Wild caught herps

[Killian]

some herp keepers are against wild caught herps, others are for it. let me know what your thoughts on the issue are.

In many ways if a wild population is collected from it gives locals an incentive to protect the habitat and collect a number every year that will ensure they will be able to collect more for years to come.

however there are irresponsible collectors that over collect but again local people would protect their own habitat from these types of people if they relied on the area as a source of income for themselves.

there are many issues against collecting WC animals such as the ethics, over collecting, it gives no incentive to breed animals in captivity, and even disease.

Let me know your thoughts

[willj]

i'm never very sure about the topic. all my animals are c/b apart from my opacum. i would never buy w/c animals if c/b were readily available. however i do think that collecting from the wild is generally okay if you are collecting for yourself. or if the collectwer respects the fragility of the habitat in question. i don't agree with the idea of mass collecting for the pet trade.

[adamanuran]

Most European species available in shops are wild caught, there really is no need for this considering the amount of cb available each year. European herpetoculturists are one of the major reasons for the decline of poison frogs in south/central america. With something like 80% of these creatures going to Belgium. Many species that are wild caught are wc because breeding seldom if ever occurs in captivity (if the animal even acclimatises) can anyone justify the collection of totally unsuitable species for the pet trade when they are most certainly going to die? Britain needs to abide by other countries laws, once any illegal animal hits british shores, it is legal! Is this right? A fact that really annoys me is many suppliers use " a real rarity" as a selling point. Lets make everything rare so it cost more!

[willj]

i agree Adam, we do need stricter laws on all species, but especially european species. i believe that in the end all wild caught species should be banned after viable breeding colonies have been established. I feel that hobbists have been given a bad name. Of course some deserve the bad name, but not all of us. Maybe if we can get the goverments attention, maybe we can do something about it. it could also raise out image.

[Killian]

Lets not get the goverment envolved please!! as their attitude will be as many of you will be aware in other fields of private animal keeping to try and bring in an outright ban on keeping animals as they cannot do anything to prevent over collecting in other countries so to "look good" take away the market in their own countries. Ok a bit extreme but the laws are strict enough concerning keeping mammals and birds and believe me you dont want the same kind of pressure in the herp keeping world although it will probably be unavoidable!!

[BenJT]

In the wild not that many herps make it to adult hood, so I think it's OK to collect modest numbers of juveniles and larva (except in cases were animals are endangered or vulnerable); however, I believe that collecting adults can be very damaging to a population.