoo unwillingly keeps various reptiles captured by the police, and its facilities are full of such animals. In September, it held a special exhibition of these reptiles.
A tragic fate awaits tropical snakes once they leave their owners or are abandoned--many of them end up being eaten by crows or starve to death. Some die from winter cold.
"I understand those people who want to have rare animals, but they should learn about the nature of these animals and be careful in keeping them," said Hideyuki Takahashi, who is in charge of keeping reptiles at the zoo.
"As reptiles generally have long lives, people should be prepared before buying them that they will likely have them for a few decades," he said.
Pet snake boom sparks worry over safety issues