Should Herpers be licensed?? - Page 3

Pythonian · 07-22-10, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by percey39

Thats good to hear pythonian and brandymom2afew. I really love pits but they are illegal here now due completely to the things you guys are talking about. I was very upset when they did ban them as i was in the process of setting up my yard for one. Educating people at petshops is great except in all honesty the petshop workers SHOULD be doing it. We have far too many stores here that are just in it to make a quick buck and dont care about their buyers or the effects on the hobby by what they are doing.

Licensing is a necessity for you guys, purely because if florida can pass their laws then so can the rest of your states. I would hate to see the big guy's completely banned over there as i really love seeing pics of them and its tempting me ever so more to move over to california!! I just need the right job opportunity to arise and i will be coming over i think.

The stores are a major part of it as well.. my fiance works at Petco [GASP]... but she does a good job informing the customers about proper care etc. It really is a shame... but the same thing goes for anything....If you go to car dealership only 10% of the people there actually know what they're doing... but if you go to a person who loves cars passionately.. he will tell you anything and everything.

Lankyrob · 07-22-10, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pythonian

Definitly.. Education will solve a lot of problems... if you have any very friendly..herps.. offer to do a small reptile 'show' at local petstores.... setup a table with printouts of favorite foods.. caresheets... etc. right by the reptiles... I do that fairly often.. stores love me because I give them a lot of sales... and I feel good because sometimes i say to parents, or kids... buy a book.. read it.. understand waht you're getting into... for your safety and the animals.. they'll come back a week later, and decide on a smaller herp... or i'll see them with a cart full of good reptile keeper gear.. picking out their new pet.
To me... 2-3 hours of my time.. standing around... if I save or help 1 reptile a day .. it was worth my time.

We do this at local schools and nursery's - take our young corns and intriduce them to the kids and then toward the end show them the adult. We always invite parents to attend the "show" too and you can see them thinking "aw that baby corn would be great pet for my child" then you show the 5footer and they reconsider!

Education and communication is the key to all of it.

percey39 · 07-22-10, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pythonian

The stores are a major part of it as well.. my fiance works at Petco [GASP]... but she does a good job informing the customers about proper care etc. It really is a shame... but the same thing goes for anything....If you go to car dealership only 10% of the people there actually know what they're doing... but if you go to a person who loves cars passionately.. he will tell you anything and everything.

I understand what your saying fully, but i still figure that its imperitive to people with sound knowledge working at pet stores. Also there needs to be more demonstrators doing more government funded demo's. Most of the licensed demonstrators will have very very sound knowledge of local reps as well as any available reptiles. I only say most of them as i have seen a few that dont know very much and seen one guy get tagged by one of his eastern brown snakes.
This is a big issue here and i would imagine even more so over there. People are blowing things out of proportion and the media love scaremongering.

Nafun · 07-22-10, 04:01 PM

I would love to be able to educate people on herps. I think I'll look into it in a few years when Iggy is full grown. Most pet stores don't carry snakes that get huge, but they all carry green iguanas, regardless of the fact that if properly cared for they'll get to 2 meters.

Pythonian · 07-23-10, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nafun

I would love to be able to educate people on herps. I think I'll look into it in a few years when Iggy is full grown. Most pet stores don't carry snakes that get huge, but they all carry green iguanas, regardless of the fact that if properly cared for they'll get to 2 meters.

sad thing is.. Iguana's should most definitely not be easily accessible to nagging, parent-bugging rugrats... They will realize Iguana's can get moody "Iggy doesn't want to play with me!!"

and Iggy dies... Sorry... kinda cold I know, but when a kid gets a dog or cat... the parents end up taking care of it.. when a kid gets a herp.. nobody takes care of it.. and it bothers me.