Brad, I will not even consider joining the group until the Constitution is re-written. It is bad for any hobbyist and especially bad for a group of hobbyists to support the banning agenda. It is plainly written in the Constitution that you guys do not support the sale of wild caught herps. This is totally unacceptable to me. It is sell out agenda posturing to me.

Your ex-president stated that HCU supports the idea of the White and Black Lists. The Lists are crap. I did my Masters thesis on comparing the White and Black List to natural history and herp industry data it failed to come close on natural history data for most species. It scored a 56% for four characters, that is a big fat "F". It is a bad regulation. It is regulation just for the sake of regulation. We already have a system in place to protect species it is called an Endangered and Threatened List. They should have put in some bag limits for species if they were concerned not prohibit commercial harvest of Black Listed species.

A member of your group was part of the Box Turtle Partnership of Texas. They succeeded in stopping the captive reproduction and sale in native Texas turtles (except the food turtles which were the ones going to China by the tens of thousands) by pushing the banning agenda. That is unacceptable to me. You can't go from unregulated harvest to no harvest which is what TPWD did basically (I won't argue with you about the 6 of each species you can collect because you can't reproduce them and sell offspring).

You have or had members that spread lies about me and my business. You guys attacked me and called me names on the forums. When what I was talking about was 100% true = you guys will need to buy and sell wild caught and your members do buy and sell wild caught now (back then and now). You have members who buy, sell and trade wild caught herps and then go to the TPWD commission meeting and bad mouth commercial people. That is hypocritical sell out behavior. Why don't your members admit what they do? Why do they pretend that they don't? It is this elitist self serving attitude and total disregard for others or the effects that it has on the industry that is unacceptable to me.

I am not saying that you did any of this. You sure do defend them though and you are a member so this makes you look bad in that regard. I am not saying that every member of HCU is bad or that they are not fighting the good fight on the road ban. I am saying the way you guys set up your Constitution and treated me and other folks is unnacceptable. Your positions are bad for the industry in an indirect way. Not admitting what many members do and then bad mouthing fellow herpers for calling you on it is not good. You should stand strong against the banning agenda. We collect and sell wild caught because of x, y, and z and its sustainable! Rather then giving in to TPWD about the selling of wild caught herps or the idea of the White and Black list regulation.

USARK is not as picky as me and they need all the help they can get. And they see that we all need to band together. I think we need to all band together too. I tried to explain this to you guys three years ago. But you have to support the industry platform. We have great science based arguements for the need and the use of sustainable harvest. If animals are sustainably harvested it doesn't matter if they are sold. It doesn't matter if everyone does it or not. Everyone needs to support the right to sustainably harvest any species not listed as Endangered or Threatened. Everyone needs to support the right to sell sustainably harvested wild caught herps. It is the only way to leave the door open for new blood and support businesses and hobbyists that do this. We are all in the same boat even HCUers!

Welkerii

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