Domestication of the Dromedary Revisited and Its Consequences for Legislation as to Keeping Livestock or Pet Animals

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Dutch legislators have recently introduced domestication as a requirement for animals that can be safely kept by humans and it seems likely that other countries may follow this approach. The dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) was considered to be insufficiently domesticated and will no longer be able to be kept in the Netherlands as livestock from 2024 onwards. In a previous scientific publication, we showed that the domestication stage of the dromedary is actually very advanced and that its evaluation by the Dutch advisory committee must be considered as a mistake. Here, we further elaborate on this topic by using the three criteria that were used by the Dutch legislators to assess the degree of domestication even though it should be noted that these criteria have neither been peer-reviewed, nor published in international scientific journals. To validate the criteria, we also assessed the domestication stage of the house cat (Felis silvestris catus) as this species is obviously included in the positive list. The results confirm that the domestication stage of the dromedary is very advanced. However, application of the same criteria would lead to the exclusion of the house cat. This shows that “being in an advanced stage of domestication” is not a suitable requirement for animals to be kept by humans. Instead, scientific evidence-based, peer-reviewed methodologies should be applied for legislation as to keeping livestock or pets. ABSTRACT: Being in an advanced stage of domestication is a newly proposed requirement to decide which animals can be safely kept by humans. Dutch legislators were the first to apply it and other European countries may be tempted to adopt a similar approach. Unexpectedly, the Dutch assessors considered the dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) as being insufficiently domesticated and this species will therefore no longer be able to be kept as a production animal from 2024 onwards. In a recent publication on this topic, we showed that the domestication of the dromedary is actually very advanced. In this paper, we apply the same criteria that were used by the Dutch assessors to determine the degree of domestication, taking into account the most recent scientific developments in this area, even though it should be noted that these criteria have neither been peer-reviewed, nor published in an international scientific journal. For the sake of comparison, and in order to validate the procedure, we also applied these criteria to the house cat. The results confirm that the dromedary is highly domesticated, but also that the house cat (Felis silvestris catus) is at most semi-domesticated. Obviously, we agree with the decision of the Dutch legislators to place the house cat on the positive list, but our analysis demonstrates that this was decided on false grounds. Our analysis makes it clear that the requirement of being in an advanced stage of domestication is not suitable. Instead of maintaining this requirement, we recommend implementing evidence-based, peer-reviewed methods to decide which animals can be kept by humans, and to include species specific-guidelines in the legislation on how this can be achieved safely.