I think there is good debate on either side - but numbers wise it doesn't appear that the exportation of balls is making much of a dent in the general wild populations - there are designated areas where trapping is permitted there are areas where it is not - according to the cities investigations there doesn't seem to be a big difference in the number of balls per acre between the two. Also put into place are the rules and regulations about releasing the percentage back into the wild to accommodate for what is being taken. Blah Blah Blah. Whether they keep true and accurate records is another argument.

My major problem is that these animals get over here - they are completely misrepresented and sold as ghosts, desert ghosts, axanthics, etc. when their coloration is most likely due to being gravid - and then the "oddballs" that are hatched are almost as likely a result of stress on either mom or the egg and are not in fact genetic. How few of these oddballs actually prove out?

Anyway - it's economics for a poor country - and if we didn't buy them as pets they would end up as food. If the wild populations die out - there are plenty of unwanted normals in the US we can send back for re population.