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[Colin]

Originally Posted by BIG RYANO

I believe the majority of reptile keepers in this country have at some stage knowingly owned a reptile that was caught illegally, either by themselves or a friend.

Absolutely true mate. Back in 1990 I tried to get a reptile keepers licence but the NSW NPWS just wouldn't issue any to anyone for quite a few years. You could only have 2 snakes without a licence and they had to be sourced from licenced breeders. The first legal carpet python I owned was from Gerry Swan of the AHS in 1991 for free because it was illegal to sell reptiles for money then. They had to be given for free or swapped.

But I also had WC diamonds, RBBS, Demansia psammophis, hemiaspis signata etc in my collection. I basically gave away my whole collection back then through frustration of the non issue of licences and got back into herps years later when licences were available.

I'm not condoning keeping WC animals but back then it was the normal thing and widely done by everyone.