Bill Nelson is coming!!!!

[neilgolli]

short, crappy article, expected, but scary....

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul...news-breaking/

[Fox321]

Just thought I'd comment since this hits home.. (I live around 30 min from where this happened).

I guess it's easier to point the blame on the animal rather than the irresponsible owner... I guess it doesn't surprise me.

Ridiculous...

[panthercz]

Leave to some trash to ruin it for everyone. So now because of one scumbag, all the responsible owners are penalized.

This is also a stereotypical mob mentality of people having a knee jerk reaction to something. They want to ban all pythons because of one incident and one localized problem, yet they will overlook other widespread and rampant problems.
No one seems to care that over 40,000 people are killed every year just in America alone by cars, but someone dies from a python and it's a huge problem.
No one seems to care that feral cats, hogs and horses are ravaging millions of square miles of land but get all worked up over some pythons in an isolated area of Florida.

[TheOtherLeadingBrand]

This sucks.

[llovelace]

Bill Nelson is an IDIOT!

[TankMasterOG]

Someone send him a BP.net shart i will pay for it......

[2kdime]

Hopefully someone from USARK can chime in to see what we can do about this as a COMMUNITY.

Land of the free......

[I<3Dreamsicles]

Bill Nelson is an IDIOT!

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

[BPHERP]

short, crappy article, expected, but scary....

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul...news-breaking/

Politicians are ambulance chasing morons. That article is representative of the usual reactionary response that will not stop irresponsible parents from indirectly killing their children.

Things like guns, snakes, unprotected pools, household detergents, tools and other items are not the problem.

Ignorant, uneducated people that have no business being parents are the problem.

It's never "the thing", its "the person".

BrandonsBalls

[Kysenia]

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but i will try the best I can to convey what I am thinking....

As we have been told by our fellow large and small reptile breeders, USARK etc.....we are at a crossroads again and will be for sometime with our hobby/business depending on who you are. We will come across tragic situations as above where politicians use the incident as a soap box to preach/scare/inform as many as they can to get something done they see fit.

This is government, our issue hits home the hardest but there are hundreds of examples of legislation that gets passed every year do to someones perception/motivation being conveyed to his peers in the governnment. Although it is difficult for us to watch, and therapuetic for us to vent on their stupidity the fact of the matter is we need to channel that feeling into doing what we can together to show and educate others the reality of or hobby/business of reptiles....in this case snakes.

As I mentioned before 100's of useless bills get passed because of the same situation we have been in and are currently fighting because a perception of an issue......
1. Pythons will ruin the everglades
2. Pythons live to kill kids
3. Pythons will live in Alaska by the year 2030
4. Exotic animals in general if not banned will run the US and take over North Korea by 2040.

The list could go on and on.......

So it comes down to this........Politicians have perceptions/agendas/motivation for their actions.......Politicians usually talk based on their perception and will use whatever statistic founded or unfounded, incident.....to convey their perception to the masses.

Perception vs. Reality

As I have learned many times the truth/reality of a situation really doesnt matter when decisions are made.........It is Perception of others that makes the decisions. With that in mind we need to follow the advice of USARK, Adam W., BHB, RDR, Justin K., and the great leaders of this site. Come together when called to convey reality......change uneducated perception of reptiles to those around us, use our energy to voice the truth to our governmental leaders.


The leaders of legislation to get these animals banned, put restrictions of exotic animal trade are gonna be the way they are. That is how they work. I challenge us all to do whatever we can to make sure we continue to focus our energy not on frustration of their agenda's, how they use words, how they are politicians. But rather use that energy to on a simple idea but huge task.

Make the Reality of the issue the true perception. This will be difficult, some will say it cant be done, but I would argue energy spent conveying realtiy where we can will do more then trying to change certain politicians?.?.?

Anyways, even though we know the reality of what is being said...be sure to do what you can to fight the Perception of the issue that is being told.