In case anyone wants to hear a novice's uneducated thoughts about
wild-caught animals, I'll put my 2 cents worth in. Otherwise, you can go on
to someone who's not just doing a brain dump :)
Firstly, we all know that natives catching animals for the pet trade is a
money-making business for them, etc., etc. Perhaps (and I know I sound
naive) their activity could be regulated at the source, like salmon fishing.
The problem is that we're basically talking about hunter/gatherers and
farmers who have overpopulated and are scrabbling for resources.
I think captive breeding of rare/endangered species should be organized and
that species which are rare should not be imported into this country except
to people expert in caring for related species and expressly for a captive
breeding program.
I'm sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but the other side of the coin is
protecting these animal's environments. The idea about buying a wildlife
preserve or whatever sounds good to me, but maybe (and I'm sorry if I'm
sounding naive again) we can convince the US government of the value of
protecting environments world-wide and set up a program where we give
countries agricultural help in exchange for their establishing refuges.
You know, there is a captive breeding organization somewhere in the US (I
read about it some time ago) that will send you animals to breed. Hopefully
it's doing a good job. I _do_ think that just in this list alone there is a
wealth of experience that could be applied to captive breeding of encroached
species. And at the risk of being an elitist (which at my stage of the game
would be difficult), I say the hell with catching wild animals to be sold to
dealers. Let the dealers get their animals from breeders - it's better all
around.
- end of brain dump -
Steve
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