Quote Originally Posted by Steveo View Post
It may not be an ecological problem at all if a few got out - they might die and that would be the end of it. But without knowing for certain it's a risk that we should not intentionally take. Prevention is far easier than cleaning up.
I pray that no one would ever intentionally release ANY captive animal into the wild unless it was a native species and they were a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Unfortunately, people still do it.

Quote Originally Posted by Steveo View Post
As an example, U.S. Farmers lose billions every year because one guy wanted to bring the European Starling to the new world. He released a few dozen in NY's Central Park and now they are estimated to number over 100 million birds across the contiguous 48. The English House Sparrow has a similar story. The selfishness of just a few people can alter an entire nation's ecology forever.
True, true. That guy actually released them into the US because Shakespeare had mentioned the European Starling in one of his works, and this crazy guy thought that it would be a good idea to take all the species of birds that Shakespeare mentioned in his plays and release them into the US. .