Lions, Tigers and 16ft Gaboons, Oh my!

[King-Godzilla]

I was going to say this as a comment on their website, but decided against it cuz I don't want to get into a flame war with some of the uneducated people who commented on that site (many of which made me mad). But I wanted to vent my frustration somewhere so here it is:


I don't own any big cats or anything (and for the record I don't agree with keeping big cats, bears, or some venomous snakes as pets but that's just my opinion and I don't plan on doing anything about it..."live and let live" I say), but my reptiles are just as friendly as my cats and dog, including my Jungle Carpet Python. They are misunderstood animals that aren't given a chance because of these factors: 1.) People fearing the animals and refuse to even learn more about them 2.) the media playing into these fears 3.) the few exotic pet keepers who are neglectful to the animals and the animals then behave more stereotypical. It's all about proper education. What I mean by that is just showing people that many of the animals deemed "dangerous" because it's exotic simply isn't true. Take the Ball Python, for example: it's a python, so it's gonna be big and a killer, right? WRONG, they're one of the smallest pythons (3 1/2-4 ft) that are easily handled and prefer not to bite unless it's hurt. I bring my snakes and lizards to schools and educate the kids on proper care and just simply show them first hand that not all reptiles are even remotely dangerous and can be good pets if kept responsibly. Same with dogs and cats; if taken care of responsibly, they are great pets but if mistreated they can get aggressive; it's not the animals fault whether it's domesticated or not, but the individual keeping it. Should all exotics be kept as pets? NO! Should all exotics be banned as pets? NO! Responsibility and education is what it takes to take care of any animal, whether it be a dog, cat, fish, lizard, spider, or snake. It's the responsibility of the majority of good pet keepers (notice I didn't single out exotic pet keepers but ALL animal owners in general) to teach the public on proper care of the animals we love so much from our own personal experiences with a given species. That is something, sadly, that the pet industry is lacking these days, which causes such chaos like what we have right now especially in the exotic industry.

OK, off my soap box.