Okay, to be real honest I'm not a big fan of the way the government has been handling the whole exotic pet thing. There are many laws banning large snakes, venomous reptiles and many other things. Some laws are even worse and ban ALL reptiles, amphibians, insects and the like. Alot of these laws are written by people who don't know a thing about reptiles or animals in general, which of course makes me wonder what gives them the right to write a law on it in the first place.

In all honesty, I do understand the intent behind them, at least sometimes. On the news I've heard about pythons, rattlesnakes, monitors and the like escaping, usually after being kept in poor conditions btw, and even harming people. Wasn't there a case several years back of a python allegedly eating a child? See the problem is that in all these cases these were irresponsable people owning the animals in the first place. Nobody who cared about their animals would keep them in a trailor or bath tub. And in the case of eating a child, that requires quite a bit of time. What sort of person would be stupid enough to leave their child alone for that long. And finally, lets face it, there are a fair numbr of people out there who fall into the "ghetto" or "white trash" categories who own animals that they should by no means have.

I think that one thing that must be done is to show that not all reptile owners are negligent. We have to be more vigilant and keep the public aware of that. For every idiot who keeps an alligator in the back of his trailer, there are dozens more people who keep their animals healthy and in proper conditions. Its just that they don't make the news. Furthermore, and this is perhaps the most vital, we have to send a political message. There are an awful lot of exotic pet owners. If you can find out which Senators, Mayors and the like vote against owning exotics, then maybe you should post it on the forums, spread the word that those people are against the hobby and vote against them. If they know they could get elected out of office, maybe they would change their tone.

And seriously, don't support communities that you know are anti-reptile. Example, over here there are a couple places here in Illinois (Aurora and Rolling Meadows) which prohibit owning any reptiles. Well the best thing to do here would be to spread the word. Don't move to any of these communities, and make sure other herpers know. Also, don't do any business in these locales.

With politicians getting more and more worked up over this Monkey Pox scare, I'm betting it won't be long before our "benevolent government" steps in to "protect" us from our pets. If it comes down to it, write your politicians, vote for the parties that oppose banning exotics and just try and get the government to relax it's grip. That federal law against baby turtles is stupid enough. Lets hope that it won't be repeated. If the government makes federal laws banning more animals, I might very well be tempted to leave the country.

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