If you say roundups vs. commercial collectors, import/exporters, pet shops, professional breeders, hobby collectors and hobby breeders all together yes alot of herps die. But you can also separate all those groups and arrive at very different collection and mortality rates for each faction.



Lumping them all together is somewhat like the wildlife agencies who always lump habitat destruction and collecting together as the biggest causes of decline. If you separate habitat destruction from collecting you will see that collecting has caused declines in far fewer species than habitat destruction.



Mortality is a fact of life in any endeavor that involves live animals but there are vastly different levels for some practices. I believe any group that can demonstrate sustainability and humane practices has a right to exist. Sustainable take is going to also fluctuate with demand and the number of participants. All this stuff probably needs to be tracked by wildlife agencies.
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