Snake catcher fed up by non-payers

[scorps]

Scorps my appologies as to thinking you only were saying it in hindsight ..you do it for free ..well you must be a bit better off then some of us ..
I wouldnt say we are making money out of reps either now ..that payment basically covers fuel that is used and fuel that will be in my tank for the next callout ..so thinking we are making money out of it gets up my nose ...if I charged $500 a callout well can see ya point then .

Am sick of the likes of people accusing the ones that do ask for a payment being made out "of not giving a crap about the snake itself that is utter" BS ...if we didnt give a toss we wouldnt bother doing a training setup nor re -newing our DM's or returning our return of operations etc ...if you can do it for free so be it ...but dont knock the ones that dont either ..

Redbelly I do not believe I was 'knocking' you in my last post, I was mearly replying to your previous post. I never once said you do not care about reptiles, you clearly do judging by one of your current threads looking for oppinions on what to do with a carpet on her eggs,

Scorps

 

[pythons73]

I got the wrong impreesion also til i re-read it.If it meant saving a reptiles life i would also do it free zilch...But for those who need to travel,as long as they recoup the fuel $$$ theres nothing wrong with it...MARK

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

what's your definition of a locality? i know carpet sellers like to think it's only a couple of hundred square metres, but i think 40km is pretty insignificant.

On the Victorian wildlife controllers licence, it says we need to relocate the snakes no further than 5kms.
If this is not possible we are contractually obliged to euthanise the snake.
Its great, the only people that can kill a snake legally are the people that care the most about them.
I dont know the regs for other states carpetmuncher.
Cheers

 

[redbellybite]

Redbelly I do not believe I was 'knocking' you in my last post, I was mearly replying to your previous post. I never once said you do not care about reptiles, you clearly do judging by one of your current threads looking for oppinions on what to do with a carpet on her eggs,

Scorps

Scorps that thread I put up ..I have taken on board what a few have said and actually am keeping a few PM's with some 'very EXPERIENCED in that area' members and do appreciate what I get posted to me ..all I will say about that thread is SOME OF YOU HAVE LITTLE FAITH ..and are to quick to jump on one side of the fence ... (not a dig at you either scorps)
(If i mis interpreted what you had said I am sorry )But this is not about that thread now ..this is about snake catchers getting ripped off ...and I feel for those who do get ripped off ...
It is so hard to actually type a convo on here at times without comming across being a smart azzzz

 

[scorps]

Scorps that thread I put up ..I have taken on board what a few have said and actually am keeping a few PM's with some 'very EXPERIENCED in that area' members and do appreciate what I get posted to me ..all I will say about that thread is SOME OF YOU HAVE LITTLE FAITH ..and are to quick to jump on one side of the fence ... (not a dig at you either scorps)
(If i mis interpreted what you had said I am sorry )But this is not about that thread now ..this is about snake catchers getting ripped off ...and I feel for those who do get ripped off ...
It is so hard to actually type a convo on here at times without comming across being a smart azzzz

Its alright, I'm not against snake relocators covering there costs and if some one agrees to pay for a service then the snake catcher drives out and removes the snake then they do not pay that is wrong.

 

[SnakeyTroy]

He should do it for free! His payment should be the knowledge that he is saving a snake from possible death.

 

[cris]

He should do it for free! His payment should be the knowledge that he is saving a snake from possible death.

... and moving it somewhere to possible death or survival to hunt other wildlife, maybe transmit disease etc. but i guess he would get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking hes doing good.

 

[Legally_Red]

Unbelievable

seriously though, if you have to get another job do it, no need to winge about it, you should be rescuing snakes for the love of the animal anyway....

I can't believe there are even herp people out there who think snake-catchers shouldn't ask for money.

Think it through folks, it costs us a fortune for training, licensing, equipment, fuel, ambulance membership ... let alone the cost to us and our families if we were bitten.

Don't give us that "love of the animal" line - that's why many snake-catchers are wildlife carers as well. With a sick animal, fine, it's all about love. But there is nothing wrong with these snakes - they don't NEED to be rescued ... it's the PEOPLE who WANT our services. And if you WANT to be served in this world, you have to pay for it.

You don't see vets, plumbers and sparkies going out to fix things for the love of it ... and they're no different from a fully-qualified, professionally trained snake-catcher.

 

[moosenoose]

On the Victorian wildlife controllers licence, it says we need to relocate the snakes no further than 5kms.
If this is not possible we are contractually obliged to euthanise the snake.
Its great, the only people that can kill a snake legally are the people that care the most about them.
I dont know the regs for other states carpetmuncher.
Cheers

Absolutely TRUE!

Just because there is some "resident" who doesn't want to share the patch of land he has "purchased" it automatically signs the death warrant of an animal that has lived there longer than the residents own ancestors! Absolutely ridiculous! Then he calls someone who cares enough to get off his behind to save them, then is expected to euthanize them! What a joke!!

How about the crazy, almost ridiculous proposition that they are allowed to keep the intruder and sell it within the pet trade??? OMG...that can't possibly happen because that leaves the door open for abuse! Catch 22, the goose is cooked!

It really makes me wonder at times!

Think it through folks, it costs us a fortune for training, licensing, equipment, fuel, ambulance membership ... let alone the cost to us and our families if we were bitten.

As far as OH&S goes, it'd rate in the extreme!

 

[Snake Catcher Victoria]

Yeah moose, it used to be horrible having to euthanise a snake, but relocation, quite often, can have negative effect on the snake or the area its relocated into.
Nowadays, if the snake needs to be euthed, id prefer to do that than take it out of its locale.
Bag it, tag it, freeze and send it to the museum.
Thankfully i hardly ever need to do it.
I think i grew up or something.
Not that it matters.
On the peninsula we have 150 years of snake catching history and im sure the 'genetic information' has been well muddied by now.
I wish we had the option to be able to legally and viably absorb these homeless snakes in to the pet trade.

 

[Kyro]

Legally Red what about all the wildlife carers in general that devote their entire lives to doing volunteer rescue work, do you honestly think they see a single cent back for all the $ spent driving around to pick up injured animals, yearly membership fees, training courses,building pen's & enclosures, food, blankets,medicine, heat pads etc etc
I'm not against anyone making a living but I think snake catchers could do both, charge & volunteer with a local wildlife group, even if you are only teaching others how to deal with reptiles.

I think people like Robert Johnson also deserve a mention here,he's a well known herp vet that used to work in a clinic in Springwood nsw (now penrith)where he devoted endless amounts of his own to time to care for injured native wildlife for the fun of it & he never charged a cent. I can remember one particular incident where we met him at his clinic at 2am to operate on an injured & orphaned joey, the man's a saint & there are quite a few people like him that truly love our native wildlife & are in a position to help.

 

[Chris1]

Don't give us that "love of the animal" line - that's why many snake-catchers are wildlife carers as well. With a sick animal, fine, it's all about love. But there is nothing wrong with these snakes - they don't NEED to be rescued ... it's the PEOPLE who WANT our services. And if you WANT to be served in this world, you have to pay for it.

you make a very good point there,..

 

[longqi]

In Northern Territory all captured snakes can either be released or else sold, up to the catcher

Anyone who thinks catchers should not be paid has not thought it through
You drive for an hour to get to a place where someone thought they saw a snake
Definitely a huge brown snake or taipan [never a carpet]
After searching for an hour or two you find a 1 metre tree snake
Because they are terrified you drive again to relocate it
Most catchers I know get about 100 calls per annum
That is at least 200 hours potentially dangerous work plus fuel etc etc

When fuel was free and we only got calls about dangerous snakes it was cool
But now with so called civilisation spreading into the bush and city people wanting country lives on their one acre block and getting spooked by legless lizards I simply will not do it again if I'm not getting paid

No-one ever made a fortune out of moving snakes but you should at least cover your costs

 

[redbellybite]

in northern territory all captured snakes can either be released or else sold, up to the catcher

anyone who thinks catchers should not be paid has not thought it through
you drive for an hour to get to a place where someone thought they saw a snake
definitely a huge brown snake or taipan [never a carpet]
after searching for an hour or two you find a 1 metre tree snake
because they are terrified you drive again to relocate it
most catchers i know get about 100 calls per annum
that is at least 200 hours potentially dangerous work plus fuel etc etc

when fuel was free and we only got calls about dangerous snakes it was cool
but now with so called civilisation spreading into the bush and city people wanting country lives on their one acre block and getting spooked by legless lizards i simply will not do it again if i'm not getting paid

no-one ever made a fortune out of moving snakes but you should at least cover your costs

exactly

 

[snakehunter1]

I do it for nothing all the time - no complaints here.....

 

[GeckoJosh]

IF snake catchers could not cover their costs then their would be far less people doing it.
The less snake catchers that are available will only result in more people resorting to shovels instead.

 

[Firepac]

I charge $30 to cover costs, but I certainly don't travel 40klms to release the snake, according to the terms of my permit I have to release the snake 'as close as possible to the point of capture in suitable habitat'. I cant believe that the nearest suitable habitat is 40klms away!!

 

[GSXR_Boy]

He probably just said 40km for the peoples piece of mind and then drops them down the road from their place

No one would use his service if they knew he just dropped them down there and not as far away as possible.

 

[garycahill]

here in nsw its free, If people dont pay, who cares, atleast the snake is getting saved, do it for the love not the money!

Going off this theory, breeders should also be giving their hatchies away as it's wrong to make money out of herps.

I will have some GTP's, Albino Darwins & Waters please!

 

[DanTheMan]

Haha, it's funny to read these replies, this forum is full of tossers!