Herc
Active Member
I for one find it concerning that there are members here that think these draft new requirements if passed (although there is a major legal issue here) are/will be a good thing.... Don't be fooled people, nothing good will come out of what DECCW are trying to slip in under the radar. To give an example, for those of us that keep monitors under these "rules" and I use that term very lightly If you have for eg one lace monitor and or two spencers monitors then you/we have to provide and enclosure that will take up the space of a standard single car garage. Don't fall into the trap of looking at the size for juvies, you need to look at the adult sizes. I know for a fact that under these conditions I myself would need to suddenly come up with an area of almost 1/4 acre block just to "legally" house what animals I have here according to their cage sizes for each animal. As with many other keepers, I rent therefore can not make structural changes to the property nor do I have (or will likely ever have) the money to build such a facility. Add to this some idiots idea that those of us that keep venomous snakes should/must label each cage with the species and number of animals in each cage. I for one WILL NOT ever do this again, this just provides those lowlife scums that steal animals with a clear shopping list of animals kept. Not going to happen. DECCW's excuse for this was "incase emergency services need to access the room in an emergency they need to know whats in the cages, well as a fire fighter this is rubbish. Most everyday fire fighters, ambos and even cops have no idea what they are looking at when it comes to venomous snakes so this won't help. Add to this a thing called S.O.P's which govern what personel can or can not do, one of which is knowingly put themselves in a situation they are not qualified to handle. My point is any house fires I attend if the resident keeps reptiles I am authorised to enter and assess the situation as I have the relevant licence to remove problem reptiles in NSW. Therefore the rest of the crew keep clear of that particular area untill its clear to be safe for them to do their job. As someone else has pointed out, if this starts here it will open the doors for other states to follow and don't think that it will stop at reptiles. If passed rest assured that these "welfare" groups will run with this and it won't be long before they try to ban reptile keeping altogether or set a minimum size requirement for backyards to keep other pets like dogs in. Once this ball starts, it won't stop in a hurry. I like many others simply don't have the room to accomodate the size of cages they are pushing. Don't forget these cage sizes are floor space and extra levels do not count towards the area of the cage either... we need to stop it now, I am not one to let a pencil pusher dictate to me how to keep the animals I have been keeping for the past 30 years.