NERD (New England Reptile Distributors) *negative*

[elsn]

I agree, testing the animal prior to shipping would save a lot of time, frustration and heartache. However, if what they say is true about different strains of the virus, including those that have not been discovered yet, the testing results would only limited to what cam be found. Meaning, in their perspective, they may still be shipping out a potential sick animal after it was tested negative for a strain that we are aware of and limited to the test capability.

I find changes are more likely to happen if it hurts the business bottom line.

I have confidence that what Jeremy says is true. I also personally do not believe that Jeremy, Rob, et al would toss a visibly sick snake in a box and go on their way.

You have to consider that a non-zero positive rate (based on the capabilities of the test) still has to beat an "out of sight out of mind" policy, right? I tested for and detected it but they can't with the exact same technology?

Walking Tinley NARBC with known-unknown animals from a building full of known-unknowns is a bit opposite to Jeremy's words. Pushing snakes out the door without even a basic test is, too.

Even scarier, according to all the DNS banter from randoms in the thread, it's apparently a community wide belief that it's better to dump unhealthy snakes on customers than spend any money on testing.

If we can get people testing the two-way shipping would definitely be a punch to the wallet cost over preemptive testing for known knowns. Upcharge me for the test as an optional service. No problem. Other people can do it.