Fish and Wildlife were certainly being very strict at this show, and I thought that they really should have had more emphasis on safety and practicality and less on the exact letter of the law. For instance, it is obviously much safer to place a snake in a semi-secure container inside a locked box than it is to remove the snake from the container, bag it up and put it inside the box. But since the regulations specified bags, more hands-on handling happened. Some vendors were able to put their containers inside the bags, others presented enough logistical problems (no bag big enough to fit the container and tie in an overhand knot) that the snakes had to be removed from the containers and bagged.



However I still prefer a strictly supervised show to what I've seen in other venues which didn't seem to have any rules at all. A few years ago I saw a young boy at one show pick up a rattlesnake in an untaped deli cup and shake it around. I personally found that a lot more disturbing than being stared at by a lot of guys in uniforms at Daytona.



Anyhow the F&W officers seemed reasonably polite. One of them did give me the anal retentive third degree about the snake rescue service I was recruiting for, because we pick up so many venomous snakes. I know that their interest is in the welfare of the animals and in conserving the species in the wild, so I guess I can put up with it. As long as they are doing the biologically right things to really save the animals, not the politically correct but biologically wrong things, I'm definitely on the same page as they are. Unfortunately that isn't always what happens.



I hope we are on the same page because I am genuinely doing my best to save the wildlife, but it's possible that I'll be due for some official attention of the annoyingly anal retentive variety. Frankly I don't blame anybody who stayed home from Daytona or decided not to have a table. I'm not sure yet whether or not I'll be sorry that I had a small photo display and some flyers at the venomous show. I know that some other folks definitely were.

[ Show Entire Thread ]