Countries vote to ban trade in endangered otters coveted as pets A majority of CITES signatories have voted to move the Smooth Coated Otter and Asian Short-Clawed Otter from CITES Appendix II to CITES Appendix I, which would ban international trade. The species are sought after as social-media fuelled cute pets in Asia, particularly in Japan. The current main exporting countries are Indonesia and Thailand. The Indian Star Tortoise was also voted onto CITES Appendix I at the same meeting.
