Katrina,

It is a free country and if you want to only buy captive born that is fine by me. I certainly don't agree that only breeders can collect and dealers cannot. How do you define a breeder? I believe you are saying that you do not support the right of American citizens to sell wild caught. I strongly disagree with that and there are many folks who feel the same way I do as well.

Further, the moment you become an activist and work to take away my rights and others based on your opinion, agenda, position, moral compass (whatever you want to call it) you become the enemy. You are just as bad as other "banners" in my opinion.

The bottom line for me is that you can have any opinion you want but when you start to push your opinion on others and try to take away the rights of American citizens you have crossed the line.

I am not going to detail why wild caught should be allowed to be sold as I have done that many times on these forums. The most important thing to understand is that sustainable harvest is a proven, time tested wildlife management principle. It has years of peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny to back it up. Do you support the right of American citizens to hunt game and to fish? If so, you can apply the same management techniques to herps. But the only difference between game species and herps is that herps are kept alive, propagated and sold. Thus they need different rules then game species.

I have said all this many times before. I believe your number one concern is that you want to be sure that herp populations are being protected from over-harvest. And the answer is yes with sustainable harvest. There is no doubt. So your main concern really isn't a concern. Now, if I were you I would be a lot more concerned about habitat destruction and roads. Habitat destruction equals extinction of herps. Sustainable harvest equals viable herp populations. There is no comparison.

Welkerii
El Paso, TX

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