"Sure, we might lose a few rare and unpopular species (surprisingly few, I believe), but our industry and hobby that we all love so much would continue."

Once more, the main reason I brought up finches and softbills to begin with is because many of them are VERY HARD to reproduce in captivity, (unlike most parrots) and IF a ban on them was passed, that would be the end of them as captives. I do not think that only a few "unpopular species" would be completely lost. For example, the avian flu ban on importation took Black Cheeked Waxbills out of the hobby, among quite a few others, a great little bird who though it has been bred in captivity a time or 2, has not been with any regularity, and has not been established. Another of my favorites, the Red Avadavat, are also incredibly hard to find these days.

"Again, I'm not advocating this as the ideal situation, just saying that the parrot breeders were facing a very similar situation 20 years ago, and they reached a compromise that allowed their industry to continue to exist. We may soon face some stark choices, so we should be ready with ideas if/when that occurs."

I am pretty sure I get what you are saying, (we may have to be willing to give up imports to keep our rights) I just don't think using the parrot law is anything close to a balanced example.

Using just parrots as synonym for "the reptile industry" forgets all those species of birds in aviculture that are NOT parrots, and many of which are remarkably hard to reproduce, (or just don't like to for some reason or another that we have yet to figure out) and have only recently thanks to the advances in private aviculture been bred.

I would think if say something like HR669 passed, countless species of reptile, especially animals like various lizard & amphibians who have yet been established would be lost to the hobby.

[ Show Entire Thread ]