I think that you did a fair job of expressing your beliefs and viewpoints. Plus, you did all in a very positive manner. I hope the fact that this was an email does not lessen the impact of your letter and I hope that your Rep takes it seriously, weighing the options from many different angles - not just the paranoid environmental viewpoint that allowed for this bill to be written to begin with.



For years, many of us have wanted this hobby/industry to bond together in some sort of cohesive manner. So far, this current situation has allowed for that process to begin taking shape. Nothing unites people like a common enemy. I can only hope that we (the reptile/amphibian community as a whole) do not allow our current momentum to lapse when this current threat has passed (I'm trying to be optimistic).



Together we may well have squashed a very damaging bill from becoming law, if we can do that, there is absolutely no reason or excuse for us to let our current "bond" fall apart. Hopefully, we will be able to use this as a stepping stone for creating some sort of industry wide standards and eventually even propose and write some of our own bills. Bills that would not only protect the responsible members of our community, but also ones that would target those who have consistently brought negative attention to us.



We need to keep educating the public and bring back some of that "old school" research mentality that will allow us to develop advances in the care of our pets and animals. Breeding for profit is fine, but without new research and discoveries, even the biggest breeder has added nothing to our community.



Stay United.

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