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FL Captive Wildlife meeting (long)
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by LarryDFishel on October 13, 2005
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I'm going to Kissimmee this weekend for the meeting regarding the Captive Wildlife Tech support group. I was thinking that I'm not sure what sort of input to give (other than my support for keeping permits availible) since most of what I have to say will be fairly obvious to the person we're meeting with.
While on principle I don't agree with them being required by law, I do agree in practice with the caging and housing requirements so I wouldn't really propose any changes there (but would probably oppose stricter requirements).
But one thing I've thought of before that might be appropriate to bring up now is this:
While I always reccomend that anyone wanting to keep hots get significant hands on training first, the requirement for 1000 hours and the shortage of places to put in those house makes it practically impossible for most people. I was able to take one day a week off from work plus saturday and put in 16-20 hours a week for over a year, basically running the reptile room at a refuge. My work situation allowed me to do that, and I just happened to start at the refuge at the right time, but very few people have those kinds of options. I had to drive 60 miles each way, and most people don't have anywhere that close.
After 1000 hours, I felt confident (and the people I worked with felt confident with me) handling anything from a corn snake to a PNG taipan with an attitude problem. Fine, I want to keep the serious stuff, I need to be prepared. BUT...anyone who just wants to keep a couple of pigmy rattlers or an eyelash viper has to put in the whole 1000 hours. Noone is going to do that. They will either keep them illegaly or have to give up. I know some people will say, "well if they're not that serious we don't need them getting into it", and I understand that position but I disagree, both on principle and because we could always use more support. Yes I understand more keepers could mean more bites and more bad press, but you can't have everything.
I would like to propose the following idea and would like input from anyone who can offer it before tomorrow afternoon:
Split venomous snakes into categories by handling difficulty (moreso than husbardry difficulty). All require safe housing.
The easiest require a manageable amount of training.
At worst, 100 hours and a test like class II animals.
Even better would be fewer hours but to verifiably include real training (not just cleaning cages while someone else does the handling).
My biggest fear with even mentioning class II is that someone might come up with the bright idea of making it so you have to meet the requirements separately for each species, which is not currently the case for venomous reptiles.
To keep the next more dificult category you need more traing and hours, but time served with your own collection that you're previously qualified for can count towards most of the hours. Some training is still required with snakes in the new category (or higher).
I can see where there could be endless debate about which species should be in which category, but as long as the worst ones are no harder to attain than now, I don't see that this could make it anything but better for someone trying to get started.
Everyone please let me know what you think of this idea and any modifications you can suggest...even if it's to say that you don't think things SHOULD be any easier (I don't want to misrepresent keepers in general).
Any other unrelated ideas you'd like me to bring up?
If nothing else, I think we need to suggest something that is a change in our favor, rather than being entirely defensive.
Sorry I didn't think to post this a few days ago...
P.S. I know 3 of the 4 members of the Miami-Dade antivenom unit, and spoke to two of them today (I went ot see the cat-eating burmese). They are both keepers who support us and one of them will be at the tech support group meeting on the 20th to try and give their input.
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RE: FL Captive Wildlife meeting (long)
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by arachdude7 on October 13, 2005
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Actually I believe that what you've presented is a good idea. I can see some resistance on the horizon as well as you mentioned some intense debate on what species should go where....
As experienced keepers know, most species have very generalized traits, but each individual has their own personality. Some species with very naughty reputations, individually, have been pussycats.... whereas some species with a reputation for being more subdued...,individuals have been shown to be the spawn of satan.
Overall I believe that you have some wonderful ideas... and I am very curious to learn what others may say.
Good luck to you and keep us posted.
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