I've been involved with animal rescues- raptors and reptiles both- for over 25 years now. I keep giant pythons, responsibly- and over the years, off and on, I've bred Burms and/or sold reptiles.
The answer to the problems associated with any animal related problem is not government involvement...ever. (I also served as a police officer for 8 years...I'm not a fan of government involvement) Actually, as with narcotics, the answer lies in education.
The government likes to place animals on "endangered" lists...which makes their black market value skyrocket. Same for simply prohibiting ownership- as Prohibition proved, make something illegal or difficult to obtain, and the freaks come out of the woodwork and pay exhorbitant sums to own one, whatever it is.
People need to be educated about the animals, it has to be made very clear what it is going to take to feed and house these animals for their life span...that's the best we can do. Certainly people will still make poor choices, but hopefully, as the populace gets smarter about the animal, the incidence of stupidity will decrease.
The only sort of law I could support would be mandatory ID chips in the animal, and huge fines if the animal is found to be neglected or released into the wild- as with the Burms in Florida. We are forced to pay to house human prisoners, via taxes...irresponsible pet owners should be forced to pay for a rescue facility to take care of their abandoned or neglected pet for it's life span. Garnished wages?
Yet this opens up the door to corruption in rescue facilities, right?
There is no easy answer...and we call our pets the animals!

James

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