croc farming? croc skin purse.

[Australis]

From a zoological stand point taking a large apix predator out of its environment often has profound effects on the whole ecosystem and fitness of the predator population. But as long as someone is making money out of it thats all that is really important?

Yes, its important to add a dollar value on animals for a conservation point of view, the
"****-factor" of crocs will help protect them... with tourism and farming them adding
value to the species, people are more inclined to protect them.

Species with zero "****-factor" like small skinks etc. will be afforded minimal protection.

 

[Naja_nivea]

Money always wins out. The human slave trade is far bigger now than it has ever been and across the world even young children are sold as sex slaves. No matter what the industry is if there is profit to be made someone will be making profit. Copied from wiki "Due to the illegal nature of trafficking and differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown. According to United States State Department data, an "estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children [are] trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 70 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrates that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafficking_in_human_beings

Where would you draw the line on industry? harvesting whales, sharks for fins, wild tigers, children for slaves, rare lumber form forests. Guess different people would draw the line in different places. For me it is farming endangered species for profit with a vague pretence of research.

Adding value isnt always a good thing as animals will also be illegally hunted, ie tigers are rare and protected but their value to poachers and the pelt/"medicine" trade is immense. Just seems a shame when capitalism is taken to the extreme everything has a value. Wildlife is only conserved in some parts of Africa because of the tourist trade else they would be butchered for meat, skin, tusks/horns etc. Just seems a shame if there isnt money to be made not worth protecting, that is what i mean by extreme capitalism.

 

[JasonL]

Where would you draw the line on industry? harvesting whales, sharks for fins, wild tigers, children for slaves, rare lumber form forests.
QUOTE]

Somewhere between farming crocs and selling kids for slaves.

 

[Naja_nivea]

[/quote]Somewhere between farming crocs and selling kids for slaves.[/quote]

Glad too hear it so are you saying making money isnt the most important thing in the world and there are some things worth protecting even if no one is making a profit? hehe

 

[JasonL]

Mixing genes pools is highly unrecommended, releasing animals from one area into another is only done in rare cases, generally when the animal is completely extinct from the whole area. It is pointless introducing animals into an area if the problem still occurs that made them rare in the first place.

 

[JasonL]

Somewhere between farming crocs and selling kids for slaves.[/quote]

Glad too hear it so are you saying making money isnt the most important thing in the world and there are some things worth protecting even if no one is making a profit? hehe[/QUOTE]

No, just saying there is nothing wrong with farming an animal that breeds well in capivity for profit.

 

[Naja_nivea]

True, There are plenty of areas where crocs lived and now extinct or populations so small that not viable. Also since local extinctions there has been new national parks and protected areas set up in these countries, ie when i went to Sarawak NP in Borneo there was a river system that only had 2 salties living there, and agreed no point just releasing to wild so poachers can get them but that is why i said "send to protected" areas. However the point i was trying to make was the energy spent "exploiting the resourse" would be better spent iproving their habitat and protection in Oz and elswhere, for crocodiles sake and even tourist trade as secondary reason.

 

[Naja_nivea]

We can agree to disagree. I draw the line sooner than you and glad that you also draw a line somewhere and not completely decadent and dont believe every resource is worth exploiting for profit including child sex slave.

 

[missllama]

alie thanks for that info!
but eating croc... nah i dont reckon id like it much LOL then again i think pickled octapus tastes awsome...

where exactally does the croc meat go? i mean i have never seen croc meat forsale in my life who eats it and where does it get sold?

i dont feel as guilty now for owning a croc purse lol thanks guys! i still feel sorry for them tho... but i feel sorry for cows n sheep on death row! i guess its not that different its just more common for us to buy beef etc then it is so go buy some croc for tea lol

 

[ivonavich]

As a chef i must say that Croc tail is one of the most unique products I've ever worked with! I has a raw texture much like fish then cooks into a texture somewhere between chicken and shellfish... Good flavour too....
The problem with it is that it is really expensive... I really think this has to with the labour intensity of it's production and the low yield of meat per animal...

I have no qualms with Crocodile products coming from "farmed" animals.... that is just like leather, beef pork products, lamb and poultry.

 

[JasonL]

I'd imagine alot of the meat goes OS, but it's commonly sold in Aust. Last time I was in Darwin you could get croc pizza, pies, and it was sold in supermarkets. A few years back I saw it for sale in a Franklins in inner city Sydney and it is available now from most butchers, though you may have to pre order.

 

[Allies_snakes]

yeah, a lot goes to ...yes you guess it..japan & throughout asia, but it is more popular in the far north to see it in some supermarkets and on the menu in a lot of restaurants. Lots of asian restaurants around Australia have it available also and in their supermarkets.

 

[missllama]

wow croc pizza! haha, thats wierd!
well u learn something everyday i never knew that u could even buy any croc items legally anymore so thanks everyone for the info!
i think ill use my purse now i dont feel as bad

 

[ivonavich]

I marinated in Ginger, Garlic, Chilli, Lemon Zest and macadamia oil then seared it in a hot pan than sliced it and served on a bed of rocket, red onion, cherry tomato and crushed roast macadamias. This was then finished with a garnish of rosella flowers...

 

[ihaveherps]

For some its a difficult concept to fathom, but in alot of situations, putting a dollar value on an animal, making it commercially viable, has been a contributing factor towards the sucess of many conservation projects.... As disgusting as it is, humans will throw alot more energy into a project, if they can turn a buck from it. The croc farms, have played their part in the conservation brilliantly, servicing an established market ethically, and in the process pretty much destroyed the once lucrative market for poachers. It has to be taken into account that as a general rule, poachers would attack the largest animals first, the trophy specimens, which is a real crime from a genetic standpoint. The biggest, strongest and most successful animals, should be passing on their genetics to ensure the future of the species, not on the wrong end of a 303.

 

[Naja_nivea]

ihaveherps, i think u r wrong that farms destroyed the over hunting and poaching. The problem was that there was only an estimated 3,000 crocs left in 1971 and they hunters and business around it was becoming non-viable and the gov stepped in and protected them, but only for economical reasons not for environmental. Putting a monetary value on things isnt always a good idea as tiger skins, bones and penis is worth a fortune hence the extinction and many sub species and imminent extinction of others. However in some African for example wildlife is good for the economy so protected a bit.

Poachers killing the largest animal is very bad ecologically right enough however it isnt much difference people trapping the largest rogue crocs because they are potentially dangerous and giving to farms for breeding stock and skins.

 

[Jackrabbit]

if they are doing research that is helping them in the end i can understand, but still if they are getting too many there i do think they should work out a way to stop them breeding so much... because they only need so many for research

Not that I know much about research but I would have thought they would need twice as many as they are researching so they can have a control group, depending on the type of research they are doing.

Hey if research is good enough for the Japanese on whales what does a little research on crocs hurt. Perhaps a little research on why humans continue to invest crocadile invested waters would go astray then the number of crocs wouldn't be a problem. remove their food source and the number comes down naturally or their area becomes wider and increases their chances of survival.... no my name isn't Darwn either.

 

[kandi]

They farm crocs at Hartleys Creek Croc Farm "Cairns" all for tourism and part of the tour is the baby croc pits, 3yr old crocs make the best bags, boots wallets etc they stun them to examine them and if they have a mark on them back in the pit they go and they choose another one hopefully unblemished. Apparently there is big business in croc skin and has a nice price tag to go with it. We here choose small the Japanese tourist choose big like golf bags and such what. example was given from the tour guide plus it is made of seconds imagine the cost of that when a belt will cost $200 plus

 

[ihaveherps]

Naja, I had a whopper of a post for you, but decided it wasnt worth it..... you are looking at a complex strategy, in a superficial manner...

 

[Aslan]

Naja - You seem to have a large amount of misinformation on this topic...

Most of the crocs entering the farms are not 'rogue' animals at all. They are from eggs collected under permit from private properties with ridiculous figures of between $30 and $60 per viable egg paid to the landholder.

What this has done is made it beneficial for landholders to preserve the environment that wild crocodiles live in as they have placed an indirect value on those animals.

As we all seem to agree that destruction of habitat is the major threat left to wild crocodiles it is a positive step to place a high value on these environments and promote their protection amongst the actual landholders. The people who own this land now protect these habitats as the crocs who live there provide a great source of income with no outlay to the landowner - as such crocs are flourishing in the Territory...

Llama - Croc leather is currently the most valuable leather in the world, thank your mum for a fantastic gift...