Educate people regarding the needs of the fish they want to keep, by all means. Exhort them, shame them, plead with them...but when you start deciding that some person or body of persons should have the ability to mandate your behaviour and your choices, you are on the proverbial slippery slope and you're already rocketing downhill on your backside.
Speaking from the perspective or a person who owns and uses and enjoys a number of items that come under this type of overbearing scrutiny...guns, motorcycles, snakes...cars!...dogs!!!!...I can tell you right now that the next step is inevitable: video footage of soccer moms shaking their fists, brandishing placards, demanding to know why you "need" these items.
Guess what? You don't need them; they aren't required for your health or survival in almost all cases. The people who keep them do so because they want them. And in anything resembling a free society, that should be sufficient reason as long as they don't endanger other people.
Half the people who lust after stuff like snakeheads, Asian arowanas, piranhas, etc. seem to do so simply because they can't have them. As soon as the fish in question becomes cheaply and readily available, they'll move on to some other variety of unobtainium and start wringing their hands about their inability to get that. And that's okay too; folks like that will never get what they want, because they only want what they can't get.
But, sure, go ahead and pass laws making the keeping of certain fish illegal. Banning stuff always works well. Prohibition was a roaring success; expand on that model! This time I'll be ready. I'll make a fortune selling placards and advertising space to the squeaky-wheel faction of society; I'll call my enterprise "Billboards for Busybodies!"
I can already see my company slogan: "Can't mind your own business? Is your nose too short to stick it into other people's lives as far as you would like? Self-righteous meddling is fun and fulfilling...WE CAN HELP!!!"
Speaking from the perspective or a person who owns and uses and enjoys a number of items that come under this type of overbearing scrutiny...guns, motorcycles, snakes...cars!...dogs!!!!...I can tell you right now that the next step is inevitable: video footage of soccer moms shaking their fists, brandishing placards, demanding to know why you "need" these items.
Guess what? You don't need them; they aren't required for your health or survival in almost all cases. The people who keep them do so because they want them. And in anything resembling a free society, that should be sufficient reason as long as they don't endanger other people.
Half the people who lust after stuff like snakeheads, Asian arowanas, piranhas, etc. seem to do so simply because they can't have them. As soon as the fish in question becomes cheaply and readily available, they'll move on to some other variety of unobtainium and start wringing their hands about their inability to get that. And that's okay too; folks like that will never get what they want, because they only want what they can't get.
But, sure, go ahead and pass laws making the keeping of certain fish illegal. Banning stuff always works well. Prohibition was a roaring success; expand on that model! This time I'll be ready. I'll make a fortune selling placards and advertising space to the squeaky-wheel faction of society; I'll call my enterprise "Billboards for Busybodies!"
I can already see my company slogan: "Can't mind your own business? Is your nose too short to stick it into other people's lives as far as you would like? Self-righteous meddling is fun and fulfilling...WE CAN HELP!!!"
. “Fish stores” will always b fish stores, its just a business like any other.
