"When the ODNR working group met in 199 to develop the standards for the new law no one in the group had ever seen a pit tag before except the ODNR consultant who recommended their usage, Doug Wynn. Doug Wynn is a Westerville North school teacher who has been working with the Eastern Plains Garter and the Eastern Massaauga Rattlesnake. Wynn told the group that he could safely implant a snake as small as eight inches. The four gauge syringe used to inplant the pit tag is a large in diameter as any native eight inch snake.
The Eastern Plains Garter snake populations have crashed since implanting began about six years ago. I spoke to Dr. Norm Reichenbach who has been working with this population T.s. radix that I identified in 1974. Norm was at a loss to explain the decline. All studies conducted on the health of the habitat showed positive results.
Several field research assistants have told me that they have never recovered a snake once it has been implanted. Over two hundred T.s.radix were implanted and taken to the Columbus Zoo for a captive breeding project. They were all dead in less than thirty days. Pit tags were not designed to be used on reptiles, the manufacturer now recommends that only a vet perform this surgical procedure. Given the training of most vets even then it would not be safe. For liabilities purposes the manufacturer wants to put the vet between them and a lawsuit."
This is a post by Terry Wilkins, the owner of Captive Born Reptiles and a personal friend of mine. He is a highly respected Herpetologist and is fighting for reptile owners rights. Last week a new forum has been posted and we would like any and all help that we can get to help fight for our right to own exotic species of animals. Even people from other states are not excluded from this. Right now other states are starting to copy the same rules that Ohio goverment is making to supposedly "conserve" Ohio native species of snakes. Please help the cause and sign up for free and post your feelings at
www.nationalherplobby.org.
Any and all support that can be given is a further step to help preserve OUR (everyone in the united states) right to own and keep our reptiles and help to truly conserve our states native species. Thank You everyone for your time and we would greatly appreciate your support.
Chris
