Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/city/e05looseliz.htm
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np

It is extremely unlikely that the Salvator in the story poses any threat to anyone. People live right beside them in their native land. They are probably the scaly equivelent of racoons here. What is all the hype & hysteria you get when a reptile escapes? How did reptiles in general get such bad reputations?

Just catch it and be done with it. When people move to southern Florida they know there are gators there don't they? They just live with it or call animal control. But they know they are there right?

I mean really? I guess I just have my stoopid hat on today cause I am just not getting it.

Later

np

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np

KNEE!!

n/p
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1.2 Mali Uromastyx (Ricky, Quinn, Anna)
0.1 Yellow Ackies (Roxie)
1.0 Timor (Zealot)

Emily
www.egomantra.com/npoh

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Christine :>~

I'll try to help clear things up for you. I think reptiles have such bad reputations is because they are diferent. They have scales for one thing and they are cold blooded. I think the name cold blooded puts some fear into people too. A reptile through the eye of the general public is nothing more than a cold blooded monster that wants to hunt out people. But to the herping public like you and I they are not those monsters that people claim them to be. We took the time to learn about these creatures,and understand them for what they really are. To the people that say they are just monsters are just ignorant. They won't take the time to learn about them and realize they are not monsters that want to eat humans. Not many people see a snake or lizard and say "awww its so cute" Like they would for a dog or cat. They must not get that reptiles don't "cuddle" or sit on your lap. They don't understand what reptiles are really about.

Dogs and horses kill more people in a year than captive reptiles have in the last decade or two. But you don't see any laws or regulations about them do you?

I also think that movies play a part in their bad rep. Just like shark movies. movies like "lake placid" "python" "anaconda" By the way I have seen all of thoses movies for laughs and each animal was oversized and had "powers" that normal animals do not have. I guess its a fear factor thing?

Hope that helped.

Mike

Cheese factor of 10, but plenty of ginormous CGI dragons. As you stated, the formula was: take supposed dangerous animal and increase size and aggression factor by 100. Get really bad actors, and stir - voila, you've got straight to video B movie crap featuring man-eating lizards.

differently.

If I am ignorant of something or afraid of it I usually go try to figure it out. Granted I am not going to walk up to something and grab it if I don't understand it but crap. All it takes these days is a little typing and you can learn about anything these days.

Thanks for the help though I knew that angle. Most of my family members are afraid of herps.

Many of my friends and family are afraid of herps. I try to teach some of them that reptiles won't come and hunt you down ect. The way I think of it is if you get one person to understand what reptiles are about then maybe that person will teach somone and so on. It may work. I have had a few people that I have talked to actually ask me questions about keeping heprs. So it's a start in the right direction right? Getting more people to understand herps will help this hobby a lot. Or atleast thats what I think.

Mike

I understand and have been doing that for almost 16 years. I would frequently handle the herps in the pet store were I worked. There was a young red tail boa that used to hang out around my neck while I caught fish & rang customers up.

It got a lot of questions and I think it may have actually changed a few oppinions. Yeah, I know maybe not the most responsible thing or way to do it but it got results. People who came into the store knew there were herps so the reaction was only fairly more exciteable than normal when one was out. It also was a great selling tool. Have any of you ever seen how long parakeets sit in a cage before they are bought or die?

We used to get one out at a time and get it used to sitting on a play ground thing on the counter right by the register. Everyone wanted to hold it or touch it and then buy it. Point is if you can get someone close to some thing they may not other wise encounter they at least become curious and receptive to conversation.

It is usually a few close minded people who would rather harbor their fears & concernes from a "safe distance" that are the most trouble. You know, those that don't want to learn.

Later.

well, more like four or five maybe. I used to live in the Tampa area of florida and somewhere in that area a woman walked out on her back porch to find a 6-7 foot lizard basking on her deck. The authorities believed it to be a nile monitor(after viewing a photo i realized it was an asian water monitor, a fact later cleared up). I saved the articles, i shall try and find them.