Ok let me make my feelings on this very clear so that everyone understands the situation in africa where specifically ball pythons come from.
They are being killed by the thousand every day for skin trade, hunted and taken from their habitats and are starting a down ward spiral to being extinct in the wild.
I love my ball python to death, but i made sure that i was buying one that was captive bred. there are hundreds of thousands of people with ball pythons in the world, they dont need to be taken from the wild anymore. I agree banning all forms of the trade is not the right solution, I think they should move from banning trading, to banning trading between countries. not between states in america. just stop the wild caught pet trade, there are more than enough to go around from breeders. but there aren't all that many left in the wild.
It really bugs me when people decide the only solution to any problem is to get rid of the whole activity completely. there are many ways to stop will animals from dying or being taken from their environment.
I know thats not all this is about, i.e all the animals that end up being let loose and that excape, I think instead of banning people from buying pythons, especially large ones, is to just correctly educate buyers, or impose a licence with a written test on how to care for large animals, kind of like a learners licence for snakes.
either way, I don't live in the states. but i believe that trying to prevent people from a hobby they enjoy is wrong on many levels. all I can say is good luck to you.
