Reptile & Amphibian Forums

An 11-minute streaming video on why the only people who could possibly do even a decent job of caring for reptiles are the people who work at zoos:

http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/hsus/video_features/reptiles.smi

The site where I found the video:

http://65.61.158.165/ace/12055

True...reptiles aren't for everyone, but neither are dogs, cats, cars, or children but what we need to do is to focus on captive breeding (which we already do) and on educating people on the care of reptiles.
And while we're at it, many people still need to be educated on the responsibilities of caring for dogs and cats and goldfish.
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.Owen.:.

Go Tulane Green Wave!

"That Owen kid...man...he really loves that snake of his." ~Owen

0.1 red blood python (Daphne)
1.1 Borneo pythons (Augmented and Diminished)
1.0 Okeetee corn snake (Ozzy)
0.1 ball python (Caroline)
0.1 common snapping turtle (Fluffy)
0.1 Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle (Smeagol)
1.0 fish (Hannibal)
1.1 dogs (Beowulf and Honeysuckle)

There is a common ground of truth to both sides of this debate, and that would be that both sides seem to care about the well being of reptiles. Wow, what a good education to both sides would solve. People will always have animals as pets, and some will thrive and others will not be so lucky. What is important for both sides is to focus on helping the wrong doers, and not to seek out a battle with the ones that love the animals the most. This forum seems to be a fine example of the kind of education that is needed, herpers helping herpers! The more we help educate each other, the better we are at caring for our super cool pets. The better we are with our pets, the better we all feel. LOL, as janis joplin would say "it's all the same fricking thing"! Happy Holidays to you all, and may the New Year be as cool to you as my kid is to me peace out.....

I find it sad that they generalize "reptiles" but use less desirable pets such as green iguanas, burmese pythons, and monitors as examples... I agree that these particular animals are not good pets. They can be good pets for the appropriate keeper, however. I would hope that anyone owning an exotic animal can provide the same care as a zoo for an active reptile like a monitor.

Oh, and do blue tongue skinks need UV light? They're burrowers, so I'm pretty sure they don't. If EVERYTHING they said was true, I might be more inclined to see the video as something worthwhile, but since they generalize, I don't. Education is KEY, and I see pet shops getting better every day as people start demanding more information to prevent things like metabolic bone disease.

All you can do is hope that people like us can educate people faster than people who are afraid of reptiles can convince legislators to ban them.

Yeah some of those generalizations made my jaw drop...as did the statement that because there are 600 or so species of reptiles commonly kept in the US, nobody will be able to learn how to take care of any of them.

god...I don't even know how many fish species are kept in this country, but I know it's a whole lot more than 600...and how many fish end up being flushed down the toilet?

UV lights for all reptiles? I've never used it for any of my snakes and I don't see their bones falling to bits.

Some of the people trying to ban reptiles as pets have their hearts in the right place: for the sake of the reptiles...but they take it too far when they say that no private citizen is able to keep reptiles happy and healthy.

I went to a pet store a couple of weeks ago and the reptile guy was actually giving some pretty good advice to a couple of guys who wanted to buy some lizards...and their reptiles look healthy and are expensive enough to make someone stop before deciding to buy the baby anaconda or Burm...it felt good to see some education going on in there...and then I asked another guy at the store for some small rats and he showed me his mice and said "These is the smallest rats we got." :/

to education!
-----
.Owen.:.

Go Tulane Green Wave!

"That Owen kid...man...he really loves that snake of his." ~Owen

0.1 red blood python (Daphne)
1.1 Borneo pythons (Augmented and Diminished)
1.0 Okeetee corn snake (Ozzy)
0.1 ball python (Caroline)
0.1 common snapping turtle (Fluffy)
0.1 Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle (Smeagol)
1.0 fish (Hannibal)
1.1 dogs (Beowulf and Honeysuckle)

The video is definately one sided and disturbing. Basically someone has their mind set on something and turns things around in their favor. I really with they could just find something positive to do with their energy instead. The funniest part was definately at the end when the woman with the Iguana rescue said that "no one" should have reptiles as pets. Yes good solution, I'm assuming that she herself is included, and what are we going to do with all the people that already own them! Many people need more education before buying herps, but whoever made the video needed to do alot more research before making the film.
JMHO

J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior