I agree with pretty much everything you said. We also need to tighten up our defense--we need to put ourselves in the AR groups and junk-scientists shoes, and think of how they would attack us. We need to police ourselves by identifying any potential problems in the herp industry and nip them in the bud, because like Brad Chambers said, once herp problems get into the media, we get owned.

I'll try to give an example. I don't know how the import business works, and whether or not these animals are farmed, but I see Russian tortoises at PETCO every time I go in there. All my local pet shops carry them. I'm assuming most of them die since PETCO knows less about reptiles than Bill Nelson does, and that could be a potential point of attack for AR groups: "Oh these herp people are causing the extinction of these tortoises--lets ban them all to save them!" Not sure if it is valid, but it is just a thought.

Bottom line, we need to shore up our weaknesses.

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