Thoughts on no bite/feeding posts?

[Hypancistrus]

I'm not sure that simply not discussing such issues or not posting pics is going to help matters. Then some people are just going to say "look, they must be doing something bad because they're hiding their actions!". People who aren't doing anything wrong don't need to hide anything. Of course, discretion is needed. . .some people don't want to look at that kind of stuff. But hiding it just sort of rubs me the wrong way. I think open discussion is best, along with discussion of how you do it humanely and correctly. If it's not humane, well, maybe you shouldn't be doing it :p.

Now, idiots are gonna idiot. Pit bull owners have been fighting that one for years. No matter what the good owners do or say, the bad ones are going to keep making it worse for everyone. But the good owners should roundly condemn those bad owners, not ignore or condone their actions because of some twisted sense of solidarity.

Yeah, I agree with this. The way my f/t rats die is in many ways more humane than the way the pig that provided my morning bacon died. That being said... what's with the people who kill their mice and rats by slitting their damn throats? Buy a freakin' gas machine. I just picked up like four or five months worth of rodents from a guy at a show yesterday and didn't think to look, and yep... he slit their damn throats. So now I am going to have bloody water and blood all over the cages. Damn it... talk about stuff that just makes us look like barbarians??

I'm torn on this. Personally I don't put things up about my snakes on fb. Especially feeding, but I will on here and IG as there's an audience that enjoys reptiles. I think a feeding snake is one of the most interesting and impressive things in the world.

I don't typically put feeding pics on Facebook or public venues either, unless someone asks to see one. I have had that happen from non-snake people who are curious as to how it works. I also don't think I should have to hide how my snake eats, though. My dog eats a chicken based dog food. Why is that okay, given the amount of suffering that chickens raised commercially endure? They are going after us because the poultry lobby and the poultry-eating American public is more powerful than the reptile lobby... always the low hanging fruit. If the animal-use lobbies in the US were smarter, they would all band together to soundly destroy HSUS, PETA and their kin in the courts. They aren't friends to ANYONE at all that has animals in their life, no matter which way.

Kudos to you Marissa for all your hard work and commitment to the hobby/ industry! Thank you for disseminating all that info in your op. I agree whole heartedly with everything you put forth. I just want to add that we as keepers need to be more vigilant in securing our reptiles (especially giant owners) and preventing these escapes. We all know that snakes are escape artist however big or small, and we need to focus on securing our charges to prevent this. Escapes of reptiles is a major problem in our hobby that needs more transparency and commitment of owners to stop this. A very real problem that causes major concerns and really hurts us every time it occurs and is even more detrimental when it goes public by the media.

This I definitely agree with.

Know what else needs to stop?? Pictures of MORONS with venomous snakes who FREE HANDLE the damn things. If there is one aspect of the hobby that I actually think NEEDS to be better regulated by the government, it's the venomous side of things. I just don't think anyone with $100 should be able to walk into the Hamburg expo and buy a freakin cobra or a gaboon viper. There's way too many stupid people out there who are adrenaline junkies, and they really, really make our hobby look bad.

Re: retics in particular... the numbers they are bred in are in my opinion unsustainable in captivity. These are massively huge animals and most people who keep other smaller snakes are neither prepared nor capable of handling the needs of these truly giant snakes. If we look at the percentage of reptile owning homes that have the time, space and money to keep a single retic, let alone many, it's very small in comparison. So why are we breeding thousands of these a year? I have the same issue with people importing pacus and arowanas by the hundreds in the aquarium trade. How many people really have the space and money to properly house a 3-5' fish?? It's ridiculous... and it really DOES give HSUS and their kin a foothold in the argument.