I have to answer Craig's post even though I am sick of the subject and the people who said 'yey' before will say 'yey' again while the people who said 'nay' will again say 'nay'. Fortunately, from my perspective, there are many more stake holders in this issue than just reptile keepers so exotics are unlikely to ever become legal.
First of all, there seems to be a misconception that allowing exotics will prevent smuggling , I think this is very unlikely for reasons explained below.
Secondly the statement "Allow exotics in?" implies all exotics (though some have stated otherwise), the most probable case in this unlikely scenario is that only some species will be allowed in. In this case the whining 'Why can't we keep exotics?' will be replaced with the whining 'Why can't we keep other exotics?'. In other words this argument will continue, only the boundaries will have changed!
Craig also states
As for the breeding, only licenced people with facilities that are strictly monitored and secure could breed animals
This implies at the very least 100% escape prove cages with no possibility of departure during cleaning, feeding and maintaince. If you have any photos of one please post it, I would be interested in seeing one. Currently, the best practice that I know is secure cages inside a secure room in secure premises. And the place would have to be well maintained, if the breeder couldn't quite make ends meet then that hole in the wall wouldn't get repaired quite quick enough. Of course the place would also have to be catastrophe proof as well, we cant have the snakes escaping during a flood, earthquake or cyclone, that would defeat the whole purpose.
Then of course there is malicious behavior, we have just had an example on APS. Imagine instead of doing that, they got an axe and hacked through the back of the breeding room. And it doesn't have to be people you know, all you need is a few blokes out on Friday night, young, dumb and full of rum, getting in and trashing the joint.
Then there is the assumption that the animals will always be on the premises, the worst case scenario I can think of is a car accident on the way to the vet to get this year's hatchinglings sterilized with all of the year's crop escaping!
And do I need to talk about thievery in all its forms? Nah.
And the strictly monitored bit. How strict, monthly visits? Weekly? Daily? Closed circuit monitoring? Remember we also have to regard the keeper as a potential risk as well. I sure that 99.99% would do the right thing but it only takes one, there is the story circulating that the keeper with registered exotics breeding them. There would be a huge incentive for the breeder to sneak a few out the back door, how hard would it be to hide a few eggs) every registered sale would attract vet fees, government charges and, of course, the dreaded GST, while a few sold down at the pub wouldn't.
And the end rub ? even getting close to this would cost money, lots of money, and it wouldn?t come from the government, so people would then have a choice, pay $1200 for a registered, sterilized animal or $200 for one down at the wharf (and you could go to
www.dodgiecertifications.com to download a piece of paper that says its legal). So we then end up with an illegal population that is even harder to detect.:shock:
Anyhow, I?m getting of my soapbox, I'm starting to wear it out. 8)
But I've missed the relevance..?
