Resolution 2: HCU does not support the collection of any reptile or amphibian from the wild for the purposes of sale, including, but not limited to, the wholesale commercial collection of turtles for food markets and similar trade in rattlesnake skins, meat, and organs.



This is the resolution that get's certain commercial collectors / poachers panties in a wad.



Panties in a wad, yes..



I was thinking more like.. well.. reptiles and amphibians are solar powered, and they do use alot less energy to sustain themselves as opposed to mammals who are endotherm, and have to invest a lot of energy in order to maintain a preferred body temperature.

So essentially, a cow would have to eat a lot more grass than an iguana to produce a pound of meat. I am no genious in biology, in fact I even lack a bachelor in that field, or any field for that matter. Still, a cow does have to maintain a very steady mammalian bodyheat while the iguana recieves it´s heat directly from the environment, s the cow must be using more anergy than the iguana to produce a pound of meat, right? From this perspective it would seem more environmentally friendly to switch our base diet from cows to iguanas, wouldn´t you agree?

Whether cows and iguanas are farmed or hunted sustainably from the wild doesn´t really make much of a difference from this stand, the cows, or buffalos, or zebras or whatever mammales will still have used more recources than the reptilians, who are a more energy-efficient organism.

Further, many herptilians feed on alternative food sources than vegetation. Many of them eat insects and other pests that would otherwise harm the same vegetation which is used to feed domestic cattle? for these reasons I regard your second resolution a little absurd.



I don´t understand how you as the functioning spokesman for the HCU advocate no commercial harvesting of herptiles. Since you don´t support commercial harvest of wils reptiles and amphibians, do you support wild harvest of any kind of mammals?



There are other parts about your organization I find more puzzling though..

For starters, I don´t like your logo, I think USark has a much nicer one.

Secondly, the links section hardly contains any links. One would think that dealers, breeders, hobbyists and government bodies alike would like, or really crave, to have a link on your site, but links section is almost completely empty, why is that?

Third, your forum is mostly inactive. If you in 4 years have not achieved any hardly any forum activity, then what good is your organization?

the HCU was founded same year as reptilweb, the smallest norwegian reptile forum. Norway is a small country with some 4.5 million inhabitants in total. In Comparison the US is a vast giant!



The HCU forum has;

Total Messages: 1632 Total Subjects: 339

In comparison Reptilweb has

Total Messages: 27100 • Total Subjects: 3149

One should perhaps expect the opposite in these figures, seen that reptilweb is the smallest reptile forum in a tiny winy country where reptile keeping has been illegal for the past three decades, no?



In my opinion the HCU has failed miserably in reaching out to the general public of herpetoculturists. How can you change peoples opinion and conduct, when you do not reach out to them, and they do not show any interest in listening to you?



But, you have been collecting donations, yes? how much? small pile of money? big pile of money? Which brings me back to my next question, what have you done for conservation lately?



Back to your constitution;

"Article 4: Meetings of HCU shall be held annually, and (a) may be held as stand-alone meetings or

(b) may be held in conjunction with the meetings of Subsidiary, Affiliate, or Partner organizations.

(c) should be announced in the Quarterly Newsletter at least 6 months prior to the date of the meeting."



I can´t find any trace of these meetings on your website, are they secret?



"Section 3: Policy Statements of HCU

(a) shall reflect positions taken in regards to current political and societal events concerning reptiles and amphibians

(b) and while the Executive Board is encouraged to consult the voting and Affiliate membership

(c) may be made solely at the discretion of the Executive Board of Officers"



Secret meetings, closed forum for members only and the real important decisions are made hush-hush in the background I take?



Article 5;



"Section 2: Resolutions of HCU

(a) shall reflect statements of principal under which HCU operates (b) shall be listed in the text of the Constitution of HCU

(c) may be proposed by any voting member

(d) and shall be enacted with a 2/3 majority vote of ballots received"



Could you please define what you mean by "statements of principal", and point to any source of these which is publicly available on your site?

Mr. Forks, when everything is going on in the background in your organization, and there is no news coming in, no conservation initiatives published and no reference to what exactly happens with the donation money which is coming in, how do you expect the terrarium-folks to trust your organization, and live by it´s principles?



Kind regards

obeligz

vivarium consultant, reptilweb, REXANO

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