Feral, it sounds like irresponsible exotic pet ownership pisses you off. If someone has the time, money, and know-how to appropriately care for an exotic animal, I say they can knock themselves out. Besides, many animals live significantly longer in captivity than they do in the wild, and education programs aren't out of the question just because an animal is hybridized.
It's still dangerous and stupid on many levels, and unfair to the captive wild animals. They cannot be actual pets by definition. Few people who own exotics actually have the needed amount of money, time or expertise to keep them. What they do have is enough ego and naivete to want a "special" "pet" because it's cool and unique. Exotic pet permit requirements are laughable; exotic pet laws are actually woefully outdated, inadequate, and poorly enforced due to lack of LEO manpower to do the job. The majority of the animals suffer poor quality lives in constrained confinement that is inherently cruel for animals that naturally roam over huge territories, and that have dispositions suited to surviving; intelligence and curiosity and natural paranoia. A private owner cannot enrich a captive wild animal's enclosure enough to keep it's mind properly stimulated. It's a huge challenge in zoos, which have the expertise, manpower and facilities, so how can an exotic pet owner even come close to that level of care? Even zoo keepers admit they can barely keep their animals occupied. This is why exotic pets can be so dangerous. A captive tiger needs the same things as a wild one; to stalk grazing animals, failing often and then succeeding in a kill, it needs many square miles of wild habitat, it needs the presence of other tigers to compete over turf with and for mates. Who can provide that? Maybe Ted Turner, on his gazillion acre ranch, but nobody else.
Education, sure, but not conservation. I don't think that someone who isn't part of an actual conservation/research/educational program should own wildlife. No pets, no entertainment. The entire 'pet wildlife' industry (from trappers to breeders to buyers) is irresponsible- and it's not just PETA freaks saying that. Biologists, ecologists, and other experts point out the damage caused to local ecosystems (Examples: population decline in rainforests as a direct result of the pet trade, and Florida's ongoing problems with introduced species like pythons), the introduced diseases, breeding mills for the ~20% or so animals that weren't caught in the wild, the huge percentage (as high as 90% depending on species) of animals that end up dead during transport, the lack of regulation, all before we even get into the common problems in private ownership situations or the entertainment industry. That a few animals have managed to live longer in captivity just means they are the lucky ones.
This times ten. Even in the aquarium hobby, salt water mini reef aquarium hobbyists are evolving the hobby to depend on captive bred species of fish and crustacean that have naturally tiny territorial zones in the wild, and to grow tank raised corals and anemones only. Over capture and harvest of specimen fish, crustaceans, mollusks and coral reef chunks ("live rock") for the hobby has become a big enough problem that CITES restrictions are being enforced with vigor. The world's reefs are dying out from temperature fluctuations and agricultural runoff fast enough. Adding in the additional destructive pressure from coral harvesting and animal capture is the icing on the cake, in a very bad way.
I live in Florida. The problem with released pet snakes has become a bigger every day nightmare than just the news stories illustrate. There's also the issue of tons of other exotic species that thrive in this climate and ecosystem. All of them from the exotic pet trade; tarantulas, poison dart frogs, toads, many species of snakes, parrots, monkeys, fish, fruit bats, etc. etc.
