~~Shipping Petition~~

[Chris Steele]

Everyone please sign this petition!
It is a petition to get shipping companies to ship live harmless snakes and other herps.

http://www.petitiononline.com/harmless/petition.html

[Cruciform]

I think an organized writing campaign or petition done with hardcopy would be much more effective, although harder to manage.

Online petitions tend to be filled with inflammatory posts and garbage and seem to have had virtually no effect on any of the issues that were brought up in petitions to the industry I work in.

Inviting representatives of the shipping companies to partake in a round table with some of the most reputable breeders or herpetologists in the community would probably be even more effective.

One stumbling block that is likely to pop up is the case of insurance. Whether a reptile is dangerous or not, a lot of people have an irrational fear of snakes. If a crate of them breaks open, people are liable to panic and hurt themselves or others trying to "escape". They'll take things like that into consideration as well. It's not only the facts but the public perception that they'll consider.

[Chris Steele]

I agree with all of that, but if they break a case open they should be paying the shipper the insurance anyway in my opinion. Even if it wasn't an animal.