Ashley and to all that replied to her post:

Yes, yes, and YES! We must encourage responsible exotic ownership. If we don't, our hobby that we love so much could be in jeopardy... if it isn't already. I guess you could say I'm one of the new guys (only been in the hobby for about 5 years), but I take pride in my animals and I enjoy educating kids about reptiles and reptile ownership. I love these animals and I cannot imagine myself without animals in my life, but I do know my limits. I have been tempted to buy certain animals like iguanas and retics (like most of you have), but I knew myself and knew the animals care requirements, and I stopped myself. And what sets us "responsible" reptile owners apart is that we KNOW what we are getting into when we buy these large and possibly dangerous animals. Take my Alligator Snapper for example. Before I even knew where to purchase the turtle, I KNEW everything there was to know about this species. I KNEW it grew to 200 pounds. I KNEW the turtles dietary requirements. I KNEW the species inside and out. And I knew what I was getting myself into, and I was prepared for a lifetime of turtle ownership with this single animal. THAT is responsible reptile ownership. Most people DON'T do that. They just go to the local herp shop and pick out the critter that they think is cool, but know NOTHING about. If people would stop and think before aquiring an exotic pet, the hobby probably wouldn't be getting the "abuse" it has from the "humaniacs".

Now to add my 2 cents....

I admit, I am not as informed about what is happening to our hobby as most of you are (like what the Human Society has been up to), but I am aware that we MUST do something to stop with "irresponsible" trend in reptile ownership. And in this herpetoculturists opinion, we MUST put a stop to wild caught animals. We have the technology to captive breed EVERY species on this planet, all we have to do is stop being so ingnorant and do it. This is coming from a guy that has had WC animals before and to put it blunt... they suck. Most WC don't do well in captivity and end up dead very shortly after the person purchases it. So why bother with them? Why take the risk of getting a unhealthy import when you could have a healthy and happy captive bred animal. That to me is a no brainer. Wild caughts belong in the wild, and why do we need them anyway?? We have literally THOUSANDS of captive bred animals every year! All we need is one 1.1 pair of wild caught animals of every desired "pet" species to produce a wealth of CB offspring for the herpetoculture community.

The bottom line is, if we want to HAVE reptiles in the future, we are going to have to start protecting both the hobby of keeping exotics and the exotics themselves in the wild. Thanks for reading.

Adam Dispenza
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ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE (Captive Bred, 4 1/2 inches)

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