Re: Just out of curiosity

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Posted by WildCrotalus on October 29, 2002 at 05:08:14:

In Reply to: Just out of curiosity posted by Lyle on October 26, 2002 at 03:41:31:

There are many aspects to self-regulation but it pretty much boils down to responsible keeping. Rare cases of mauling are becoming less rare.

In some cases people that obtain animals that they cannot house have the animals escape, set free, put down or try to find someone to take them who can take them. Same pretty much applies to feeding the animals once they get bigger and need more food.

Point is that if self regulation (or folks practicing responsible keeping) was working, then there would be less ammo for the tree enviro crazies to use.

Be mindful I am not just directing this towards large dangerous exotics but all of the �alternative pets� as some of the folks call them.

A large cat escapes and is recaptured (or a wild one such as a cougar sited) will make the front page of the paper and the news where as the kid who was mauled by a pit bull (or other �non exotic� dog) will be buried on the back page somewhere if it makes it in the paper at all. Well come to think of it, the kids arrested for selling crack and jacking up Granny would be buried too.

The worst part of it all is how the general public views things they do not, or care, to understand. I am afraid that in most cases perception is reality. Rats carry the plague, armadillos-leprosy, bats-rabies, and reptiles-salmonella. Homosexuals have AIDS, marijuana is harmless, Ford Explorers have bad tires, politicians are crooked, ��..ect....ect�.ect�. Of course people educated on the subject matter know better than to believe stereotypes, but to those that aren�t (for whatever reason) perception is reality.

But hey, this is just my perception.

:O) Dave

:"Apparently self-regulation is not working, but a total ban is not the answer either."

:I've been hearing that a lot, but I'm not sure why. Would you, or anyone here, care to explain what's happened that might lead one to believe that self-regulation isn't working? Now I'm not asking you to cite rare cases of maulings, what I would like to know is if there's some trend that has caused concern enough to impose strict regulations on the hobby.

Follow Ups:

Marijuana isn't harmless, just victimless Lyle 10/29/02 (2)
- i get stone with my tiger in my apartment everyday, no.... ashram 11/07/02 (0)
- I agree.........n/p WildCrotalus 10/30/02 (0)