The South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA) is the regional film archive for the South West of England. Established in 1993, SWFTA's core collection comprises of the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and TSW (Television South West). The archive also cares for a significant number of donated film collections, both amateur and professional, dating back to the early 1900s.
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Exotic Pet Shop
A shop owner in Truro sells unusual pets.
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Overview
Paul Roberts is a pet shop owner in Truro and sells some very unusual animals including Flower, an American skunk, crocodiles from the Nile and alligators from Borneo, which are kept in a pool at the back of the pet store. John Doyle puts on a brave face as he gets up close and personal with some of the shop’ s incredible beasts but where does Paul find them?
According to campaigns by the RSPCA who pick up many unwanted pets, for every exotic pet brought into the country, more than half of their cohort would have died in transit and efforts to curb the exotic pet trade are ongoing. Under the 1976 Dangerous and Wild Animals Act authorities grant licences fr animals if they are not contrary to the public interest in a Peter Sellars-type Does Your Dog bite? scenario (from the film The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1976). In the sixties and seventies exotic pet-keeping was the height of fashion and wholly unregulated. As for the reporter in the reptilian den, just don’t try this at home, and certainly not without medical or even life insurance.
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