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NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous ownership!
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by CanadianSnakeMan on November 6, 2009
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Some things really piss me off. I am not trying to be mean by writing any of this, but people like this ruin it for the rest of us...
As some of you may know, I am trying to get the laws in my area changed to allow ANY reptiles to be kept by the public (so I am forced to keep my reptiles, including a viper, in secret). I also run a reptile health consulting business on the side (which is my fancy way of calling myself a reptile vet without getting myself into legal trouble!).
One of my clients had a friend who had a 2' king cobra that was blind in one eye and going blind in the other. He said he thought it was cataracts, and didn't want to do anything about it.
First of all:
1. Animals tend to get cataracts when they're old... not when they're only 15% of their adult size.
2. Cataracts usually wouldn't just appear rapidly in one eye, then the other... it's probably an infection.
I can't expect everyone to be up on their veterinary medicine HOWEVER... when I said that I'd come take a look at the snake... He told me that his friend forgot to close the lid... it ESCAPED!!!! When he told me about it, it was in a 'no big deal' kind of way as if it was just a regular thing... a KING F*&@ING COBRA!
Then he told me that they found it dead, coiled up behind a freezer and that they thought it knew it was going to die and it wanted to be alone.
1. King cobras don't escape from an open lid because they want to be alone... they escape because you left the lid open, dumbass.
2. NO... it did not want to be alone to die like a dog or cat... It was probably looking for a heat source (like a freezer motor) that you failed to provide for it, which could by why it got sick to begin with.
3. How can you keep an animal that can kill you, your family and your neighbors and know so little about how to care for it and keep yourself safe?
I know everyone makes mistakes and again, I'm not trying to be mean. I just needed to vent, that's all. Thank God that it was already sick and was found dead, because who knows what could have happened if it was healthy and escaped (these people live in a big city).
It will be hard for me, on the behalf of responsible keepers, to change any local laws to allow reptiles in my community with people like this messing it up for everyone. Does anyone think I'm being unfair with my criticism?
Thanks for listening to me vent!!
Luke
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RE: NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous owners
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by Buzztail1 on November 6, 2009
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An interesting post to be sure.
And certainly the people that you describe are not anyone I would want keeping anything venomous.
However, I would like to point out that you keeping your reptiles and viper "in secret" is not secret anymore.
Canadian authorities have also been known to follow the posts on this site as was evidenced earlier this year in the coordinated arrest of a Canadian man who was advertising illegal animals on this site.
All sorts of people break the laws concerning keeping reptiles because they think about the laws only in the context of how it affects them and not the people around them.
Your story would have carried MUCH more weight if you had not added what you did about your secret reptiles.
R/
Karl
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RE: NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous owners
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by agkistrodude on November 7, 2009
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People that keep venomous illegally or "secret", do just as much harm to the hobby if the press get the story and run with it. Take care, Marty
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RE: NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous owners
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by CanadianSnakeMan on November 10, 2009
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You both make good points and I see where you're coming from. I have thought about that and I have a plan in the works to relocate my animals nearby until I can get the laws changed.
I am not trying to preach in a holier-than-thou kind of way about responsible ownership when I'm not abiding by local laws, and that's why I'm moving my collection. I do believe, however, that safety should come first whether a person is abiding by the local laws or not.
The point I was trying to make was that if someone is keeping venomous snakes illegally, they're obviously going to do it no matter what the laws say, but they should take extra safety precautions, not only to preserve life, but to prevent any legal trouble and a publicly bad name for reptile keepers.
Luke
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RE: NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous owners
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by RFSnakewrangler on November 11, 2009
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Seems to me like you are also practicing pseudo-veterinary medicine on your own terms. I have never heard of a reptile health consultant.
Do you have veterinary training? Do you also illegally obtain pharmaceuticals for your "clients" ? Do you think that reading the Mader book makes you a DVM?
Another example of something this hobby doesn't need...
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RE: NEED TO VENT about RESPONSIBLE venomous owners
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by CanadianSnakeMan on November 18, 2009
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I am not a DVM, nor do I claim to be. My clients know and understand this. All the medications I use are purchased according to the laws in my area and used responsibly. If a disease or injury is outside my scope of ability to deal with, I refer my clients to the nearest reptile DVM, who is 2 hours away, as no other vets in the area will deal with reptiles.
I see too many people purchasing reptiles and know knowing how to care for them. I understand your concern and you ask valid questions but I will do anything I can to help the reptiles in my area and educate their owners. What I am doing does not give a bad name to the hobby.
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