PEOPLE who keep exotic household pets in their homes and their importers are facing a clampdown.

Holyrood ministers have announced that a major review of the international pet trade regulations is to take place, which takes in snakes, lizards, crocodiles, monkeys and meerkats.

The news has been welcomed by animal welfare campaigners following a surge in the number of unregulated internet sales of various species.

Many of them are being abandoned because their owners cannot cope with the demands of owner such creatures.

Libby Anderson, Policy Director of the Edinburgh-based charity OneKind said they were delighted by the announcement

She said: "We're urging all parties to give this their full backing so that Scotland can take a lead in reforming the pet trade.

"This is an area of huge concern due to the animal welfare and conservation issues surrounding exotic, non-domesticated pets, which are exacerbated by the massive increase in online and internet sales."

The pet trade involves more than 1,000 species of mammals, birds, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, and hundreds of fish species.

The legislation which covers pet trading pre-dates the internet which is where the vast majority of these sales take place. Internet sales of exotic, non-domesticated animals include a wide range of species which are wholly unsuitable to being kept as pets including monkeys, meerkats, raccoons and raccoon dogs, iguanas, chameleons, boas and pythons.

This has led to a number of cases of abandonment of exotic species recently in Scotland which are highlighted in a report by OneKind

Environment Minister, Richard Lochhead MSP said: "There is an increasing desire across Europe, including in Scotland, to keep exotic pets," he said.

"There are potential threats to animal health and welfare, human health and our native species that accompany this trend and merit serious investigation," he added. "I feel that perhaps more can be done to protect not only the exotic animals that are being brought into the country, but our own native animals and environment."

Raccoons, possums, iguanas, chameleons, pythons, boas, pygmy hedgehogs, turtles and many others are on sale on the internet. In Scotland, a series of unusual animals have recently been found abandoned by their owners, including bearded dragons, a Chinese water dragon, corn snakes, terrapins and a six-foot boa constrictor.

Campaigners want to limit the number of species that can be kept as pets by introducing a "positive list", as has been done in Belgium and the Netherlands. But this is fiercely opposed by exotic pet traders, who've launched a 'hands off my hobby' counter-campaign.

Chris Newman, chair of the Reptile and Exotic Pet Trade Association said: Reducing choice of pet will lead to more owners choosing a pet which is unsuited to their circumstances, with an inevitable increase in animals being abandoned or in need of rehoming."

The Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association estimated that pet fish were kept in quarter of a million homes in Scotland, keeping 1,000 people in jobs and putting £40 million a year into the economy.