But not wanting to blame some poor starving guy who catches them, and smuggles them to another country to feed his wife, but to blame the guy who creates the demand by wanting to buy yhem as pets here.
What I am saying is that maybe he is trying to get across the point that if we didnt have a demand for those illegally smuggled animals, those poor starving Thais wouldnt capture them for the pet trade. The problem is that they would sell them to the skin trade (thats where most Komaine waters that are smuggled out go). I have a link somewhere (or did until my last computer crash) that sold komain water skins for about $35 each here in the US, these were big adult skins.
So regardless of the fact whether a few Americans buy them as pets or not, they are still caught and sold by the loads for the much more destructive skin trade. Thai law does nothing to stop that, or are they coming from elsewhere, who knows.
The same for anyone who wants to protest a few animals being sold to the pet trade (any monitor species almost), the skin trade sells them for far less in huge amounts that the pet trade will never touch.
I read somewhere that the komodo was useless to the skin trade long before protections because of how thick and boney the skins are, therefore the poachers ignored them. If the species wasnt so well protected by nature we may not have had any today.
Water monitor skin (and almost all Asian species) is thin, durable, smooth, and perfect for leather, therefore its a good marketable item.

[ Hide Replies ]

• Black Water Monitor - Sighthunter, Sun Oct 21 21:05:28 2007
• RE: Black Water Monitor - mrcota, Mon Oct 22 01:32:09 2007
• RE: So how come - FR, Mon Oct 22 09:20:06 2007
• This is why - mrcota, Tue Oct 23 02:36:23 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Tue Oct 23 09:42:04 2007
• RE: This is why - Sighthunter, Tue Oct 23 12:06:13 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Tue Oct 23 13:14:21 2007
• I must have missed the slander... - qiksilver5, Tue Oct 23 16:07:31 2007
• RE: No it was not slander, yet - FR, Tue Oct 23 16:55:29 2007
• RE: No it was not slander, yet - Sighthunter, Tue Oct 23 18:19:49 2007
• RE: This is why - wstreps, Tue Oct 23 18:19:57 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Tue Oct 23 20:01:38 2007
• RE: This is why - Sighthunter, Tue Oct 23 21:31:59 2007
• RE: This is why - mrcota, Thu Oct 25 04:41:07 2007
• RE: This is why - wstreps, Thu Oct 25 08:41:51 2007
• RE: This is why - mrcota, Thu Oct 25 10:08:40 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Thu Oct 25 10:59:31 2007
• RE: This is why - wstreps, Thu Oct 25 15:00:00 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Thu Oct 25 19:13:10 2007
• Maybe the problem is a Thai issue. - SHvar, Fri Oct 26 11:33:19 2007
• RE: Maybe the problem is a Thai issue. - FR, Fri Oct 26 18:00:59 2007
• How about this.. - SHvar, Sat Oct 27 11:25:26 2007
• FR, you know.. - SHvar, Sun Oct 28 11:14:29 2007
• RE: This is why - monitormanUK, Fri Oct 26 06:23:14 2007
• RE: This is why - MadAxeMan, Fri Oct 26 07:54:41 2007
• RE: This is why - FR, Fri Oct 26 10:46:06 2007
• The problems with laws. - SHvar, Tue Oct 23 22:27:34 2007
• Bribe? - Sighthunter, Wed Oct 24 01:01:24 2007
• A link - Sighthunter, Wed Oct 24 11:34:13 2007
• RE: A link - MikesMonitors, Wed Oct 24 12:18:49 2007
• Dibbs!!! - woodsrider, Mon Oct 22 09:48:55 2007
• RE: Dibbs!!! - Sighthunter, Tue Oct 23 12:56:58 2007
• RE: Dibbs!!! - woodsrider, Tue Oct 23 15:28:45 2007
• RE: Dibbs!!! - Sighthunter, Tue Oct 23 18:08:36 2007