so many wild-caught corns (among all the others) for sale

hi. this is something that has bee vexing me for quite awhile and i just wanted to ask a few things about it.
does anyone know the laws in their states about the sale of wild-caught herps especially corns? i see wild-caught corns for sale all the time in pet stores and on the classified sites like kingsnake.com
with the availability of captive-bred corn snakes being as high as it is are there no laws to stop people from collecting them from the wild just so they can make a quick buck? i've heard people say how hard it is to find a florida king in the wild in florida nowadays when to my understanding it was once one of the most common snakes in florida.
i would have expected that field-collecting for capture and sale would be quite regulated with the declining populations in the wild, but it seems not to be. anyone that knows anything about this i'd love to hear from them. ...jim

The law in my state says that you just can't sell any that are native of the state.

I believe the closest to corns we have wild are black rats.

Here in MD you need a permit from DNR to have wild caught native snakes (including corns), and even to have more than 4 captive bred normal corns. I've seen people at reptile shows, and some pet stores here get busted by DNR before too, so they actually enforce this reasonably well.

wild-caught corns

While I too agree that wild specimens should not be taken for the simple population of pet stores, I do think we need to be able to obtain wild animals for breeding purposes. After all, corn variations that we all appreciate having such as the lavenders and the caramels, ambers, and butters all originated from wild caught snakes that Rich Z. came across in his years of searching. Also, the anery type "B" came from a wild caught specimen, if I'm not mistaken. If those animals had been off limits, would we now have those morphs? Probably not.

The fact is that there are lots of corns in the wild. Georgia forbids the sale of corn snakes as they are native to that state. Apparently, Florida does not. I can sell corns in Missouri ONLY because they are not native (we have great plains rats here, and they cannot be sold or kept in numbers greater than 5).

Should wild populations be protected? Absolutely! Should they be off limits? Absolutely not. At least not in my opinion.

Darin

collecting vs. harvesting

darrin,
i don't think they should be off-limits but i do think that there should be limits and was wondering if people could tell me if there are. my only problem with wild-caught is that there are people going out and "harvesting" large numbers of snakes of whatever they can find and then offering them all for sale. to me this is not a hobbyist or an enthusiast, this is an entrepreneur and this is where there should be some types of restrictions in my opinion. thanks for the reply and giving me an opportunity to clarify my position.... enjoy!!! ---jim

Here in VA I believe that no NORMAL Corn over 16 inches can be sold in pet shops. You can own up to five in your collection but thats it. You can not buy, sell, trade, transport across state lines...
I don't know that there is enough law inforcement to stop wild collecting but perhaps enough to slow down those people who over collect an area just to make money. At least maybe a little bit.

wc