Basically he's citing the exact same study that was posted here and is worried that if we don't self-regulate then governments will continue to legislate what we are and aren't allowed to have.
Ultimately, it's a fool's errand. Probably would help a little and we as hobbyists should strive to improve and adapt to the best of our abilities, but in the end such people don't actually care about animal welfare. It's all about telling the little guy what they can and can't do.
Any given domesticated mammal has undergone and STILL goes through horrendous breeding practices (I'm sure many of you are familiar with puppy mills for example and their association with places like Petland) yet you don't really see government outcry to ban a bunch of dogs (it does happen with specific breeds sometimes granted) because of bad egg breeders and owners that don't take care of their dogs properly. To give another example, this summer someone's pet spitting cobra escaped in North Carolina, and of course the entire thing was sensationalized even though it was eventually caught with no harm done to anybody, yet that was all it took for figureheads to start making sweeping ideas about what's allowed to be kept in the state. Meanwhile just this year so far, 28 people have been killed by dogs in the US, yet you don't see national headlines about it.
The reality is, reptile keeping has unfortunately reached peaks in popularity at a time where powers in high places increasingly want to restrict what the common man can accomplish in their lives, and being as generally reviled as reptiles are in the first place, the hobby is all too easily caught in the crosshairs.
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