Thank you. I don't think we need to take the news reports at face value but instantly jumping to the conclusion that it is a multi-agency consipiracy is kind of out there. And I've certainly seen some really scuzzy places that met that description; animals dead and decaying in cages, crawling with mites, obviously ill (bubbling at the mouth), unheated...hell there's a place right here in Amarillo that sounds like that and I've never been able to get them busted (I have tried). So just dismissing it out of hand isn't really appropriate, because we know that places do operate that way. Yes, there needs to be an actual investigation, but perhaps we shouldn't be in such a rush to circle the wagons? Anytime a group of people refuses any and all criticism and refuses to acknowledge internal problems it makes them look like self assured ijits.

Bad things do happen in our hobby. It sucks but it's true. Otherwise reptile rescues and adoptions wouldn't be needed. Otherwise I wouldn't have had to take in a sickly Florida king from a kid that shouldn't have had it. Otherwise the local crap-shop would be shut down for displaying a freaking croc monitor in a damn parrot cage or for having a burm in a rabbit hutch. Rather than sticking our heads in the sand and refusing to admit that there's a problem we need to find a way to deal with it. Publicly condemn them, maybe help write legislation that addresses basic care requirments for commercial operations, maybe just refuse to do business with them once they come to light...but don't pretend it's hunky-dory.

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