Quote Originally Posted by digcolnagos
Thanks for not yelling, Judy.

Amazingly, the government at least once has proven that it can do something like this. You can't own a hawk or falcon or other bird of prey without a federal permit. It's not easy or inexpensive to get one, nor should it be. These creatures require extremely specialized care, including very large enclosures, and that's expensive. The parallel is close: In a perfect world, the government would apply the same logic to big snakes. If you can't afford a couple hundred bucks and eight hours or so of education/testing to acquire a license, then you don't have enough money or wherewithal to handle an anaconda or a retic or a Burm or anything else that will soon need its own room in the house. Handled properly, such a program would virtually eliminate impulse buyers, and the biggest beneficiaries would be the snakes themselves, which is as it should be.

I know we don't do this sort of thing for dogs (which can maul and kill) or other kinds of pets, but snakes are different. They just are. Any of us who own them know that.

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Good post ...I think the key point is definately "specialised care" and really at the end of the day we need to look at care of the animals in question, if we can get the government on board and prevent them being "illegal" in favour of some kind of registration most keepers would be happy to follow any kind of validation that allows them to follow their interest.

Its the impulse buying that does alot of harm further down the line when the animals in question are too much of a challenge for their respective keepers who bought it on impulse in the 1st place.