License are just anothet cash grab anyway, one more way for the government to take some more money out of our pockets. All I have to do is pay $200 a year and I can keep some of the most deadly snakes in the world or man eating saltwater crocodiles. Not having a license, keeping exotics who gives a rats, it comes down to the individual keeper, how much interest they have in the animal and what sort of time there going to put into its upkeep. Keeping reptiles is no diffrent to fish birds cats or dogs. The only thing is we have to keep paying for a "license".
Agreed!
For a car license you sit several tests to prove you are competent, same with a bike, truck, train, crane etc.
What skills do you need to prove you have before getting any type of native animal license? What written and practical tests are there for those skills? NONE!
Hell for a class 2 license here in NSW you just have to prove you can write what they want to hear!
Tell me that's not just a cash grab, the number you can contact them on is only available until 12..... and that's if the phone hasn't been left off the hook. They have insufficient staff who 9 times out of 10 are just desk clerks who have no idea on keeping reptiles, temp ranges, food items and cage sizes etc and couldn't id a Bredli from a Coastal to a MD.
Anyway, back on topic, I wouldn't dob someone in, what they do is their own business and when I was breeding, I would have people meet me somewhere. I have known people who keep exotics, everyone who is saying 'exotic diseases' blah blah blah...... You do realise that majority of exotics in oz have been captive bred here for many generations right?
Pretty much the only things that people will risk hiding in their pants at airports are rarer specimens, such as albino darwins, albino spotteds, albino olives, jags etc..... Now our albino natives are being captive bred o/s and things like jags are being captive bred and offered for sale here. Although they might be a fairly recent addition to for sale ads, don't think they haven't been here for a long time and are quite a few generations old