Pets should not become peeves

The ease of shopping online has expanded the choice for pet seekers, which was once largely limited to cats and dogs. Today, one should not feel surprised should someone step out with a leash on a salamander, just as others walk their dogs.

However, while showing off their rare pets, their owners might be posing a challenge to the nation's biological security.

Many of these unique pets are often caught in the wild, requiring hunters to enter nature reserves illegally to capture these protected species.

So when some people pay money in advance to get these rare pets, their crime is no less than that of the hunters. Never thought one could spend a few years in jail for buying a pet, right?

The abandonment rate of these rare pets is often very high, as pet owners are likely to dump them at the slightest hint of bother. Some pet lovers raised crocodile turtles without realizing that when the animal grows its neck could stretch 40 centimeters long, posing greater challenges.

However, when pet owners give up these rare pets, they increase the risks for domestic species as many of these "pets" are exotic species that have almost no predator in China. As a result when they breed in the wild, they give an unfair competition to domestic species, thus ruining the domestic ecology.

Some of the abandoned "pets" might also be dangerous. In 2014, there were reports that someone had released poisonous snakes into the wild in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

One way of strengthening monitoring of these rare pets is by strengthening the regulation of e-commerce platforms. As most of these rare pets and their food are sold online, it is time the platform management companies honor their duties and strengthen monitoring, so that the new-style pets don't cause anyone any problem.

There is a reason why humans traditionally pick cats and/or dogs for pets. Maybe, one should just stick to that simple choice.