The bill needs to be changed. The concept of trying to keep invasive species out of the US's natural habitats and communities is one that I strongly agree with, but the problems I have with the bill are as follows:
1. Getting rid of the exotic pet trade would put many thousands, even millions, of people out of a job. Not just in this country, in other countries People in foreign countries will get laid off because of the sudden slack in the market. The pet trade business is a rather large one. Everyone is affected.
2. True, the government spends a lot of money to try and deal with the invasive species problem, but at least there is a legal market that is directly related to the problem. They have a better chance at figuring out who dumped the Payara (spelled it wrong) into the Grand Canyon if the market if they know who purchased some of those fish last, because it would be on record. And also, those efforts are backed by the taxes paid by the individuals who buy these fish. It doesn't break even, but at least they don't have to take all the money out from another source. If the market disappears, they will have to spend billions of dollars cleaning everything out, but will have to find something else to draw from in order to do that.
3. It will drastically affect the economy. Everyone knows that.
4. It keeps people occupied. Having something like a fish tank to take care of takes ones mind off of other, possibly dangerous or malcontent, activities. At least some of the time. If a kid has a beautiful fish tank to look at and maintain, chances are he might not be lighting a skateboard on fire with ethanol and rolling it down a hill, in a beachfront neighborhood. Plus, if this hobby is taken out, then people are going to have to find other hobbies to take up. For some, that'll be easy. For others, that might be difficult. I can only think of one; gold mining. Thats it.
5. What do they do with all the millions of pets that they will end up with? Kill them? Put them back in their respective countries? Either way people aren't going to go for that.
Basically, the bill is very short sighted. Thats just my piece on it.
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