It has been a good thread, in general. I'm certain we've all learned a lot from it.
I haven't learned all that much, but my knowledge of the fact that people are far too emotional and will talk too much, irrespective of their level of knowledge or experience and disregard the fact that others may have far more knowledge than themselves has been reaffirmed. No, I'm not claiming to be the most knowledgable or experienced person here, but I do claim that my opinions on this matter are based on reason rather than emotion. Despite that, it has been a good thread in many ways.
I think bigguy summed it up best when he put into perspective the numbers of reptiles killed needlessly by people each year as well as the huge numbers killed by feral pests next to the comparitively tiny numbers taken by people to be kept alive and cared for, and also the insane money spent regulating the whole thing next to shooting a couple of cats. What a joke when two bullets put into a couple of cats will save more reptiles than the numbers nabbed from poachers and smugglers, even after the millions of our dollars that go into policing the whole thing.
What has always been an astonishment to me is that no one tells me off when I catch dozens of fish to kill and eat once each but legally catching an animal to be cared for as a pet is considered by some to be 'immoral'. I can't quote exact figures, but I'm pretty sure Aboriginals kill and eat more reptiles than are captured for pets, yet no one (or at least very few) seems to think this is bad. I am quite certain that there is far more benefit in breeding a wild caught reptile, or even caring for it as a pet without breeding it than making it into part of a meal. It is quite a sight when a group of aboriginals tuck into a large meal of womas (no, I haven't seen it in person, only footage and photos).
Sure the system may not be perfect, but it's not a terrible system and we can't just say that because it's not perfect it shouldn't exist. No system will ever be perfect. If I'd designed it, it would have been different, but along with my system removing some of the current problems and adding some benefits, it would have caused other problems and not have had some of the current benefits. I think the same can be said for the systems most of us would have come up with from scratch.
We have to accept that without being silly there isn't much of an argument for animals not to be collected within some legally regulated system and no system will be perfect and there will always be the opportunity to abuse it, but having no system at all will cause more problems than the current regulated system.
I say bravo, it's great to see a regulated system in place, even if I think it's imperfect. I hope to see more species added to the list, particularly pygmy pythons... (hint hint to anyone with any weight in getting it to happen
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