Donate
Donate
Donate

Illegal cockroach breeding operation highlights growing exotic pet trade threat

The Invasive Species Council has welcomed the seizure of more than 100,000 illegally kept exotic cockroaches in regional New South Wales, describing it as a major biosecurity win and a stark warning about Australia’s growing illegal wildlife trade.

The federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water this week seized more than 100,000 live exotic cockroaches from a commercial breeder near Bathurst, including dubia cockroaches and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The seizure is believed to be the largest of illegal exotic invertebrates ever recorded in Australia, worth up to $200,000.

Invasive Species Council Policy Director, Dr Carol Booth, said the discovery exposed a significant biosecurity risk and raised serious questions about the scale of Australia’s illegal exotic wildlife market.

‘This is a shocking discovery. We congratulate the federal environment department for shutting down this criminal enterprise.

‘It represents a massive biosecurity risk – not just because these foreign cockroaches could establish in the wild and threaten native cockroaches and other insects, but because they could introduce new diseases.

‘Australia has a rich native cockroach fauna with many beautiful and interesting species. More than 550 species have been described and more than 200 more are undescribed.

‘That there has been breeding on this scale raises great concerns about how widespread this illegal trade might be and the potential size of the black market in these and other illegal wildlife.

‘Unfortunately, there is a growing global trend in keeping exotic invertebrates as pets, including invasive ant species. Biosecurity authorities should pay close attention to this emerging new pathway. Australia does not permit the import of exotic invertebrates for pet-keeping. 

‘Given the risks to our native wildlife, these crimes deserve severe penalties. But most such crimes attract only low penalties.

‘These breeders may have taken a calculated risk that the low penalties typically handed out for wildlife crime in Australia make the risks worthwhile.

‘The Australian legal system needs to take these crimes much more seriously. Biosecurity agencies should dedicate much greater resources towards investigating the illegal exotic wildlife trade.

‘This is one example of a much bigger problem in Australia of illegal sale and keeping of exotic wildlife, including exotic snakes and other reptiles.

‘This discovery is also a reminder that everyday Australians have an important role to play in protecting our environment from invasive species.

‘Citizen science programs like the Invasive Species Council and Invertebrate Australia’s Bug Hunt can help feed important information to scientists simply by taking a photo of invertebrates and uploading them to iNaturalist. 

‘The more eyes we have on the ground, the better our chances of detecting unusual or potentially invasive species before they become a much bigger problem.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004.

Related Content

Averting extinctions: The case for strengthening Australia’s threat abatement system
Feral Cat
Strengthen Australia’s threat abatement system
Feral Cat
A strategy for dealing with invasive species in Australia

Media ContactS

  • Andrew Cox, CEO
  • James Trezise, Conservation Director
  • Andrew Cox, CEO
    ‬
Media enquiries

Media signup

Name(Required)
Sign up to receive our media releases in your inbox.
To receive / keep receiving occasional email updates such as Feral Herald, our online blog.
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Recent Media Releases

Your gift is a lifeline for nature.

Our protected areas are being trashed, trampled, choked and polluted by an onslaught of invaders. Invasive species are already the overwhelming driver of our animal extinction rate, and are expected to cause 75 of the next 100 extinctions.

But you can help to turn this around and create a wildlife revival in Australia. 

From numbats to night parrots, a tax-deductible donation today can help defend our wildlife against the threat of invasive weeds, predators, and diseases.

As the only national advocacy environment group dedicated to stopping this mega threat, your gift will make a big difference.

Donate Today

Do you need help?

Accordion Content

A silent crisis is unfolding across Australia. Every year, billions of native animals are hunted and killed by cats and foxes. Fire ants continue to spread and threaten human health. And the deadly strain of bird flu looms on the horizon. Your donation today will be used to put the invasive species threat in the media, make invasive species a government priority, ensure governments take rapid action to protect nature and our remarkable native wildlife from invasives-led extinction, death and destruction.

Donate Now

If you are having trouble submitting a form, please read this guide.

Please fill out the following form and one of our team will be in contact to assist as soon as possible. Please make sure to include any helpful information, such as the device you were using (computer, tablet or mobile phone) and if known, your browser (Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc)

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
Drop files here or
Accepted file types: jpg, gif, png, docx, doc, pdf, txt, Max. file size: 10 MB, Max. files: 4.

    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]