Quote Originally Posted by rlditmars View Post
My remarks are with regard to people who take it upon themselves to ignore safegaurds which exist for the protection and continued existence of the species, and covet wild animals for themselves when there are plenty of captive bred Red Rat (corn) snakes available for purchase. Without these safeguards, greed would win and the people who could, would exploit the animals for the pet trade to the point of extinction. I'm sure there are ornithology enthusiasts who would love to see a passenger pigeon land in thier yard. But sadly, they can only go to the smithsonian and see one of the two that had been mounted about 90 years ago. They used to swarm in flocks that would cover the skies from horizon to horizon.

As for an example of a snake, one only needs to look at the Eastern Indigo snake. The numbers are stabilizing, but still only in a smaller range. They dwindled to the point of endangered, largely because they are a large, non venimous, attractive snake that people caught to sell. They don't procreate at a rate that could recover against the numbers that were being removed from the wild by profiteers, until legislation corrected the situation.

I don't make the laws but they exist for a purpose. If we ignore them arbitrarily, then we have anarchy. Perhaps you may consider that if you have a problem with that, rather then attacking others comments, you should be constructively proactive and try to change legislation that you feel is unwarranted.

Where's the line you've drawn?

If someone where to hurt a family member of yours, and a friend of theirs thinks they were in the right, how would you feel about them assiting the person in question, to hideout from authorities. Hey they are just being a friend, not policing, right?
Ummm... wow. Hold on while I finish the laugh that I'm having...


Alright then. Hahaha. Wow. Talk about someone with thin skin that likes to blow things out of proportion and loves the worst case scenario when looking at life! Part of me feels like deleting what I've already written and just ignoring your post, but alas, I am stuck in a place where I have nothing but time on my hands. Aside from that I now feel the need to defend my postion (like it really matters on the internet anyway!!!). Oh, the futility of it all. LOL

Anyway...
Passenger pigeons were hunted out of existence, not caught for private trade as pets. As with most species that are in trouble in the world the biggest factor with the decline in indigo snakes is from habitat loss, not overcollecting. I'm sure that if it were, there would be laws against keeping them; as it stands only a handful of states even require permits to keep them!

Don't get it twisted, I am a tree hugging hippy and would love to "save the world" from the human species. In my opinion we are the worst thing ever to happen to the planet from an evolutionary perspective. I studied ecology in college and I long for the days before even Native Americans arrived in North America so that I could see what wooly mammoths and multi-ton ground sloths were like, not to mention saber-toothed tigers, horses, and other megafauna that ranged here before humans wiped them out(and in only 1000 years of being on the continent!).

Now with that said, I am not a police officer and it is not my job to enforce the laws that our legislature has established for us. If I see someone speeding will I politely ask them at the next stoplight to please slow it down because the speed limit is 35, not 55? Absolutely not, and unless you do as well you're being a hypocrite. If someone else desires anarchy, that is up to them. As a member of the U.S. Army I affirmed to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Me not telling a buddy to return a snake to the wild doesn't fall into that realm, therefore I'm going to keep on keepin' on with my life and worry about me and my family and friends.

As for your question about someone hurting my family or a friend of mine, I am generally a teddy bear but if someone messes with what I love I go from teddy bear to a pissed off grizzly in 0.1 seconds. However, your question has no merit as there would certainly be circustances that would have led up to the incident in question, and if the fault were that of my loved one then I would hold them accountable for their own actions. If not I'd help my loved one end the conflict swiftly and resolutely.

Why I wasted 5 minutes of my life typing this I'll never know. Maybe it's because I like a good debate. Either way, try no to fall off of your high horse (from where I sit here it looks like quite a long wat to the ground!).