Posted by:
oldherper
at Wed Oct 15 15:59:59 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by oldherper ]
but what's more disturbing to me is that we (herpers) are ALLOWING it to happen. These people that are trying to get these bans passed are vocal and organized. We are not. They are running roughshod over us UNOPPOSED!
In the state of Georgia there is not a statewide active Herp Society or organization of any kind to protect our rights, nor is there a national one that is geared to protecting the rights and priveledges of private herpers. That is sad and it will be our undoing, but try to get people involved to change it. Nobody has time.
If we are going to continue to exist, we have to get organized on a state level and a national level and fight back. We have to police our own ranks, because every time someone gets into trouble for smuggling illegal reptiles, possessing illegal animals, allowing a venomous (or large)animal to escape, it just gives them more ammunition to fight us with. And we aren't fighting at all. We have the animal rights groups such as HSUS and PETA against, and now the insurance companies are joining in.
Couple that with the fact that, except for small groups like this forum, we aren't giving anything back. By and large private herpers do nearly nothing to contribute to conservation efforts. That doesn't fare well for us either when we get to the planning table for this sort of legal action. It looks like all we want to do is take. We have to be able to show what we are doing to help the plight of the animals as opposed to just taking them from the wild and what we are doing to assure compliance with existing regulations.
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Yes, that is disturbing..... - oldherper, Wed Oct 15 15:59:59 2003