Anyone who has worked in reptile retail knows that people will buy anything weather or not they can care for it. And anyone who has worked with vets, rehabers, or rescues have seen the results.

The truth is that the VAST majority of the large boids and giant monitors are completely neglected and live short sad lives. This is not a bash to the people who keep them. There are lots of good people, especially on these forums.

Yet there are thousands upon thousands of baby retics that are sold each year. But where are all the 20 footers...hmmm... Anyone who loves herps should want to change that situation.

I am not a fan of bans. I am a fan of regulation. I think that if you are really that into big snakes or monitors or hots, that you should be able to fork over a permit fee for them. If they aren't worth a hundred bucks a year than maybe you aren't the person to keep them.

The real problem is that all the idiots who buy completely inappropriate reptile pets taint the reptiles that do make good pets. Then you get people who lump bearded dragons in with green anacondas and the resulting laws like the current proposal to ban all pythons. Or the report that burmese pythons could colonize half of north america. Hahahaha.

And yes I do keep those species and make a living breeding pythons.

There are a few things in there that I don't agree with (like the dart frogs) but for the most part I think I can safely say that i am cool with people not being able to keep rhinos and hyenas. If the public doesn't feel comfortable with people keeping 20 foot long 200 lb pythons I can understand that. I don't fully agree but I can understnad.

Like I said, this law actually looked at species that could be considered dangerous and it leaves me and (most of) my collection in peace.

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