Netherlands to ban dwarf hamsters from 2024

[RainbowBrite]

I just found out The Netherlands have banned any dwarf hamsters being sold or bred from 2024. From what I can gather, it seems they do not believe they are suitable as pets but they think the other species of hamsters are. Here is a link about it. I used google to translate it to English for myself.

Welke dieren mogen nog als huisdier? Dit is de nieuwe lijst van het kabinet

Het kabinet heeft een lijst met 30 zoogdieren samengesteld die je thuis mag houden. De servalkat, Russische dwerghamster en het stokstaartje mogen niet meer als huisdier worden gehouden per 1 januari 2024. "Onbegrijpelijk", vindt Betty Hagebeek die zes servalkatten heeft en ze ook fokt.

www.rtlnieuws.nl

 

[MacKyen]

That’s really odd!
I can understand wild cats and meerkats but don’t understand why dwarf hamsters are on the list!!!

 

[RainbowBrite]

I cannot understand it either. It does not make sense to me.

 

[MacKyen]

Especially as Syrians and Chinese are apparently considered ok as pets

Apparently they’ve decided dwarfs are aggressive and bite and breed too quickly. But surely that could be true of all rodents…

 

[Maz]

At least it will stop the breeding of hybrids, but a bit unfair on breeders of pedigrees.

 

[Maz]

Especially as Syrians and Chinese are apparently considered ok as pets

Apparently they’ve decided dwarfs are aggressive and bite and breed too quickly. But surely that could be true of all rodents…

I translated it as

"The Russian dwarf hamster will also be banned from 2024. According to the researchers, this animal bites, does not belong in a cage and reproduces very quickly." (From Rainbow's link above).

If they don't belong in a cage, what about Syrians?!! Goldhamsters are on the list of allowed pets (ie Syrians). I'm assuming Russian hamsters includes Roborovski hamsters as well (who do breed very quickly) as they don't appear on the safe list. And neither do Chinese (but they can't possibly be classed as Russian hamsters - so maybe the Dutch Gov isn't aware of Chinese hamsters!)

 

[elusive]

I couldn’t see Robo on the allowed or disallowed list, Chinese & Syrian are allowed so how their research showed Russian hamsters to be unsuitable when those are is a bit beyond me.
It’s a strange list as they do allow many other rodents but no longer Chinchilla’s or Degu’s either.

 

[RainbowBrite]

It does say Chinese hamsters are allowed.

It really is a strange new law and I cannot understand it. Perhaps it is due to the cages marketed towards dwarf hamsters. I imagine they are too small and the dwarf hamster may display signs of stress and they have said this means they are not suitable as pets.

 

[Member ID2]

They need to do some research before they come out with such rubbish!
Dwarf hamsters breed quickly. Don't they know that hamsters should not be housed in pairs? Or how to avoid breeding?
Sounds like a hoax to me.

 

[Member ID2]

And since when have wildcats and meerkats been classed as pets?

 

[Daisy]

That's really odd and I feel so sad for Dutch hamster owners. This honestly seems like a bad joke.

I don't get why dwarf hamsters would be unsuitable pets by any stretch of the imagination. The main argument seems to be that they're a danger to society because they're aggressive and breed quickly. A lot of people when you mention dwarf hamsters will tell you about that "really aggressive dwarf hamster they had as a child" and that's now the only image they have in their head of a dwarf hamster. Maybe whoever came up with this was one of those people. I don't see how you can argue that dwarf hamsters are dangerous to humans when you have horses, pigs and dogs on the allowed list (not saying they should be banned, but they do actually kill people).

It's also absurd to argue that dwarf hamsters breed too quickly when you have Syrian hamsters on the allowed list, which breed faster than dwarfs, plus rabbits, rats and house mice.

 

[elusive]

I did wonder if maybe Russian hamsters are considered social unlike Syrian & Chinese and are maybe tend to be kept in groups or pairs there which might explain why the research shows that they bite & reproduce quickly, can’t think of any other reason.

 

[RainbowBrite]

And since when have wildcats and meerkats been classed as pets?

Sadly lots of people keep serval cats as pets.

 

[Maz]

I did wonder if maybe Russian hamsters are considered social unlike Syrian & Chinese and are maybe tend to be kept in groups or pairs there which might explain why the research shows that they bite & reproduce quickly, can’t think of any other reason.

That might be it - they fight if kept in pairs and breed if kept in pairs. Sorry I missed Chinese were on the "ok" list. So basically it's all Russian Dwarfs including Roborovskis then. ie all hamsters that are sometimes kept in pairs or groups. Couldn't they just ban keeping them in pairs or groups?

Maybe there is a welfare reason behind it if they are wanting to prevent breeding of hybrids? But in that case, Robos should be on the ok list.

 

[Maz]

This article talks about it being to prevent spreading diseases and diseases jumping to different species (maybe they are thinking Covid).

Agriculture minister Henk Slaghouwer is to put dozens of exotic animals on the list of banned pets to promote animal welfare and minimise the chances of illnesses jumping between species.

Minister bans exotic pets but camel owners won't get the hump - DutchNews.nl

Agriculture minister Henk Slaghouwer is to put dozens of exotic animals on the list of banned pets to promote animal welfare and minimise the chances of illnesses jumping between species. From January 2024 people will no longer be allowed to keep animals such as serval cats, meerkats and sloths...

www.dutchnews.nl

 

[Daisy]

I don't think the ban includes Robos. It only says Russian dwarfs (Russische dwerghamster). They're not on the allowed list which is probably just an oversight.

I don't think it can be due to Covid because ferrets and polecats are on the allowed list and they definitely can get Covid.

 

[elusive]

Robo’s aren’t allowedd but they may have been disallowed on the original list which is why they’re not shown here, I don’t think they have been included as Russian.
From what I can gather this began back in 2015 as an attempt to stop people keeping exotic animals as pets which could have been a good thing but their idea of exotic has become a bit extreme.

Google just isn’t showing me pages from the Netherlands but I did find one site there that said robos are social & should be kept together so maybe they had the same issue as Russians.

 

[Maz]

I wonder if they drew their conclusion from this research article which says

Conclusion: Key welfare concerns regarding dwarf hamster care in captivity were identified as inadequate enclosure sizes, a high prevalence of co-housing failure arising from aggression, especially in hamsters more than 6 months old, and inadequate resource provision for many pair- or group-housed animals. Further investigation of the welfare impacts of resource provision deficits is required.

Preliminary investigation into the housing of dwarf hamsters - PubMed

Key welfare concerns regarding dwarf hamster care in captivity were identified as inadequate enclosure sizes, a high prevalence of co-housing failure arising from aggression, especially in hamsters more than 6 months old, and inadequate resource provision for many pair- or group-housed animals...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Maz]

I saw a post on another site that said it included Roborovski's but maybe that's just an assumption.

 

[elusive]

Could be but if that’s the case then they should be looking at their animal welfare regulations rather than banning them & it still doesn’t make sense that Syrians & Chinese are allowed.