Dear Mr. Whittington;

In regards to your query above ...



>>I hate to but I have to ask just who are you



Your question is valid and one that I’ve been challenged with before on other forums.

Basically, I’m your (overgrown) paperboy. I collect a variety of herp-related press items from multiple sources and then post them with accreditation to where I think they can be most educational. The idea being, to spread ‘awareness’ of what the popular press is saying about our favourite critters.



>> why do you always post these articles which are often inaccurate and shed a negative light on the hobby?



Well, after doing this since about 1994 (since about 2003 on Kingsnake.com), I’ve discovered that there is a significant dearth of ‘good news’ items about large snakes, iguanas, crocodilians or anything venomous. I can only post what is produced.

As for accuracy … you’re correct that a lot of items have significant errors within them. But in my modest experience with the 12,000 press items in my herp-press archives, most journalists do try to ‘get the story straight’ … but lack the background knowledge so basic to forums such as this to even know that they are making a mistake (Who here looks something up if they ‘know’ it to be true?) Yes, there are some phobic reporters – or some plain sloppy ones – but for the most part, their intentions to ‘report accurately’ are good (if somewhat over-the-top at times).



The 'bad-herp' press items are already out there … posting them here in a specialist herper forum does no damage to the hobby. In fact, it is my modest hope that quite the opposite happens! By posting a press item here – good or bad (granted, mostly bad in tone), it’s my hope that the experienced among you can write a passionate but well mannered and most importantly knowledgable, correction to the press piece to the paper concerned. And while any rebuttal of yours may not undue any great damage done by a particularly bad item, your printed correction may affect a few readers to change their mind, or at the very least, educate a reporter in the error of his work.



To reiterate, the stories are already out in the public forum, for good or bad! I post them in the specialist forums so that herpers can see what is being done to or said about herps in a particular area … and possible, hopefully go someway in containing the damage. Our herp-group ignorance of what is going on out there does not, in my modest opinion, help our educational cause.



And last, as for all the ‘negative’ stories … if you can find me a ‘feel-good’ one about Buffy the Blond Boa or Cuddles the Caiman saving a four year old child from a neighbour’s feral-outdoor tomcat … I’ll make sure it gets posted.



Your peers that have bearded dragons or dart frogs do get good and supportive press, but I’m a feared that the ‘boid’ breeders, monitor-people and croc-keepers are going to continue to take it on the chin from an unsympathetic press for some time in the future. Drama sells papers – and some of our charges don’t exactly make the cuddly-critter cut.



Be aware of what is being said about your hobby elsewhere, and intelligently respond to it. Just make sure that your response is better researched than the original press piece.



I hope and trust that I've answered your query.



Cheers and respects,

Wes von Papineäu

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