Quote Originally Posted by Ginevive
When would it stop, in my opinion..? When they're extinct in the wild.
That's not going to happen.

Ball pythons are an internationally protected species. Their export and import is controlled by an organization called CITES. CITES is responsible for monitoring the wild populations of ball pythons can controlling the number of ball pythons that can be exported from Africa and imported into other countries around the world. These animals cannot be moved across borders without inspections and permits to protect them and their wild populations.

Stopping the exportation of ball pythons from Africa would be a bad thing for ball pythons at this point. The ruralization of Western Africa is causing a population explosion for ball pythons that is turning them into a nuisance animal. If the exports were to stop, the alternative would be for the governments in Ghana, Togo, etc to control their local ball python populations through other means ... which would likely be hunts, burnings, or worse (think rattle snake round ups but with ball pythons). The large scale exportation of ball pythons within the limits set by CITES which monitors their wild population keeps the numbers of ball pythons in the wild at a very healthy and very reasonable limit in order to protect the species as a whole.

Not to mention that the ball python export business is a huge industry over in Africa that employees many people and puts food on the table of a large number of families as well as supplies money to the governments of the West African countries the snakes are being exported from. It is in their best interest to make sure that the business (and money) continues to thrive for as long as possible.

No one is going to let ball pythons go extinct in the wild due to exportation.

-adam