Ernie,

While I won’t address your Obama bashing and right-wing bias I will address your herp industry statements. I see your points about what we are up against but we have to start somewhere. It would be great if people took the time to learn all the issues the herp industry faces and then went and talked to their reps and spoke out but don’t count on it. The majority of folks in our industry are our customers, the pet owners. These folks don’t understand the issues. They need guidance. This is where an all inclusive national herp group can help. By forming an all inclusive herp group we can also begin to collect revenue for the fight. If we got the tens of thousands of herp owners, breeders, dealers, collectors, hobbyists and other herp businesses involved and contributing we could have a good foundation built to begin the fight and we would be organized. Then we could seek non-industry money. We have to start somewhere. It would be great if some rich herper somewhere came out of the woodwork and donated some decent starting capital.

You maybe correct about my statements concerning PIJAC. I do know the represent more than just the herp industry. The dog and cat issues are probably their biggest concern. Either way we need a group focused strictly on herps at the national, state and local levels. PIJAC, for whatever reason, decided not to help here in Texas with our recent “new” herp laws. When I spoke to Bill Brant he told me that they just didn’t have the resources to fight all the “new” herp laws at the national level much less the state and local level. They are stepping up on the boa and python issue and that is great. However, the state and local level is where we are losing (except in NC thanks to NCARK) and we are being chipped away at. Having worked with and been educated by academics this is their modus operandi: The chip-away or baby steps approach. And in recent years they have added the “precautionary principle” and “best available science.” We need a well-funded, all inclusive herp ONLY group to fight for our agenda.

This leads us to USARK. Andrew Wyatt and NCARK defeated the AR agenda in NC. But this was only related to certain herp industry issues like possession of certain species, animal health and public safety. Thus they had some academic support. But the herp industry has bigger more polarizing issues like: wild collection and the sale of wild caught, which many academics are against. The new herp group in Texas, HCU, chose not to support the collection of wild caught for the purposes of sale, thus, in my opinion, sold out the importers and collectors who supply this industry, the pet industry, researchers and educators. Thus they can’t support the entire herp industry as a whole. USARK has not released their position statements as of this post. In order to support the entire industry they must support the commercial and acquisition side of the industry. Time will tell.

Making friends with academics will help us in the long run. Strange as that sounds it will be required. They are in power. As I have stated before, Polly Conrad and SWPARC want our input. It remains to be seen what they will do with it but at least they want it. That is a start. This is the perfect opportunity for us to speak out. If we can mend the divide and work together for herp conservation (wise use – needs defining) we can use the partnership to advance our cause. And we might gain an ally in the war with the AR groups. How? Well, even though it seems that academics and AR groups are in cahoots remember that AR groups are against the use of animals for scientific purposes. Thus those two groups can never be total partners. If we can, finally, convince academia and their supporters of the benefits of the herp industry and managing herps wisely w/o bans we might be able to build a partnership. Not only could this partnership work against the radical AR agenda we could also work together to stop habitat destruction, pollution, human population growth and the other major herp conservation issues that threaten herp species survival. Could be a win/win.

All in all your points are well taken. Apathy is a major problem within the industry. We need leaders, within the industry, to push our agenda but first we need an agenda. I am hopeful that USARK comes through with strong statements against AR leaning academics and full support of wild acquisition and sales (with bag limits IF necessary). We will have to see where all this leads us. One thing is for sure, PETA with a 25 million dollar a year annual budget won’t be slowing down. We can either dig in and fight or watch it all go bye-bye.

Welkerii
El Paso, TX

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