Tim,

This is going to be a bit between the eyes…sorry!



Can you tell the difference between a bluegill and a crappie, a mallard drake and a pintail hen, a marmot and a woodchuck, and a Harris hawk and a Harrier on the wing? If not, then you’re stupid too, and by your own definition not qualified to protect wildlife either!



Have you ever witnessed a news worthy event, and then read about it in the newspaper later and then wondered if the reporter was actually there? And since when does the person who actually does the work for a political type actually get credit for doing the work? People climbing the ladder in any organization will always be the first to the microphone even if (and this is often the case) they have no idea what is actually going on.



If the guy that got busted selling wild caught animals had albino rat snakes in his collection, then human nature dictates there must be something wrong with breeding albino rat snakes to the guy who can’t tell the difference.



All of your anger, and .75 cents will get you a Coke out of a vending machine, but it won’t solve the problem. Believe me on this one, I drink Cokes all day long!



If you want to affect change you have got to suck it up, and give the guy the benefit of the doubt and TELL HIM “I do appluad them for catching some of the actual "bad guys" who were selling wild caught animals.” Then, and this is the hard part, listen to his concerns and problems. More often than not you will find the guys actually doing the work are just as frustrated as you are, but possibly for different reasons (though I’ll bet one of their frustrations is the loudmouth at the microphone that just turned their hard work into meaningless sound bites that have nothing to do with what actually occurred), so you need to find out what those reasons are, that way you can understand where the guy is coming from, and try to win him over to your side. Then, and only then, you can educate him, but educate in a positive way like you would an old family friend, and you will be amazed at the response you will get, especially if you also offer solutions to their problems at the same time. For example, find out what kind and size of PIT tags they want to use. There are a number of manufacturers out there and many of them have different sized tags. Personally, I like Trovan tags for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they have a small tag that I have successfully used on chorus frogs with little to no mortality, and you can’t get critters much smaller than that to accept a tag. Further, Trovan has an information package available form some of the sales reps about different methods for implanting the tags in different animals. I rarely use the needle that comes with the tag to actually insert the tag in an effort to reduce the size of the opening in the skin remaining after tag insertion. I also generally use a “V” shaped cut in the skin to aid in closure and healing of the insertion point. Then present the information you just learned in the form of an acknowledgement of the problem followed by a question. “I know there are people out there who poach animals from the wild, so we need to be able to differentiate between wild and captive animals, but instead of using the AVID cattle PIT tags, can we use the Trovan pet tags that are half the size? The AVID reader will still read the Trovan tags, but the smaller tags will be a lot less painful for the animals during insertion and help reduce complications.” Then you will have their attention, because you just proved, without calling them idiots and alienating them that you are concerned about the problem and know more about the technology than they do, but you did it in a non-threatening manor that will earn you brownie points and credibility. Now you can ask if it is really necessary to PIT tag albino animals that would not survive in the wild, and thus must be from captive stock.



Send me some info on what PIT tags they intend to use, and I’ll be glad to give you some feedback on products and techniques to make the procedure better and safer for your application. I, given a week or so, could even come up with a bibliography of research papers that outline minimum animal sizes for various PIT tags, and the reported mortalities. Being able to give people copies of published papers always gives you credibility.



In other words, find ways to make friends with the guys trying to protect wildlife not enemies, and offer to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem, or learn to enjoy drinking a can of Coke all by yourself with no herps.



Again, sorry if this was a bit harsh. I in no way intended any offence to you, but you needed to hear yourself and the message you were sending from the other guy’s perspective.



Big Brother

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