The Compromise

When supplying bearded dragons to the pet trade, three ways of improvement can be made to better improve their welfare. Firstly, if these reptiles are being supplied through captive breeding, we can improve or better enforce USDA rules to ensure that they are being followed. If breeders are following USDA regulations, these bearded dragons will receive adequate care, food, and shelter.  It was help reduce “puppy mill” cases or poor breeders who are just using these animals as profit. Poor breeders give their animals just enough care to reproduce and have no regard for their wellbeing. I believe hiring more USDA inspectors or increasing the frequency of these checkups would be best when it comes to improving and ensuring these animals’ welfare.
The second way of improving bearded dragons’ wellbeing through captive breeding is through educating the public. When potential buyers understand that there are bad breeders out there who are just looking for a profit and not caring about the animals’ health or wellbeing they will try to avoid those breeders. People want healthy pets and they (for the most part) care about the species when they are looking for one as a pet. Breeders do not have to get USDA licensed in order to sell their dragons to potential owners or pet stores. If the public is educated on the topic though, they can avoid these bad breeders and will not provide them with their business. If the public (especially pet stores!) stops buying from these bad breeders, they no longer can make a profit and keep their breeding facility running. Eventually, these bad breeders will go out of business and leave only the reputable ones left to sell their healthy happy dragons.
Lastly, for the supporters of catching wild bearded dragons and supplying them to the pet trade in various countries, improvement can be made in the transportation part of the process. It is not recent news that transportation is hard on all animals, but it is especially difficult for wild ones. These animals have never been in captivity before and have only known their native lands for all of their lives. They are also not familiar with being handled by humans. All of these factors add up to an extremely stressful and scary transportation process for them. Not only is it mentally stressful on the animals, it is known to be physically traumatic and damaging to them. Because the smuggling of these animals across borders is illegal, the process is very secretive and rushed. Animals are often shoved into tight, dangerous places to be hidden from authorities, and they also go through many hours of being in this position depending on where they are being transported to. For many hours, these animals can go without food, water, or correct temperature. In order to work with the people who believe in supplying wild-caught dragons to the pet trade, I believe the best idea would be to allow the transportation of this species from Australia to other countries but to heavily regulate the process to ensure that these bearded dragons are receiving adequate care throughout.