Gregory
Well-Known Member
See how many of ya's can wade through the latest press release from old mate Ray.:shock:
Hoser snakebusters trademarks retained, venomoid operations by Raymond
Hoser, false and misleading statements by dishonest people, a real
threat to private keeping of reptiles in Australia and other relevant
information.
Release dated 4 August 2006
Dear all, there has been substantial misinformation being posted on the
internet and elsewhere by dishonest people with agendas and axes to
grind against Raymond Hoser.
This includes people who are opposed to herpetology and wildlife
conservation..
There has been a grouping of people with vested interests against
Raymond Hoser making these false claims and also "widening their front"
by posting under false and assumed names to make out they represent a
wider group than
actually exists.
These people also control some internet forums and delete out posts
favourable to Hoser to maintain a façade of general dislike for Hoser
which is not only far from the truth, but a reversal of the reality.
In the real world, Raymond Hoser is regarded as a conservation Icon,
having authored several conservation books before conservation became
trendy. Hoser is also regarded as the father of private reptile keeping
in Australia, without whose efforts, private reptile keeping would still
be banned in most parts of Australia.
The false claims on the internet by these enemies of conservation are
further being cross-referenced to enhance the credibility of the lies
being peddled.
These people against Raymond Hoser include:
1 - David Williams, associate Wolfgang Wuster and others who between
them have a history of being proven liars and numerous criminal acts
including wildlife smuggling. They have been adversely named in the
corruption best sellers Smuggled (1993) and Smuggled-2 (1996) And seem
unable to get over these facts.
Williams was also raided in 1996 for allegedly illegally held reptiles
(or similar) and news media reports stated he had been found guilty of
cruelty to the reptiles. This was confirmed independently.
2 - Ed Punchard and others associated with a film company, Prospero, who
unsuccessfully sued Hoser in 2003/4 for his trademarks, snakebuster and
snakebusters, lost proceedings and then proceeded to misuse and
misrepresent the trademarks. They paid Hoser damages at end 2005 as a
result of proceedings in the Federal Court. The amount is
confidential. This confidentiality was insisted upon by Prospero's
side, not Hoser's.
3 - Some novice snake handlers in Melbourne, recently licenced to do
snake shows in Melbourne who covet the various events that Hoser and his
company do reptile shows at.
Hoser/Snakebusters are known as by far the best reptile shows in
Australia, the result being we are also the most heavily booked.
The false and vexatious complaints against Hoser are numerous and as a
rule all bad, but the three main ones are as follows:
1 - Hoser does not own the trademark snake busters or snake buster.
These statements are a blatant lie. Hoser owns both trademarks and has
won all relevant proceedings. This is independently verifiable from the
Federal Government's own database.
A recent claim by Williams is that Hoser actually bootlegged the marks
from Prospero. This is patently ridiculous and something even Prospero
didn't allege. There is no evidence to support the claim by Williams.
2 - Hoser's ground-breaking procedures to render deadly snakes
non-venomous is somehow cruel. This is another lie. The reverse is
actually true. Hook and stick handling of venomous snakes is
demonstrably cruel to the snake as evidenced by their burning desire to
bite the handler and a non-venomous snake is relieved of this ongoing
handling cruelty. Adverse claims against the Hoser surgery are
invariably false and should be seen in the context of the following.
Two unsuccessful operations to render snakes non-venomous by another
herpetologist (David Millar) were failures. He received no criticism
from David Williams and others. Williams himself has admitted to
attempting a botched operation on a snake!
The Hoser operations were universally successful and have been generally
acclaimed, including by numerous medical and veterinary people. There
has never been cruelty inflicted on any Hoser reptiles and independent
inquiries have established this after the first vexatious complaints
were made by Williams and others on his behalf.
A recent petition has been circulated by Shane Hunter and others,
calling fore the immediate destruction of Raymond Hoser and all things
associated with the name and businesses, with numerous signatories
including some that are clearly bogus. Other names on the petition
signatory list, if genuine are curious. Many names include people who
approached Hoser to surgically venomoid snakes for them and their
requests were declined. Evidently this has caused offence.
One of these persons Chris Hay of Victoria, has even posted on forums
more than once that he has handled deadly snakes for years and without
problem. (see for example post at:
http://www.aussiepythons.com/index....t=45&sid=a5da27eb29c59395d20f088f06c8a1f7)
The statement by Chris Hay (Posted under the name "acanthophis") is a
lie and he knows this. Chris Hay has been hospitalized twice for
serious snakebites as a result of his mishandling them, including a
Female Floodplain Death Adder (Acanthophis cummingi), which resulted in
him having several vials of anti-venom. Similar occurred from the bite
of a King Brown Snake (Cannia australis).
As a result of these bites and associated adverse publicity, there were
calls for the banning of private people being allowed to keep snakes in
Victoria and elsewhere. It was only as a result of lobbying by Hoser
and others that led to the authorities allowing private keeping of
reptiles to continue.
Similar calls to ban private keeping of reptiles were made after a
series of TV shows in which Bruce George of WA, was shown to be
repeatedly bitten by venomous snakes (various episodes) and
hospitalized, all bites resulting from his cruel and inhumane handling
methods.
Shane Hunter, has a history of editing out posts from his web forum that
go against his take on things, including all "pro-Hoser" posts. He goes
further and accuses pro-Hoser posters of being Hoser pseudonyms, which
they are not. One such person, Barry Goldsmith of Melbourne and others
were falsely accused of being Hoser and booted off the forum run by
Shane Hunter (Aussiereptilekeeper).
Hunter also admits to lying on his own forums claiming this to be a sign
of his intelligence!
Shane Hunter even ran a thread on his forum dedicated to the burning and
destruction of books published by Raymond Hoser, which says something
about the degree of the witch-hunt against Hoser.
Other (alleged) signatories of the Hunter managed petition have similar
form in terms of their histories and making false statements on the
internet.
3 - Hoser has "stolen" naming rights for reptile species from people.
This is a sour-grapes argument without merit from David Williams and
others, who are irked by the fact that species named by Raymond Hoser
must carry the "Hoser names" in perpetuity, thereby giving their enemy
credibility. The fact is that all research results published by Hoser
have been original and Hoser has never had access to file material from
Williams or others to enable him the ability to "steal" naming rights
for any reptiles.
The stealing naming rights by claims by Williams have about as much
merit as the claim that Hoser comes from Jupiter!
Please note any material on the internet or elsewhere adverse of Raymond
Hoser will invariably be false or a deliberate misrepresentation of the
truth so as to be false.
While it is easy to say that anything bearing the names "David
Williams", "Wolfgang Wuster", "Watcher" or other related aliases will be
of little if any merit in terms of comments relating to Hoser, it gets
difficult to identify these people due to the frequency and ease with
which they can post under different names or have others post on their
behalf. This gets even messier when they refer to ostensibly third
party (Independent") sources, which in fact derive from themselves
having been posted under other names.
We (Hoser and companies) cannot sue Williams for defamation due to his
existing bad debts and the fact that any judgement against him would not
be recoverable (as he has no assets of note). David Williams knows
this and uses this to his advantage.
In two previous matters in which Raymond Hoser got judgement against
others, he was unable to recover damages due to the defeated (defaming)
side then pleading effective bankruptcy. The legal bills outstanding on
both sides were huge and Hoser ended up having to foot his own, even
though he won the cases.
David Williams and others do "google" searches for the name Hoser on the
internet and then post on as many of these sites as possible adverse
comments against Hoser, usually referencing back to websites they
control as "Moderators" or their own websites (as in Wuster's and the
like).
The true situation is therefore as follows:
1 - Raymond Hoser is the snakebuster and only himself and people
authorized by him can call themselves snakebuster/s in terms of
reptiles, films and the like.
Two of the three trademarks were opposed through legal action by
Prospero Films and associates, the basis of their defence being a claim
the term as "generic" and in common useage. They agreed with Hoser's
first use of the terms in the 1980's. All actions against the
trademarks failed. The "common usage" test failed at all hearings.
Prospero also produced evidence of casual usage of the word snakebuster
in the USA and south Africa and South Australia (all without Hoser's
knowledge), but none of this had any bearing on the case. However in at
least the South Australian and West Australian cases, it was established
that the term had been bottlegged from Hoser. This was admitted by the
parties.
2 - Venomoid snakes are eminently sensible for frequently handled
snakes. Failure to venomoid a snake, (using a procedure now known to be
safe and effectively painless for a snake) that is handled often and
then using hooks, stick, tailing and the like to move it, is extremely
cruel to the snake and should be outlawed. Far from being censured for
cruelty, Hoser has been commended for reducing it! Numerous vets and
medical personel have put their stamp of approval on the Hoser venomoid
snakes. The offspring of those venomoid snakes are now in collections
in at least three Australian states!
Hoser has no plans to venomoid more snakes at this stage. No venomoid
operations have been done for some time as it was quite some time ago
that Hoser literally ran out of snakes to venomoid (all that could be
done - were!).
As those voided snakes are all alive, well and breeding, there is no
need to replace them.
Hence a petition to ban Hoser voiding snakes is redundant as there are
no more operations planned at this stage.
Thus, if a genuine petition were to be organized against venomoiding
snakes, it should be generic and targeted at any person who may be
planning such an operation.
Based on the over 1000 approaches receieved by Hoser to do operations
(all declined) a petition against others doing venomoid operations may
have some sound basis, even if the arguments against venomoiding don't.
Several licenced reptile demonstrators in several Australian states have
approached Hoser to venomoid snakes and some have complained of an
"unfair commercial advantage" enjoyed by Hoser with the venomoid
snakes. A petition (if genuinely against venomoiding snakes), should be
directed towards this likely source of future operations.
A warning is that if venomoiding snakes is banned by law, this will not
stop persons doing the operation illegally and short of re-doing
surgery, it is effectively impossible to tell a fixed snakes from one
that isn't.
We have all seen the adverse effects of banning reptile keeping in
Australia (the trade went underground) and this should be remembered by
those pushing to ban voiding, captive snakes or anything else similar.
3 - Raymond Hoser's ground-breaking research has been recognized by
peers with credibility and he remains one of the most often cited and
cross-referenced herpetologists in Australia. Recent reptile books
(e.g. Barker's, Mense's or Aplin's), cite more Hoser original research
papers
than for any other Australian herpetologist. Hoser's naming of new
species has always been original research and has been accepted by a
majority of herpetologists, not that the latter is even important. It
often takes many years for a new or controversial position to be
generally accepted and due to Raymond Hoser often being at the leading
edge of research, it would be expected that there would be some dissent
from his findings or views.
Threat to private keeping of reptiles in Australia - including false
claims against Hoser
4 - False claims have been made against Raymond Hoser to various
authorities, the results being a series of raids on Hoser, his staff and
others, including at home and workplaces. In all cases so far, Hoser
and staff have come out "clean". In one case, the reporting officer
filed a report in favour of venomoid snakes, going on to state that
non-voided deadlies shouldn't be allowed in malls due to the ever
present public safety risk. However the costs of these "raids" have
been substantial, in that several thousand dollars of taxpayers money
has been effectively wasted.
The false claims leading to the raids included the following:
1 - Hoser putting people's lives at risk with deadly snakes in shows at
shopping malls.
2 - Hoser has stolen snakes from other private keeper/s.
3 - Hoser has engaged in cruelty to reptiles and/or other illegal
activity.
Some of the people making the false claims against Hoser have also
"dobbed in" others for things they haven't done, the result being that
wildlife officers and others have had their resources unreasonably
diverted from more important matters, including tracking stolen
reptiles, stopping illegal imports (and viruses these animals may
carry), etc.
Higher up the tree, ministers and others have complained of these costs
and are now considering the banning of private keeping of reptiles as a
cheaper and more effective alternative. The most likely trigger for
this "ban on keeping" according to the head of DSE Law enforcement will
be an adverse bite from a venomous snakes, which is something Hoser and
snakebusters have been mindful of and hence our routine use of
venomoids.
Hence the alarm expressed Australia-wide when a novice by the name of
Bruce George appeared on TV mishandling snakes and getting bitten, which
if emulated by viewers could have disastrous consequences for keepers
everywhere.
There is also a strong lobby of people opposed to allegedly "wild
snakes" or "non-domesticable reptiles" being kept in click clacks, wood
or plastic tubs, small cages and the like on the basis it is not
natural. The frequently obtained photos of mite infested snakes in poor
health at collections, shops and the like (not all of course) gives
these people ammunition and is the Achilles heel of private
herpetology.
People with a genuine concern for the future of herpetology in Australia
should stop those making false complaints against leading herpetologists
and direct their attention to cleaning up the cruel and inhumane keeping
conditions commonly seen in a percentage of private collections across
the country.
End Notes:
>From Smuggled-2
"In July 1996, Williams who was then based in Cairns had his collection
of 100 odd snakes seized by D.E.H. officials. According to Adrian
Walker, this had resulted from a falling out between Williams and
certain D.E.H. officials. D.E.H. officials had claimed that the snakes
were emaciated and diseased, as well as carrying parasitic snake mites.
Although these claims were rebutted by Williams, several reliable
independent sources were able to confirm that many of the reptiles
seized from Williams had been in severely sub-standard health."
Government Trademark database on this date:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/atmoss/Falcon_Users_Cookies.Run_Create
912066 Snakebusters 44 Registered
Registered/Protected
Trade Mark : 912066
Word: Snakebusters
Image:
Lodgement Date: 07-MAY-2002
Registered From: 07-MAY-2002
Acceptance Advertised: 12-SEP-2002
Registration Advertised: 24-JUL-2003
Sealing Date: 08-JUL-2003
Renewal Due: 07-MAY-2012
Class/es: 44
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: Raymond Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 44 Removal of unwanted snakes, reptiles and other wildlife from
private premises of persons, companies and other entities in accordance
with state and federal wildlife laws, as well as provision of
information on such reptile related matters, including general
zoological and reptile-related consultancy work
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTERS
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 912066
OPPOSITION
Acceptance Advertised: 12-SEP-2002
Applicant: Raymond Hoser
Address for Service: Raymond Hoser
Opponent: PROSPERO PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD
Address for Service: FIOCCO'S LAWYERS
Status: Finalised
Notice of Opposition Due: 12-DEC-2002
Lodged: 03-DEC-2002
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/...ail=DETAILED&p_rec_no=47&p_rec_all=62
Trade Mark : 963988
Word: snakebuster
Image:
Lodgement Date: 31-JUL-2003
Registered From: 31-JUL-2003
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Registration Advertised: 25-MAY-2006
Sealing Date: 15-MAY-2006
Renewal Due: 31-JUL-2013
Class/es: 9
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: R T Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 9 Magnets; video game disks and cartridges; computer game
programs, computer game software; stereoscopic viewers and slide reels;
pre-recorded audio and video cassettes featuring information about
animals; pre-recorded videos, CD-ROMs and DVDs featuring information
about animals; interactive video games of virtual reality comprised of
computer hardware and software; pre-recorded digital recordings, namely,
digital audio and video tapes featuring information about animals;
pre-recorded audio tapes featuring books about animals; binoculars;
directional compasses; radios audio and video cassette players and
recorders; clock radios; calculators; video and photographic cameras and
camera cases; sunglasses; baseball batting helmets, football helmets,
hockey helmets; safety goggles; life jackets and telephones
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTER
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 963988
OPPOSITION
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Applicant: Raymond Terrence Hoser
Address for Service: R T Hoser
Opponent: PROSPERO PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD
Address for Service: FIOCCO'S LAWYERS
Status: Finalised
Notice of Opposition Due: 04-MAR-2004
Lodged: 23-FEB-2004
Evidence in Reply Due: 11-JAN-2005
Lodged: 24-DEC-2004
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/...ail=DETAILED&p_rec_no=48&p_rec_all=62
Trade Mark : 964068
Word: snakebuster
Image:
Lodgement Date: 31-JUL-2003
Registered From: 31-JUL-2003
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Registration Advertised: 01-APR-2004
Sealing Date: 16-MAR-2004
Renewal Due: 31-JUL-2013
Class/es: 41
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: R T Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 41 Television programs, videos, DVD's, Internet sites, books and
other media and entertainment relating to snakes, snake catching, snake
removals from people's houses as well as similar programs, information
and documentaries relating to other reptiles, frogs and wild (generally
non-domesticated kinds) animals in general
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTER
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 964068 has no Oppositions
Voiding:
Original snakes venomoided some years back have bred. Their offspring
are now in several collections.
The said snakes remain alive and well and do shows on a daily basis
without being cruelly pinned by snake sticks or "tailed" by the genital
region.
There is no pain in operating on a sedated snake. Immediate post
operative discomfort is minimal and in terms of a venomoid operation,
less than experienced by a snake with a minor mite infestation. This
has been measured and cannot be disputed.
Any post operative discomfort is rapidly outweighed by the removal of
the need to inflict ongoing and daily cruelty to the snake through
pinning, necking, hooking, tailing and the like, which are generally
known to be traumatic for snakes and is the basis as to why non-venomous
snakes (e.g. Pythons) are not generally handled in this way.
See:
http://www.smuggled.com/VenSur6.htm
for more details
Hoser snakebusters trademarks retained, venomoid operations by Raymond
Hoser, false and misleading statements by dishonest people, a real
threat to private keeping of reptiles in Australia and other relevant
information.
Release dated 4 August 2006
Dear all, there has been substantial misinformation being posted on the
internet and elsewhere by dishonest people with agendas and axes to
grind against Raymond Hoser.
This includes people who are opposed to herpetology and wildlife
conservation..
There has been a grouping of people with vested interests against
Raymond Hoser making these false claims and also "widening their front"
by posting under false and assumed names to make out they represent a
wider group than
actually exists.
These people also control some internet forums and delete out posts
favourable to Hoser to maintain a façade of general dislike for Hoser
which is not only far from the truth, but a reversal of the reality.
In the real world, Raymond Hoser is regarded as a conservation Icon,
having authored several conservation books before conservation became
trendy. Hoser is also regarded as the father of private reptile keeping
in Australia, without whose efforts, private reptile keeping would still
be banned in most parts of Australia.
The false claims on the internet by these enemies of conservation are
further being cross-referenced to enhance the credibility of the lies
being peddled.
These people against Raymond Hoser include:
1 - David Williams, associate Wolfgang Wuster and others who between
them have a history of being proven liars and numerous criminal acts
including wildlife smuggling. They have been adversely named in the
corruption best sellers Smuggled (1993) and Smuggled-2 (1996) And seem
unable to get over these facts.
Williams was also raided in 1996 for allegedly illegally held reptiles
(or similar) and news media reports stated he had been found guilty of
cruelty to the reptiles. This was confirmed independently.
2 - Ed Punchard and others associated with a film company, Prospero, who
unsuccessfully sued Hoser in 2003/4 for his trademarks, snakebuster and
snakebusters, lost proceedings and then proceeded to misuse and
misrepresent the trademarks. They paid Hoser damages at end 2005 as a
result of proceedings in the Federal Court. The amount is
confidential. This confidentiality was insisted upon by Prospero's
side, not Hoser's.
3 - Some novice snake handlers in Melbourne, recently licenced to do
snake shows in Melbourne who covet the various events that Hoser and his
company do reptile shows at.
Hoser/Snakebusters are known as by far the best reptile shows in
Australia, the result being we are also the most heavily booked.
The false and vexatious complaints against Hoser are numerous and as a
rule all bad, but the three main ones are as follows:
1 - Hoser does not own the trademark snake busters or snake buster.
These statements are a blatant lie. Hoser owns both trademarks and has
won all relevant proceedings. This is independently verifiable from the
Federal Government's own database.
A recent claim by Williams is that Hoser actually bootlegged the marks
from Prospero. This is patently ridiculous and something even Prospero
didn't allege. There is no evidence to support the claim by Williams.
2 - Hoser's ground-breaking procedures to render deadly snakes
non-venomous is somehow cruel. This is another lie. The reverse is
actually true. Hook and stick handling of venomous snakes is
demonstrably cruel to the snake as evidenced by their burning desire to
bite the handler and a non-venomous snake is relieved of this ongoing
handling cruelty. Adverse claims against the Hoser surgery are
invariably false and should be seen in the context of the following.
Two unsuccessful operations to render snakes non-venomous by another
herpetologist (David Millar) were failures. He received no criticism
from David Williams and others. Williams himself has admitted to
attempting a botched operation on a snake!
The Hoser operations were universally successful and have been generally
acclaimed, including by numerous medical and veterinary people. There
has never been cruelty inflicted on any Hoser reptiles and independent
inquiries have established this after the first vexatious complaints
were made by Williams and others on his behalf.
A recent petition has been circulated by Shane Hunter and others,
calling fore the immediate destruction of Raymond Hoser and all things
associated with the name and businesses, with numerous signatories
including some that are clearly bogus. Other names on the petition
signatory list, if genuine are curious. Many names include people who
approached Hoser to surgically venomoid snakes for them and their
requests were declined. Evidently this has caused offence.
One of these persons Chris Hay of Victoria, has even posted on forums
more than once that he has handled deadly snakes for years and without
problem. (see for example post at:
http://www.aussiepythons.com/index....t=45&sid=a5da27eb29c59395d20f088f06c8a1f7)
The statement by Chris Hay (Posted under the name "acanthophis") is a
lie and he knows this. Chris Hay has been hospitalized twice for
serious snakebites as a result of his mishandling them, including a
Female Floodplain Death Adder (Acanthophis cummingi), which resulted in
him having several vials of anti-venom. Similar occurred from the bite
of a King Brown Snake (Cannia australis).
As a result of these bites and associated adverse publicity, there were
calls for the banning of private people being allowed to keep snakes in
Victoria and elsewhere. It was only as a result of lobbying by Hoser
and others that led to the authorities allowing private keeping of
reptiles to continue.
Similar calls to ban private keeping of reptiles were made after a
series of TV shows in which Bruce George of WA, was shown to be
repeatedly bitten by venomous snakes (various episodes) and
hospitalized, all bites resulting from his cruel and inhumane handling
methods.
Shane Hunter, has a history of editing out posts from his web forum that
go against his take on things, including all "pro-Hoser" posts. He goes
further and accuses pro-Hoser posters of being Hoser pseudonyms, which
they are not. One such person, Barry Goldsmith of Melbourne and others
were falsely accused of being Hoser and booted off the forum run by
Shane Hunter (Aussiereptilekeeper).
Hunter also admits to lying on his own forums claiming this to be a sign
of his intelligence!
Shane Hunter even ran a thread on his forum dedicated to the burning and
destruction of books published by Raymond Hoser, which says something
about the degree of the witch-hunt against Hoser.
Other (alleged) signatories of the Hunter managed petition have similar
form in terms of their histories and making false statements on the
internet.
3 - Hoser has "stolen" naming rights for reptile species from people.
This is a sour-grapes argument without merit from David Williams and
others, who are irked by the fact that species named by Raymond Hoser
must carry the "Hoser names" in perpetuity, thereby giving their enemy
credibility. The fact is that all research results published by Hoser
have been original and Hoser has never had access to file material from
Williams or others to enable him the ability to "steal" naming rights
for any reptiles.
The stealing naming rights by claims by Williams have about as much
merit as the claim that Hoser comes from Jupiter!
Please note any material on the internet or elsewhere adverse of Raymond
Hoser will invariably be false or a deliberate misrepresentation of the
truth so as to be false.
While it is easy to say that anything bearing the names "David
Williams", "Wolfgang Wuster", "Watcher" or other related aliases will be
of little if any merit in terms of comments relating to Hoser, it gets
difficult to identify these people due to the frequency and ease with
which they can post under different names or have others post on their
behalf. This gets even messier when they refer to ostensibly third
party (Independent") sources, which in fact derive from themselves
having been posted under other names.
We (Hoser and companies) cannot sue Williams for defamation due to his
existing bad debts and the fact that any judgement against him would not
be recoverable (as he has no assets of note). David Williams knows
this and uses this to his advantage.
In two previous matters in which Raymond Hoser got judgement against
others, he was unable to recover damages due to the defeated (defaming)
side then pleading effective bankruptcy. The legal bills outstanding on
both sides were huge and Hoser ended up having to foot his own, even
though he won the cases.
David Williams and others do "google" searches for the name Hoser on the
internet and then post on as many of these sites as possible adverse
comments against Hoser, usually referencing back to websites they
control as "Moderators" or their own websites (as in Wuster's and the
like).
The true situation is therefore as follows:
1 - Raymond Hoser is the snakebuster and only himself and people
authorized by him can call themselves snakebuster/s in terms of
reptiles, films and the like.
Two of the three trademarks were opposed through legal action by
Prospero Films and associates, the basis of their defence being a claim
the term as "generic" and in common useage. They agreed with Hoser's
first use of the terms in the 1980's. All actions against the
trademarks failed. The "common usage" test failed at all hearings.
Prospero also produced evidence of casual usage of the word snakebuster
in the USA and south Africa and South Australia (all without Hoser's
knowledge), but none of this had any bearing on the case. However in at
least the South Australian and West Australian cases, it was established
that the term had been bottlegged from Hoser. This was admitted by the
parties.
2 - Venomoid snakes are eminently sensible for frequently handled
snakes. Failure to venomoid a snake, (using a procedure now known to be
safe and effectively painless for a snake) that is handled often and
then using hooks, stick, tailing and the like to move it, is extremely
cruel to the snake and should be outlawed. Far from being censured for
cruelty, Hoser has been commended for reducing it! Numerous vets and
medical personel have put their stamp of approval on the Hoser venomoid
snakes. The offspring of those venomoid snakes are now in collections
in at least three Australian states!
Hoser has no plans to venomoid more snakes at this stage. No venomoid
operations have been done for some time as it was quite some time ago
that Hoser literally ran out of snakes to venomoid (all that could be
done - were!).
As those voided snakes are all alive, well and breeding, there is no
need to replace them.
Hence a petition to ban Hoser voiding snakes is redundant as there are
no more operations planned at this stage.
Thus, if a genuine petition were to be organized against venomoiding
snakes, it should be generic and targeted at any person who may be
planning such an operation.
Based on the over 1000 approaches receieved by Hoser to do operations
(all declined) a petition against others doing venomoid operations may
have some sound basis, even if the arguments against venomoiding don't.
Several licenced reptile demonstrators in several Australian states have
approached Hoser to venomoid snakes and some have complained of an
"unfair commercial advantage" enjoyed by Hoser with the venomoid
snakes. A petition (if genuinely against venomoiding snakes), should be
directed towards this likely source of future operations.
A warning is that if venomoiding snakes is banned by law, this will not
stop persons doing the operation illegally and short of re-doing
surgery, it is effectively impossible to tell a fixed snakes from one
that isn't.
We have all seen the adverse effects of banning reptile keeping in
Australia (the trade went underground) and this should be remembered by
those pushing to ban voiding, captive snakes or anything else similar.
3 - Raymond Hoser's ground-breaking research has been recognized by
peers with credibility and he remains one of the most often cited and
cross-referenced herpetologists in Australia. Recent reptile books
(e.g. Barker's, Mense's or Aplin's), cite more Hoser original research
papers
than for any other Australian herpetologist. Hoser's naming of new
species has always been original research and has been accepted by a
majority of herpetologists, not that the latter is even important. It
often takes many years for a new or controversial position to be
generally accepted and due to Raymond Hoser often being at the leading
edge of research, it would be expected that there would be some dissent
from his findings or views.
Threat to private keeping of reptiles in Australia - including false
claims against Hoser
4 - False claims have been made against Raymond Hoser to various
authorities, the results being a series of raids on Hoser, his staff and
others, including at home and workplaces. In all cases so far, Hoser
and staff have come out "clean". In one case, the reporting officer
filed a report in favour of venomoid snakes, going on to state that
non-voided deadlies shouldn't be allowed in malls due to the ever
present public safety risk. However the costs of these "raids" have
been substantial, in that several thousand dollars of taxpayers money
has been effectively wasted.
The false claims leading to the raids included the following:
1 - Hoser putting people's lives at risk with deadly snakes in shows at
shopping malls.
2 - Hoser has stolen snakes from other private keeper/s.
3 - Hoser has engaged in cruelty to reptiles and/or other illegal
activity.
Some of the people making the false claims against Hoser have also
"dobbed in" others for things they haven't done, the result being that
wildlife officers and others have had their resources unreasonably
diverted from more important matters, including tracking stolen
reptiles, stopping illegal imports (and viruses these animals may
carry), etc.
Higher up the tree, ministers and others have complained of these costs
and are now considering the banning of private keeping of reptiles as a
cheaper and more effective alternative. The most likely trigger for
this "ban on keeping" according to the head of DSE Law enforcement will
be an adverse bite from a venomous snakes, which is something Hoser and
snakebusters have been mindful of and hence our routine use of
venomoids.
Hence the alarm expressed Australia-wide when a novice by the name of
Bruce George appeared on TV mishandling snakes and getting bitten, which
if emulated by viewers could have disastrous consequences for keepers
everywhere.
There is also a strong lobby of people opposed to allegedly "wild
snakes" or "non-domesticable reptiles" being kept in click clacks, wood
or plastic tubs, small cages and the like on the basis it is not
natural. The frequently obtained photos of mite infested snakes in poor
health at collections, shops and the like (not all of course) gives
these people ammunition and is the Achilles heel of private
herpetology.
People with a genuine concern for the future of herpetology in Australia
should stop those making false complaints against leading herpetologists
and direct their attention to cleaning up the cruel and inhumane keeping
conditions commonly seen in a percentage of private collections across
the country.
End Notes:
>From Smuggled-2
"In July 1996, Williams who was then based in Cairns had his collection
of 100 odd snakes seized by D.E.H. officials. According to Adrian
Walker, this had resulted from a falling out between Williams and
certain D.E.H. officials. D.E.H. officials had claimed that the snakes
were emaciated and diseased, as well as carrying parasitic snake mites.
Although these claims were rebutted by Williams, several reliable
independent sources were able to confirm that many of the reptiles
seized from Williams had been in severely sub-standard health."
Government Trademark database on this date:
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/atmoss/Falcon_Users_Cookies.Run_Create
912066 Snakebusters 44 Registered
Registered/Protected
Trade Mark : 912066
Word: Snakebusters
Image:
Lodgement Date: 07-MAY-2002
Registered From: 07-MAY-2002
Acceptance Advertised: 12-SEP-2002
Registration Advertised: 24-JUL-2003
Sealing Date: 08-JUL-2003
Renewal Due: 07-MAY-2012
Class/es: 44
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: Raymond Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 44 Removal of unwanted snakes, reptiles and other wildlife from
private premises of persons, companies and other entities in accordance
with state and federal wildlife laws, as well as provision of
information on such reptile related matters, including general
zoological and reptile-related consultancy work
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTERS
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 912066
OPPOSITION
Acceptance Advertised: 12-SEP-2002
Applicant: Raymond Hoser
Address for Service: Raymond Hoser
Opponent: PROSPERO PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD
Address for Service: FIOCCO'S LAWYERS
Status: Finalised
Notice of Opposition Due: 12-DEC-2002
Lodged: 03-DEC-2002
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/...ail=DETAILED&p_rec_no=47&p_rec_all=62
Trade Mark : 963988
Word: snakebuster
Image:
Lodgement Date: 31-JUL-2003
Registered From: 31-JUL-2003
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Registration Advertised: 25-MAY-2006
Sealing Date: 15-MAY-2006
Renewal Due: 31-JUL-2013
Class/es: 9
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: R T Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 9 Magnets; video game disks and cartridges; computer game
programs, computer game software; stereoscopic viewers and slide reels;
pre-recorded audio and video cassettes featuring information about
animals; pre-recorded videos, CD-ROMs and DVDs featuring information
about animals; interactive video games of virtual reality comprised of
computer hardware and software; pre-recorded digital recordings, namely,
digital audio and video tapes featuring information about animals;
pre-recorded audio tapes featuring books about animals; binoculars;
directional compasses; radios audio and video cassette players and
recorders; clock radios; calculators; video and photographic cameras and
camera cases; sunglasses; baseball batting helmets, football helmets,
hockey helmets; safety goggles; life jackets and telephones
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTER
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 963988
OPPOSITION
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Applicant: Raymond Terrence Hoser
Address for Service: R T Hoser
Opponent: PROSPERO PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD
Address for Service: FIOCCO'S LAWYERS
Status: Finalised
Notice of Opposition Due: 04-MAR-2004
Lodged: 23-FEB-2004
Evidence in Reply Due: 11-JAN-2005
Lodged: 24-DEC-2004
http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/...ail=DETAILED&p_rec_no=48&p_rec_all=62
Trade Mark : 964068
Word: snakebuster
Image:
Lodgement Date: 31-JUL-2003
Registered From: 31-JUL-2003
Acceptance Advertised: 04-DEC-2003
Registration Advertised: 01-APR-2004
Sealing Date: 16-MAR-2004
Renewal Due: 31-JUL-2013
Class/es: 41
Status: Registered/Protected
Kind: n/a
Type of Mark: Word
Owner/s: Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS,3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Address for Service: R T Hoser
488 Park Road
PARK ORCHARDS
3114,VIC
AUSTRALIA
Goods & Services
Class: 41 Television programs, videos, DVD's, Internet sites, books and
other media and entertainment relating to snakes, snake catching, snake
removals from people's houses as well as similar programs, information
and documentaries relating to other reptiles, frogs and wild (generally
non-domesticated kinds) animals in general
History
Opposition
Indexing Details - Word Constituents
SNAKEBUSTER
Indexing Details - Image Constituents
TM Number 964068 has no Oppositions
Voiding:
Original snakes venomoided some years back have bred. Their offspring
are now in several collections.
The said snakes remain alive and well and do shows on a daily basis
without being cruelly pinned by snake sticks or "tailed" by the genital
region.
There is no pain in operating on a sedated snake. Immediate post
operative discomfort is minimal and in terms of a venomoid operation,
less than experienced by a snake with a minor mite infestation. This
has been measured and cannot be disputed.
Any post operative discomfort is rapidly outweighed by the removal of
the need to inflict ongoing and daily cruelty to the snake through
pinning, necking, hooking, tailing and the like, which are generally
known to be traumatic for snakes and is the basis as to why non-venomous
snakes (e.g. Pythons) are not generally handled in this way.
See:
http://www.smuggled.com/VenSur6.htm
for more details
