CodeRed, I agree, I reckon about 90% of reptile keepers with decent collections have at least a few wild caughts among them. Who cares anyway, look at how much gets killed on the roads or by ferals or killed by land clearing ever year, There are some statistics in Rick shines book with the GTP on the cover, taking a few is not doing much damage if it is being done sustainably. As long as the keeper isn't going and vacuuming up everything or just taking for the sake of it I think it would be ok (people that do that are usually the greedy money hungry type), People should just be doing it sustainably if they do it
Picking of the roads or from land that is gonna be cleared would be the way to go. No taking from National parks, Nature reserves. Big one Don't destroy habitat, put rocks back properly and carefully. Profiting from offspring is ok in my opinion, but selling the original captured animals is not right.
I used to be completely anti poaching and the works but opened my eyes a bit and became realistic, I might have sold out on my views a little or been influenced by others.
Poacher in my eyes is someone who goes through and takes everything to make a quick buck, leaving a trail of damage where they go, not someone who is just taking a couple of animals for their own collection and doing it carefully, not damaging the place to collect.
Remember its illegal to collect from the wild, I am not supporting it, just stating my opinion
As for a solution to the problems of the reptile world, take away value! If reptiles are worth nothing, you will only have people with the real interest in them, no lying about what stuff is, no people destroying places to make a quick buck, no breeders ripping off new keepers. Would be great!