Jack Hanna Phone Interview

Like jack hannah or not, he is probably in a tough position. If i remember correctly, he started out in the reptile house at columbus zoo.

most of the people who work in the herp aquarium are snake guys just like you and i. but when they reach the level of fame like jack hannah has there is a lot of pressure on them to have their personal opinions reflect those of the zoo. which means the zoo administration and upper brass that support the zoo.

most of the higher ups at zoos are against private ownership of exotics.

Thank you as always Brian for going above and beyond helping us all out. I in no way take this a bad stance on Mr. hannahs part. I agree that the media will always, just like politicians, government etc present half truth, half story, half information in ways that serves them the best. I feel I fall in line with Mr. hannah and his beliefs. This ban as mentioned before is not appropriate, it is not accurate.

In another way of looking at it, it would be similar to having legislation pass that bans dogs because of issues with a couple breeds that fall within the class. Now i truely feel it is irresponsible for us to not understand what drives this issue, this bill, there is a message at the bottem of it. We as hobbyist, breeders, reptile owners need to acknowledge that some things need to improve within this industry. There is nothing out there business wise that cannot be improved, if it does not change, it will die.

Saying all reptiles need to be banned and the stance of the HSUS is wrong!
Saying there are no issues leave us alone is just as bad????

Im glad to hear your last point because i think its one of the major things i keep talking about.

It sucks that all the responsible breeders/owners have to get lumped in with those that are letting this snakes go in the wild. But it is up to us as an industry to figure out a way to draw attention (good attention) back to our industry and this issue. The way it stands right now, if we don't show that we can figure out away to clear the responsible owners/breeders than this whole thing will slide right through the voting process with no restraint. However, let me ask those out there is everyone truely being reponsible. There are those breeders that will sell their snakes and stay in contact with the people they have sold the snake to. Most of these breeders actually become friends with those that they sell too, such as Brain and myself. However, go to any reptile show and you will clearly see those breeders that seel a snake to someone and not ask anything of the new owner. The owner walks out the door with a new snake and the breeders washes their hands of it.....now think how responsible is that??

I get that type of practice has been done for years, but right now with this bill sitting in congress we have to learn to change some things...and maybe its this practice that needs to be changed. So how do you do this? Many have commented about the way some dog breeders operate and that may be just the answer. Jack made comments about setting up some agreement with the breeder and owner, as it may seem like a pain in the butt I think it truely is the answer. lets look at it hypothetically:

Say some of the big names in the industry or for that matter anyone designs or establishes an organization along the lines of AKC....not that i agree with them 100% of the time. This organization can basically be the leading force in this industry and has to be strong from top to bottom. At this point other breeders can apply for membership, the organization then will vote on these people to be allowed to be licensed by this organization....lets call this organization Snakes Breeder Association.

The voting is going to have to be the strongest and most indepth part because to me this will be the issue that congress will want to see. There will be criteria that allows the group to vote yea or nea. Once accepted in then all will be licensed through SBA. By rules all breeders must pit tag any young snakes of specific species (9 snakes) and record all data of who they are selling the snakes to.

So there is a breakdown of what i think needs to happen. I know it sounds like a pain in the butt and sounds like a hell of a lot of work. It is for a industry that does alot of sales at reptile shows it will be a pain, but the whole underlining thing to remember is this....right know we have NO choice... we have to figure out a way to say to congress look take this off the floor and bring it back into committee...work with us to develope something to end the problem.

Trust me one thing, HSUS is one notch below PETA but has a heck of alot more money coming...because all they care about is dogs and cats, right???:colbert: The difference is PETA will do the extreme and right isn't as powerful as many think....HSUS is VERY powerful. In my work we deal with these two all the time and if i have learned one thing its this, if HSUS wants something to happen they will get "something" to happen. It may not be their initial end but THEY WILL get something, we need to set our industry up to never have to deal with this.... that means we need to show how we WILL fix this problem even if its not ALL of ours problem