You're absolutely correct, and this proves my point. If you're interested in working with exotic animals, in any capacity, it won't likely be a profitable career, but you can make ends meet and live comfortably if you apply that passion correctly.
How to make a career (ethically) capturing and dealing wildlife in 2023?
- Thread starter La Cucaracha
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La Cucaracha
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I don't even know if this thread is big enough for orchid collecting, too.
Why mention falsified paper work, though? Are you against CITES, or think it doesn't work?
No. Don't go there. Don't collect orchids. Profitable, yes, and sometimes legal, but almost never sustainable. Collectors are often the reason those orchids are rare in the first place.I don't even know if this thread is big enough for orchid collecting, too.
Why mention falsified paper work, though? Are you against CITES, or think it doesn't work?
Bengal Tiger
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I'm not sure I understand the mentality behind this. You want to make a business of capturing wild animals and selling them, and you claim that you want to do it ethically, but what you said so far proves otherwise. Capturing live animals for research or starting a breeding program is one thing, making a business out of it is another thing entirely. Instead of catching new species to keep in captivity, we should focus on maintaining health captive populations of existing species so that they aren't continuously being collected from the wild.
Fortunately, there has been some change in this, both in the private trade and in public aquaria. This link is a bit old, but it is a good example of the shift: Monday Archives: Closing in on Captive Angels
That's because it's highly restricted.
Red-tailed Catfish does not belong on the average aquarium market anyway, if they quit importing so many it would be a small loss.
I don't even know if this thread is big enough for orchid collecting, too.
Why mention falsified paper work, though? Are you against CITES, or think it doesn't work?
I was pointing it out since you mention it for live wildlife specifically.
I mentioned it because there's a lot of people that make money via falsifying documents to get animals through. CITES itself is a good idea, but there has been a lot of problems with it.
To bounce off that article, more than half of the angelfish family have now been captive bred and raised successfully, and we're now seeing some species actually starting to routinely enter the market with captive bred stock.
I told you why, but I'll expand a little further. In the context of unsustainable commercial fishing, global warming and high nutrient run-off from unsustainable farming practices, I don't believe marine fish collecting for the aquarium trades (both public and private) is a meaningful threat in a general sense. It may be for specific populations, in which case all my reservations apply.
La Cucaracha
Well-Known Member
I was kidding, but you're right. The harm of the plant trade is proportionally underdiscussed, too.
I'm trying to connect the two!
Highly politically unstable, too.
Bengal Tiger
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I'm not saying I support trying to start heap tons of captive breeding programs. Anyway, collecting live animals should stay with the people interested in said animals. For example: If an animal is to be collected for research, then researchers should collect it.
La Cucaracha
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So personally, I am interested in southwestern reptiles. I think it's pretty needless to say it's not about being rich and that there are better ways to make money than chasing turtles. And I can see how captive breeding my own catch could be more profitable than turning it over to pet stores or even zoos.
Personally though, I'm now convinced there will always be people against wild capture even if it's done legally, sustainably, and everyone benefits because of the sentiment towards wild animals.
Well and if captive breeding programs is the specific purpose, for many species an exotic animal dealer would not be the preferred source. Of course, apparently we shouldn't be breeding animals in captivity but somehow ethically and sustainably take them from the wild instead.
Bengal Tiger
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I'm afraid I don't quite understand the wording here
Is money your main focus?
La Cucaracha
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If it can be done ethically and sustainably and economically benefits the local people, absolutely. Especially if it's an animal that would be very difficult to impossible to captive breed outside of their range, like many tropical butterflies.
You're contradicting yourself here. You literally say it's not about being rich to next sentence saying how breeding what you catch would be more profitable.
Wild catch is on the way out. There are too many issues involved ethically and legally these days.
La Cucaracha
Well-Known Member
If it's not a profitable business in the slightest, why pursue it?
I would think some zoochatters would get some sense of relief out of that. In other words, I would discontinue it if it wasn't a feasible living.
La Cucaracha
Well-Known Member
Again, that's just not happening with green anoles. And it is because they're not considered profitable to breed.
What do you think profitable means, anyway? I'm just talking about having enough to pay bills and eat.
Bengal Tiger
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That wasn't my question, I was asking if money was you main focus.
La Cucaracha
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Fair enough. I would say it's secondary, I really enjoy going outside and catching things like turtles; but I'm not independently wealthy to just throw money at it.
We're not just talking about anoles here, we're talking about the full picture. I am well aware of the anole situation. They're very common in the SE US and being local and abundant it's cheaper to get wild caught than spend time and effort breeding them.
For many species prevalent in the trade, what you're proposing does not work. They are either illegal to export from their home range, too rare in their home range to support it, or already have a big enough captive population to be sustainable. Other species are being captive bred to take pressure off the wild stock. This is particularly big right now for marine fish, and corals. The push is to avoid taking wild stock as much as possible.
I can get behind capturing invasive species. They need to be removed from the wild as they are detrimental. Capturing others, especially if they're not highly endangered (and only for the purpose of conservation) is not something I agree with. Especially for the pet trade. Having exotic pets like certain reptiles and birds is fine, but not from the wild.
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