Last year, on an idle Saturday, Christian and I wanted to go visit the Serpentarium, the Monroe, Washington home of the Reptile Man and his herp collection. We had a grand time, la la la, until we got to the front and saw that the young woman behind the counter had a small snake around her neck. When I asked her about it, as it was quite beautiful, she told me that it was a baby anaconda, an unexpected addition to the Serpentarium family that one day appeared along with its many siblings in the anaconda tank. Oops. It's usually an excellent idea, when keeping multiple animals in the same cage, to SEX THEM. Anacondas, unlike most other herps, bear live young as they're primarily water-dwelling, and are not nest-sitters, so the keepers, unless they were really observant (har) wouldn't know the female was gravid. Anyway, she told me that all of the other anaconda babies had been purchased, and she was going to keep the one on her neck until it got too big, and then she was going to give it to a zoo. My head began to spin and steam came pouring out of my ears as I did a fair Donald-Duck-turning-into-a-teapot imitation. Before Christian could stop me, I got really snippy with her and told her that zoos don't want outgrown pets and that they have enough animals to take care of without having to take in every idiot's ill-guided attempt to have a cool animal that gets creepy when the pet gets big enough to eat adult rabbits. She was not pleased with me. The recent news reports about pet Burmese pythons released in the Everglades really chapped my ass and I now have a yen to ensure that large python and boa species be illegal for import, breeding and sale. I just don't think that the average consumer is equipped to handle an animal that gets to be over 20 feet long and needs a cage that's 10 x 10.
SO, the long and short is that the Reptile Man was on KUOW today, so I thought I'd call and get his opinion on this issue as his staff doesn't seem to be at all educated about these issues. However, by the time I got on the radio, I had two seconds and people were standing at my desk. Hear me make a doof out of myself here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Suzy's question comes at about 43:30 into the broadcast. Way to go hon!
I want a Boa Constrictor! They're easy to keep, you just toss a live rabbit in the basement once a week!
Brilliant Suzy!!! But all I heard was something like you have a herpes menagarie.
DO you need shots? Or some type of salve?
Oh, and I agree with the chap on the not wanting legislation either, I say shun those types of herpes, SHUN THEM.
Did you catch that the guy mentioned breeding llamas?
Llamas, Karma, coinkey-dink, and herpes, all in one show?!? Awesome!!!
OH, also, the punishment for releasing creatures into the wild by accident or by choice should be severe.
Just like we can't make breeds of dogs illegal (unless they ooze some type of radioactive urine or something) we MUST make the owners responsible for what they own and care for (including what the creature they care for does).
I am all for stiff fines, penalties and jailtime that will reflect the degree of cruelty and mistreatment of animals.
Someone has to stand up for the environment and the animals.
It should hurt like hell to mistreat or gross release a creature into an un-natural wild.
Post a Comment