- Joined
- Jul 3, 2011
- Messages
- 492
Respectfully, I don't think you quite understand the scale at which they're being legally imported. According to the CITES Trade Database 13,000 came in during a single shipment last year.This I know. What I am saying is that to assume that importers of this species are actually obtaining permits and not smuggling is optimistic at best. Most legal importers are not hobbyists, and are not selling to hobbyists.
Sure, some people have probably brown boxed them. But to suggest that most specimens in the hobby were imported illegally is completely ludicrous when so many are being imported legally. There's basically no incentive to do so when virtually any pet store in the country is capable of obtaining some.