I think the very best gains could be made if all parties involved swallowed their damn pride and admitted that mistakes have been made, then agreed to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.

Yes, reptile dealers, owners, importers, etc. have probably made mistakes by releasing, disposing, and improperly securing cages in the past. Yes, Hurricane Andrew very likely had the largest impact of any single action on the population of Burms in the ENP. The reptile enthusiasts all know this, and the scientific orgs also know this (although they're probably being misquoted repeatedly by the media so we don't think that's the situation).

Additionally, the scientific community/government orgs could and should admit that they have, in general, approached this the wrong way by trying to portray our industry as a group of stupid, irresponsible, extremists, and by choosing to publish VERY poor quality science.

If a press conference were called with the USFWS, USGS, NPS/ENP, as well as representatives from the reptile industry and we all agreed that the current route is a complete and utter waste of time and then state that we are all dedicating ourselves to a TRUE solution, I bet we could actually make some real progress.

But to do this, we'll all have to check our egos at the door, forget about the past, and bury the hatchet. I feel confident in saying that if the orgs admitted they made mistakes and were earnestly seeking our help and involvement, that our industry could probably admit the same then we could all move on (as a whole, obviously there will be individual outliers) and we could make a serious dent in this problem and ABSOLUTELY come up with better standards to prevent situations like this from happening in the future.

The question is; is this just a dream of mine? Anyone ready to swallow their pride first?

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

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