Lately I've come to realise just how many people really are keeping herps illegally, both exotics and natives. First of all, a few months back, I had a guy come over to buy some fish, and I was talking about getting into the reptile scene, and at that moment he offered me a hatchling boa. Now if he hadn't just bought $700 worth of my fish I would have given him a boot in the @$$ right there and then.
Then about two months later a friend of mine was telling me about how he had been keeping snakes for the past year. When I asked what types, he told me diamond pythons, taipans, browns and adders. Turns out this guy DOES have a license, apparently he just couldn't be bothered to wait the extra few years to upgrade:xThis one REALLY pee'd me off 'cause I would LOVE a death adder, but I, as well as many people, have to wait patiently until I can upgrade in later years, while this guy is off keeping vens in his first year!
Another friend of mine, who owns a young stimmie, came over the other night to see my herps and asked to see my license 'cause he'd never seen one before. Well, this guy doesn't have a license. Are people really stingy enough not to be able to fork out the $60 every two years?
Yet another friend (of the family's) came over the other night to see my python 'cause he's getting one himself. The first thing that came to mind was that he was going to get something exotic, and I was right, he planned to get a corn snake. Again, I was really pee'd off at this because corn snakes are one of my all time favourite snakes, and the first snake I had ever held (at a zoo). He told me his friend is breeding them, and what amazed me most is that the friend found the adults in his own backyard:?Not too sure where he lives, but I know he's somewhere in suburban Sydney. It amazes me because I didn't know corns were adaptive and prolific enough to get to the stage where they are invading suburban areas...
It's sad to know that I have more friends keeping herps illegally than friends keeping them legally! Knowing so many people who keep illegally, it's hard not to report them, but because most are good friends I don't know what to do other than talk them out of it (which doesn't seem to work anyway):?
Onto the point, this family friend was explaining how corns will soon become legal because there are just so many of them already in the wild in Aus.
I believe that, if they do become legalized, that will be the reason. But there's still reasons NOT to legalize them, such as if one exotic becomes legal, it'll encourage people to bring in more exotics and work on making them become legal as well, because if it happened with corns, it can happen with others, which is what makes it hard for me to believe that corns will soon become legal to own.
So I want to hear other peoples' opinions/facts on this, 'cause, if I can help it, I want to try get this family friend to steer clear of exotics, because he's really a good guy and I'd hate for him to get the wrong information on something like this... Any insight appreciated.
Apologies for the massive story
Then about two months later a friend of mine was telling me about how he had been keeping snakes for the past year. When I asked what types, he told me diamond pythons, taipans, browns and adders. Turns out this guy DOES have a license, apparently he just couldn't be bothered to wait the extra few years to upgrade:xThis one REALLY pee'd me off 'cause I would LOVE a death adder, but I, as well as many people, have to wait patiently until I can upgrade in later years, while this guy is off keeping vens in his first year!
Another friend of mine, who owns a young stimmie, came over the other night to see my herps and asked to see my license 'cause he'd never seen one before. Well, this guy doesn't have a license. Are people really stingy enough not to be able to fork out the $60 every two years?
Yet another friend (of the family's) came over the other night to see my python 'cause he's getting one himself. The first thing that came to mind was that he was going to get something exotic, and I was right, he planned to get a corn snake. Again, I was really pee'd off at this because corn snakes are one of my all time favourite snakes, and the first snake I had ever held (at a zoo). He told me his friend is breeding them, and what amazed me most is that the friend found the adults in his own backyard:?Not too sure where he lives, but I know he's somewhere in suburban Sydney. It amazes me because I didn't know corns were adaptive and prolific enough to get to the stage where they are invading suburban areas...
It's sad to know that I have more friends keeping herps illegally than friends keeping them legally! Knowing so many people who keep illegally, it's hard not to report them, but because most are good friends I don't know what to do other than talk them out of it (which doesn't seem to work anyway):?
Onto the point, this family friend was explaining how corns will soon become legal because there are just so many of them already in the wild in Aus.
I believe that, if they do become legalized, that will be the reason. But there's still reasons NOT to legalize them, such as if one exotic becomes legal, it'll encourage people to bring in more exotics and work on making them become legal as well, because if it happened with corns, it can happen with others, which is what makes it hard for me to believe that corns will soon become legal to own.
So I want to hear other peoples' opinions/facts on this, 'cause, if I can help it, I want to try get this family friend to steer clear of exotics, because he's really a good guy and I'd hate for him to get the wrong information on something like this... Any insight appreciated.
Apologies for the massive story