Results

This overview discusses the nature of the international trade in wild reptiles and the impediments to enforcing those laws that protect reptile species. The concerns of ownership, such as zoonotic disease, injury to the animal itself, and threats to public safety, are also presented.

The international trade in wild-caught reptiles has been cause for increasing concern, especially over the last few years. Federal, state and foreign laws are seemingly broken everyday as hundreds of thousands of reptiles are imported and exported each, mostly for the pet trade. In addition to depleting our natural resources and threatening many species with extinction, the reptiles are treated inhumanely and can even pose a health risk to people and the environment.

Much debate has surfaced surrounding so-called “eco-terrorism.” Some commentators argue that such activity is not and should not be called terrorism. This Comment analyzes these extremist activities through the lens of federal terrorism laws and argues that, while these activists’ goals are laudable, their methods are often terroristic. Consequently, those activities that go too far are-and should be-classified as terrorism.