So, apparently, the Python Ban passed.

[Broomstick]

The problem with exotics, of course, is that they are NOT cats or dogs. Even relatively "easy" exotics such as the parrots I currently share my abode with can present serious problems and/or hazards as pets - and those are the intelligent, social, adaptable exotics.

It's not that you can't safely keep a python as a pet, it's that they require a level of knowledge, study, commitment, and care than many people just don't seem capable of delivering. We have quite a bit in common with the dogs and cats that are common pets, but not so much with a snake. Taking proper care of them doesn't come as "naturally" as caring for some other animals.

[Alyrium Denryle]

The problem with exotics, of course, is that they are NOT cats or dogs. Even relatively "easy" exotics such as the parrots I currently share my abode with can present serious problems and/or hazards as pets - and those are the intelligent, social, adaptable exotics.

It's not that you can't safely keep a python as a pet, it's that they require a level of knowledge, study, commitment, and care than many people just don't seem capable of delivering. We have quite a bit in common with the dogs and cats that are common pets, but not so much with a snake. Taking proper care of them doesn't come as "naturally" as caring for some other animals.

I would disagree here. Snakes and the like are actually a lot easier and low maintenance than a dog or cat. The issue of sheer size. A newfoundland or great dane is a big cuddly lick-machine. A snake that weighs as much as they do tends not to be. Well, for certain definitions of cuddly anyway. Their sort of cuddle will kill you. When it comes to their daily maintenance they are easier. However, they are MUCH more difficult to physically manage. Smaller snakes like corn snakes, or even some of the really exotic and strange ones like elephant trunk snakes, tiger rat snakes dont have that problem. A tiger rat snake might WANT to kill you (they are ill tempered, generally) but they cant.

That having been said... in terms of sheer numbers, invasiveness, and numbers of annual injuries, I would say that there is a much better case for restricting dog and cat ownership than there is ownership of most exotic reptiles. There are of course the notable exceptions such as HUGE constrictors, but do not pretend for a moment that dogs and cats are not massive ecological, animal welfare, and human safety problems. They are.

[Broomstick]

I was thinking the problem wasn't so much the animal but rather than human(s).

As an example: Some years ago my spouse was spending several months at his mother's house taking care of her during a medical problem. During this time he (for whatever reason I forget) was moving around some boxes in her basement store there by his sister. Underneath a pile of about 5 boxes he discovered an aquarium with a snake in it, some variety of python. This presented something of a dilemma for him, being a total softie regarding animals but also knowing his mother detested snakes and had a habit of converting them to belts or dinner or both. He did not think a meeting of the two would be of benefit to either.

He determined that the snake was still alive, though he had no way of knowing how long it had been left under a stack of boxes. He got water for it (the snake was definitely thirsty) and called his sister to basically ask "what the fucking hell?". Seems sister had stored the snake along with her inanimate possessions and told him not to worry, snakes were low maintenance and could go weeks, even months, without food and it wasn't like they were intelligent or had feelings. She'd pick it up when she collected her belongings. When would that be? She didn't know.

Well, OK, snakes ARE "low maintenance" but they still require maintenance, like food and water, even if not as frequently. And somehow I doubt a snake really is OK with being trapped without escape in a box with no food or water no matter how long they can go without food or water, especially as said basement/garage area had no climate control so it ranged from near-freezing to extremely hot depending on the weather. Since Mr. Snake's temperature control is dependent largely on him being able to move to a place with more comfortable temperature the poor thing was either freezing or roasting with no escape. Sister in law apparently had this notion that if you put a snake in a dark place with no food or water it would automatically hibernate (which she apparently regarded as a sort of "stand-by mode") until she could be bothered to remember it.

And that's part of the problem - while she was reasonably conversant with the notion that mammals required daily access to food or water she really didn't know the needs of the snake she owned. Or maybe she's just an evil person. She had this notion that she could just park it in a box, throw food in every so often, and that was all that was needed. No provision for the needs of cold-blooded creatures for temperature control, careless provision of food and water, and leaving it under a pile of stuff for months in the home of a woman who hates snakes without informing said woman of its presence.

The spouse, by the way, contacted the local humane society and asked about local reptile rescue. They put him in touch with folks and the snake went to a presumably better home. Sister in law pitched a fit over it, but the spouse told her to go fuck herself. If she gave an actual damn about the snake she wouldn't have shoved it in a box like an old bowling trophy.

Just one example. I agree with you on many being incompetent regarding cats and dogs, but outside of those it just gets worse. I've seen all too many people who took on a horse and didn't have a clue how much they really ate or how to manage such a large animal; people who take on various lizards and fail to supply proper food; people who take on highly social animals like parrots then leave it to go mad in a cage where it is confined without any social contacts for 12 or more hours a day. A lot of people are total shitheads to the animals in their care.

It's like a told a group of riders on a local trail used by hikers and horses and various others - I love horses, but because I haven't the proper space or money to give one proper care I do not own one at this time. It wouldn't be fair to the horse. As it is, I've had to struggle to keep my parrots properly cared for these past four years, to the point I've had to seriously consider whether it would be in their best interests to be re-homed, and they're relatively easy as exotics go. Then again, I was raised to put the best interests of my pets ahead of my own convenience. Too many people don't do this. I've had people seriously tell me that if I can't take care of my birds any more I can just let them go, "they'll be OK". No, they won't. Well, the cockatiels might survive a summer if they're lucky but more likely will be eaten by something, or starve because food in the wild is not provided in neat little dishes and they haven't a clue where to find something to eat outside. (On two occasions escaped pet birds have simply landed on my spouse, both of them severely underweight apparently having decided outside wasn't so wonderful after all and looking to a human to rescue them back to captivity) The conure wouldn't survive even that long, being very much a tropical bird that would find even some of the summer nights around here fatally cold (we have had to seriously consider how we will keep him sufficiently warm in the event of a winter time power failure). Yet too many people think this sort of "release" is reasonable. Of course, that is one of the reasons we get exotics in the local landscape.

[Spyder]

Could be wrong, my recollection is from my touristing in New Zealand and visiting the southern tip of australia.
*goes checking*

New Zealand

Introduced stinging wasps

The most offensive stingers are four introduced species of social wasp in the Vespidae family. These are pests in urban, rural and natural ecosystems. The worst two are of European origin, the black-and-yellow German and common wasps (Vespula germanica and Vespula vulgaris respectively), which attack and sting to defend their huge nests. Both species, especially the common wasp, have invaded native forest – kauri forests in the north and beech forests in the south.

Seems that they were indeed deliberately introduced to New Zealand and not Australia, but that the new zealand pop spread to Tasmania etc.
So I was right about them being deliberately introduced in new zealand and wrong about australia to which they have just spread.

When they say introduced, they don't specifically mean introduced on purpose, they just mean at some point they slipped in as people started travelling and freight/cargo started coming in.

NZ Department of Converstion on Wasps

German and common wasps
The more widespread German and common wasps live in large colonies, about the size of a soccer ball, but which can become huge if they manage to survive over winter.

The German wasp was introduced with United States aeroplane parts in the 1940s and the common wasp arrived relatively recently but is now widespread. These two are very similar in appearance, and both have the characteristic black and yellow colouration.

German wasp nests are grey. Common wasp nests are brown.

German wasps were a known accidental introduction, they're not sure how common wasps got in. There are tighter biosecurity checks these days.

[Elfdart]

I find it highly ironic that it appears that the Burmese Python is becoming threatened in large areas of its native habitat by people eating them. We need to import 50,000 Burmese hunters to just comb the everglades back and forth for five years or ten years until the things are eradicated, or else put all the Mexican illegals INS catches to work doing it. As I recall a Chinese company is already helping try to suppress the Asian carp in the midwest, shipping the meat back to China since nobody wants to eat it in the US.

My brother is going up on a pork chopper next weekend in part because some asshole(s) thought it was a good idea to introduce Eurasian wild pigs to the southern US. And because you can shoot invasive/pest species in Texas without a permit, and because he's got a new barbecue sauce he wants to try out.

[Slacker]

A buddy of mine seriously wants to do this as his bachelor party.

More on-topic, the disconnect between regulations for imports and domestics in the aquatic industry are just as ridiculous. I can go to the corner fish store and buy a school of wild-caught pretty fucking rare corydoras from Peru with twenty bucks and a smile, which isn't such a big deal. The fact that I can do the same with a pacu, which grows to six feet long, can weigh about four hundred pounds, and can survive in the dead of winter, is a big deal. But if I want to set up a native biotope as a project for my life science students with a couple of local sunfish or killies? Forget it. I'm literally running into this problem right now.