Posted by:
razordance
at Mon Feb 13 18:41:41 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by razordance ]
Personally I wouldn't have an issue with paying $100 for a license to keep certain types of reptiles. I'm a BP lover myself, and although I don't believe that they belong in the same category as snakes such as burms and retics as far as being dangerous, I'd love the opportunity to get a license. I kept a large (5 1/2 foot) BP for several years and had to watch who I mentioned it to because all boids are illegal in my town (We rescued her from a previous owner, so please no posts about how irresponsible I was to flaunt the law . It would have made my day to be able to pay $100 for the right to keep her legally, and if the money goes towards helping out other animals, so much the better. The real problem, which has already been mentioned, is the pet stores which insist on selling anything from a hatchling iguana to a baby burmese python to anyone, adult or not, who has the cash to drop. We're lucky in that we've got some pretty good pet stores in town, stores that make sure you know what you're buying and how to look after it before they take your money (One store in particular recently decided not to sell an adult cockatoo which they probably could have gotten $3000 CDN for because they didn't think they could find someone who could give the bird the attention it needed after spending time in a pet store with people paying attention to it all day. He's now a very popular and happy store pet.) I for one feel that there should be a full size, 6 foot model of an iguana beside every cage full of hatchlings, with a big sign that says 'Same lizard 3 years from now'. I think what it comes down to is that people who do the proper research on a species before obtaining one don't end up with an animal 10 times larger than they expected, so are better prepared for the responsibility. If we feel the need to regulate owners of certain animals, why don't we require people to do that research rather than start banning animals. That way, the animals benefit by going to people who are willing and able to give them proper care throughout their natural lifespan, and we benefit by not having to read in the paper every now and then how some idiot got hurt by the huge snake, or lizard, or dog... that he had no business having in the first place... Sorry for the rant, but I'm tired of living in a town where you can't legally own a damn ferret, pit pull, boid or anything else that our council considers exotic...
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