Anybody awake?

[Skiploder]

I'm not disagreeing with you that the industry does need to regulate itself better. (With a minor pet peeve that you used pit bulls as an example--pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other large dog).

Horses are dangerous, large dogs are dangerous, MOST large animals are dangerous, whether they are domesticated or not. Permits are not required to own them (with the exception of the pit bull, which has been the victim of propaganda campaigns, and has gotten a bad rap due to its abuse in pit fighting which led to larger numbers of mistreated dogs being aggressive toward people). These large animals and livestock can and DO kill not only their owners, but small children, and neighbors, and passers-by. (Pet constrictors have never killed a person outside of their own household).

I'm not ready to sit down and say "The industry's lack of self-regulation is to blame for this". I can go buy a piglet from anywhere, and give it to a child as a pet, and there is no law out there to prevent it, and no one who will care that a fully grown pig is a dangerous animal.
The industry is being DELIBERATELY targeted for demolition by animal rights activists.

Yes, we can all do our part by making sure that any potentially dangerous animals go to knowledgeable homes, and by making sure owners know how to care for and safely keep reptiles in general...BUT...

This not only will not solve the problem, and it isn't the root of it. We must do far more than that to turn back the tide of bad press. This IS all about the Press. The reptile industry has been slowly improving itself for decades now--compare the way things are done now to what they were like 20 years ago! We have come a long way, and we should be proud of that.

We still have further to go, but we will never have the chance to get there if we can't sway public opinion back to tolerance.

Donna - as an owner of a pit breed I know all too well that they have an undeserved bad rap.

But I also believe that in order to save bullies from further bad press and from abuse, they should be permitted ownership SHOULD be restricted.

Yes, in an age where owning a tough looking dog (or a large reptile) is more a status symbol (or a symbol of toughness) than a responsibility, there comes a point where allowing people to do what they want not only creates grief for responsible owners, but for the poor animals themselves.