Let me see if I can address this in a rational manner to make everyone understand the point of view I have. Its our pleasure and honor to be allowed to share our lives with these wonderful animals. To be able to observe and interact with them on a daily basis without the interference of bars or glass when we wish to touch. And its rather obvious that some of them can become very accustomed to being touched and handled.. and indeed even seek out that contact. What we forget to think about is many smaller lizards travel less than 100 ft in their search for food or mates...and that includes leopard geckos. Even large snakes don't travel that far... we cannot compare reptiles to mammals. Mammals have enormous home ranges... Reptiles in comparison have relatively small ranges due to less intense food needs. I believe Monitors have the biggest home range of any reptile...The Komodo Dragon travels the most of any monitor and its still usually under 7 square miles. Crocodiles and Alligators....once they find a territory tend to stay there unless that area dries up. And those territories are usually no more than a square mile. And the only reason these guys move even that much is to be able to find food and mates.. and proper conditions. If proper conditions are provided and their basic needs met..then captivity is rarely a big deal to reptiles. Again, let me stress, these are NOT mammals. They may attempt to escape their enclosure.. but where do we usually find them again? Wedged into some tight crevice that they'll stay in for days at a time. Why? Because they can afford to. They don't need to travel to find food since its brought to them.....Unlike their wild cousins who, day after day, struggle to survive.. fight over every morsel of food they find and are forced to cover vast distances sometimes just for water or food... In exchange for their freedom... we give them a life of easy living... for those of us who truly care and give them the things they need. For all those who deny these living creatures a proper living..I can only say its people like them who make the rest of us in this hobby look bad.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.1.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short) and 2 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice and Mystique))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
1 Gerbil
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

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