Personally in light of the testimoney before congress I think we should offer our assistance to the researchers working on this problem of invasive herps. Even though most of us are responsible and knowledgable keepers the herps are here directly or indirectly because of the Industry at large. I believe I speak for ALL of us when I say WE ARE DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE EVERGLADES and the possible impact these herps can make on the eco system. Also I believe those of us that are in this Industry need to be more careful how we conduct business and more importantly how we contain our stock. The days of insecure enclosures are over and we should police our ranks or someone else will do it for us. I call on everyone to tighten up our protocal and make sure this never happens again. I believe that the attacks against us were for the most part unreasonable and Mother Nature has proved us right in all of our predictions concerning the places where these snakes can survive. Many of us have MORE EXPERTISE in these Pythons than any researcher regardless of our educational backgrounds because of decades of studies and observations of these snakes. It is my belief we could be an extraordinary asset to the researchers and we wouldn't ask for a dime in government money to do so. If Skip Snow, Frank Mazzotti, or anyone else ask I will be ammendable to doing whatever is asked of me if it's in my power to do so. I'm sure most of my peers feel the same way. At this point the ball is in your court and it's a win, win situation. Sorry for the long post and thanks...
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Tom Crutchfield

www.tomcrutchfield.com

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