The reasoning behind this, is because MOST people are not smart enough and not responsible enough, to NOT release these animals into the wild. I live in Massachusetts, and still I hear about non-native animals being released on a regular basis. Last year, a 6ft gator was pulled from a river, next to a daycare where kids play, and a 4ft Savanah Monitor had to be removed from some random store it had managed to get into. If people were responsible, there wouldn't need to be laws about these kinds of things, but that isn't the case, so the government uses wide laws, to close any potential loophole.