The reptile community has been suckered.  We are falling for a very clever ruse and it is happening at this very moment.

What trick, you say?  S373 and HR2811, of course.  The clever nature of the trickery behind these bills has caused the reptile community to lose its perspective and react in a most unexpected way.  We are now working for the other side.  We are unintentionally supporting a ban.  Allow me to explain.

Both S373 and HR2811 propose to add the entire genus PYTHON to the injurious species list of the current Lacey Act.  If passed this will ban the importation of AND interstate transport of all pythons.  This will effectively end the trade in every species of python there is.  This is, of course, a horrifying proposition to python lovers everywhere.  At first I laughed at the silliness of it and shook my head at how uneducated the people were who penned such legislation.  But as I continued to think about it I came to realise that it may actually be brilliant wording on their part.  It’s brilliance lies their anticipation of our reaction.  As a community we have played directly into the hands of those who wish ban the ownership of exotic animals.  And leading the packed on being tricked is one of our most active voices, the United States Association of Reptile Keepers, USARK.

In my opinion USARK has officially thrown the Burmese Python under the proverbial bus.  I have long feared it would one day happen but did not expect it to come so soon.  On July 25th, 2009 USARK actively solicited the reptile community to contact members of the House Judiciary Committee to amend the wording of HR2811 to specifically address Burmese pythons rather than the entire python genera.  In doing so they have become unintentional participants in the initiative to ban large constrictors in the United States.  And I suggest that this is partially what the authors of S373 and HR2811 wanted to happen.  I believe these bills are INTENTIONALLY vague (by using only the term ‘python’) in order to get us to say, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!  Don’t ban all pythons!  Just ban Burmse pythons! “ Wait.  Did we, the reptile community, really just say that?  Yeah, we did.

The last I heard USARK’s position was that they did not support legislation that was not based on a legitimate scientific analysis of the ability of the Burmese python to expand beyond the Florida Everglades.  Has such evidence surfaced?  No, it has not.  But their position appears to have changed.  USARK wants to be the voice of the reptile community and they appear to be suggesting that we offer up the Burmese python as a sacrifice to protect all the other pythons.

Please don’t take my words to think that I am coming down on USARK as a whole.  I do not intend to do so.  I firmly believe that USARK has, at its foundations, nothing but the absolute best intentions for the reptile community.  They are a group of people who have stood up to fill a void; a voice to represent reptile owners throughout the United States.  But I do not agree with their reaction to this particular issue.  And part of me thinks that they, like the rest of us, have been tricked into a position that supports the desired result of those who wish to ban the ownership of exotic animals.   We have played into their hands.  Just a few short months ago we were all screaming, “No.  You may not ban pythons without scientific evidence to support their ability to be invasive beyond the Florida Everglades.” Now, in a tiny amount of time, we seem to have changed our voice to say, “Please, please, please!  Just ban Burmese pythons.” The only way we could have changed our tune so quickly is if we were tricked into doing so.  And tricked we have been.

If you are going to make a call on Monday to a member of the House Judiciary Committee regarding the wording of HR2811 (as the USARK suggests) you need to make a choice about what you are going to say.  Are you going to advocate a change in the wording that says it’s OK to ban the Burmese python or are you going to tell them that the Lacey Act should not be amended until proof can be found that pythons are a national problem rather than just an isolated problem in the south of Florida?

And by the way, there is already a bill floating around that will fund efforts to hunt Burmese pythons in the Everglades (as well as multiple dozens of other non-native creatures that get no publicity).  If Burmese pythons cannot expand beyond the Everglades and we are going to hunt them down and remove them, why do we need a law banning them throughout the entire United States?  In short, we don’t.

Once the exotic animal banning gates are open we cannot close them.  More and more reptiles and other exotics will find themselves legally unavailable for ownership.

Regards,

Colin Weaver

P.S. – Where are the big shipping companies?  Delta (via Delta Dash), FedEx and UPS all stand to lose a considerable amount of money if these bans are actually put into effect.  They should want to lobby on behalf of the responsible reptile owning community and ensure the future of a large revenue stream.

Final note:  It is not lost on me that USARK’s position may be one of minimization.  They may be taking a precautionary stance by seeking to amend the wording to minimize damage if the unthinkable should happen.  But even if that is true it doesn’t change the fact that there has been a shift in tone toward a willingness to let Burmese python ownership become a thing of the past.

What a polarizing animal the python has become.

Within the portion of our country that is paying attention we are divided into two distinct groups.  One one side we have reptile owners from every walk of life; blue collar, white collar, broke-as-a-joke and stinking rich.  Some of these reptile owners have a single python while others have many and breed them for profit.  And we have owners who fit everywhere in-between.  Their levels of personal responsibility are as diverse as they are.  I’m sure there are some who have no business owning a reptile.  The overwhelming majority, however, are quite responsible.  They respect their animals, take care of them and work to ensure that they don’t impose on the rights of others who are not as enthusiastic about snakes.  And yes, many of them actually love their snakes in the way that the average person loves their dog or cat.  No, pythons are not as affectionate and attentive as my Weimaraner (not by a long shot) but they do have personalities.  Each snake is unique.  And if you were to spend some time with them you would also come to realize that truth.

On the other side of this debate is a small, well-positioned group of misinformed individuals who are calling for a federal ban on pythons; not Burmese pythons …all pythons.  Maybe.  Nobody on this side seems to be python savvy enough to know that there are actually different kinds of pythons with the overwhelming majority of them being quite tiny compared to the sinister Burmese.  I’m not entirely sure where they stand on other types of pythons and I don’t think they know either.

Eradicating the existence of pet pythons in America is such an easy thing to stand for, isn’t it?  Pythons are huge, menacing, people-eating machines that are actively slithering north from Southern Florida toward the back yards of the Washington DC suburbs where they will stalk your pets and hunt your children!  Well, that’s the way the media tells it, at least.  The truth in this debate is not so newsworthy so the media (with the help of bad info from supposedly scientific organizations) is fabricating the truth to better their ratings.  And why not?  Ratings equal dollars.  From what I gather chaos, revolution, murder, drug overdosing Kings of Pop, financial downturns, forest fires, celebrity clothing choices, car crashes and Burmese pythons are the things that sell newspapers and ad space.  From the Discovery Channel and the History Channel to a few dozen newspaper columnists around the country and all the way up to Senator Bill Nelson, who is a living, breathing example of misinformation incarnate, people who know absolutely nothing about pythons are calling for their nationwide ban.  Their numbers are small but, as I wrote earlier, they are well positioned in the media and are able amplify their noise.  The original rallying cry was the establishment of a population of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades.  An unfounded fear regarding their ability to migrate north has generated a small amount of hysteria and rather than taking the time to find the truth they have planted their flag and are trying to rally troops to support a ban.  Senator Nelson has to support this ban in order to get money from the Humane Society of the United States so I can at least give him credit for being a true politician and supporting the voice with the fattest wallet.  The newpaper boys and girls advocating a ban are just parroting things they heard someone else say. I seriously doubt they have any real opinion of their own.  So  I forgive them.  They are puppets of the media juggernaut and know not what they do.

Two groups of people; one that understands pythons and is asking, “Really?  Seriously?”, and one that seems to have gotten their undergrad degree in large constrictors by watching Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez in 1997′s Anaconda.  Their masters thesis was complete as the credits rolled on Samuel Jackson’s Snakes on a Plane.  Armed with that level of education about the true nature of snakes they could have done themselves a favor by hiring Mr. Jackon as their spokesperson and could have used this as their slogan:

“HR 669.  When you absolutely, positively, got to ban every mother fucking snake in the land …accept no substitute.”

The call for a ban on pythons has no real merit.  It is based on irrational fear and misinformation.  And Senator Nelson embodied the desire to play on people’s fear when he unrolled a stretched out python skin during a Senate hearing in early July 2009.  He wants to protect the Florida Everglades …or so he says.  How does banning pythons in Seattle protect the Florida Everglades?  The truth is that he wants special interest money from the HSUS and other organizations who want to ban the ownership of exotic animals.  And the Burmese python is a great entry point; a way to get a better foothold on the banning process.

Just how many Burmese pythons are there in the Florida Everglades?  I have heard numbers as low as a few thousand all the way up to multiple hundreds of thousands.  People who don’t support a ban like the lower number while proponents of the ban like the big one.  The real number:  unknown.

How did Burmese pythons get into the Everglades?  I do not doubt for a single second that at some point in the past some knucklehead released a snake into the wild that should not have been released.  But it is not a verifiable fact that the current Everglades population comes from a released pet (as the media loves to suggest).  Defenders of python freedom point to Hurricane Andrew as the culprit because it caused a massive release of non-native species into the Everglades.  The truth is that nobody will ever know for sure.  We would do a lot better pointing our attention at eliminating the Burmese python from the area rather than playing blame games.  If you need volunteers to go down and collect them, call me.  I’m in.  I can also rally dozens, if not hundreds, of other snake enthusiasts who will agree that a mass collection effort will be a wonderful pastime.

I continue to be disappointed by the media’s propensity to hop on to the coat tails of the side of an argument that gets the most press.  I understand why they do it but it still disappoints.  It also diminishes my ability to trust everything else they say or print.  If they so eloquently lie to the public about pythons how much truth is there in their reporting on fossil beds in Montana?  And oh what a wonderful thing the Burmese pythons is shaping up to be. It’s a win-win for the media.  They get to sell a lie that invokes fear and then clean up on the ad revenue sold because of increased readership/web traffic.

Cheers,

Colin Weaver

…and the things you’ll learn.

Way back in high school I took biology (we all did).  We talked about Gregor Mendel and genetics.  The girl who sat behind me was gorgeous. I spent most of my time talking to her rather than trying to learn about genetics.  My eyes are not blue and discussing the fact that I am het for blue eyes was less interesting than her.

In college I took courses in biology, physiology, epidemiology, genetics, chemistry and biochemistry.  None of it seemed like it would ever be relevant (to me) in the real world.  I began with the mindset that I was there to ‘check a box’ (e.g. get a diploma).  Pass the tests, move along; that was my initial perspective. By the time I graduated from college I knew I was wrong.  I  had become a reptile breeder (albeit a small one).  The ball python jubilee was still almost a decade away so the more exciting genetics considerations at the time were the albino and anerythrystic genes (yes, I know there was other stuff going on, too).  Much of the awesomeness we know today in the genetics of burmese pythons, reticulated pythons, ball pythons, blood pythons, boa constrictors, etc. was still a long way off.

After college I enrolled in graduate school courses.  I wanted more information.  I took graduate level courses in herpetology and genetics.  By this time I had been breeding a variety of different snakes (colubrids, boas & pythons) for a few years.  Technically, this makes me a herpetoculturist, not a herpetologist.  While the difference in spelling is subtle, the meaning is not.  So in my herpetology course I was an immediate outsider.  My classmates were interested in counting differences in subcaudal scales on snakes obtained from the top and bottom of some far away mountain.  I was interested in how to breed them.  The course did not include a section on husbandry and breeding, which I understand but still missed.  Strangely, herpetoculture and herpetology don’t mix like you might think.  This particular group of herpetology students did not embrace the idea of breeding reptiles for profit.  Capitalism and academia are often at odds with each other.

I am not suggesting that all my schooling made me a good reptile breeder.  While it certainly didn’t hurt me I suggest it provided me slim to no advantage over most of my reptile breeding peers.  Pretty much all of my friends who breed snakes arrived at this particular location (e.g. reptile breeder) via different paths.  Some of us began as car mechanics while others were general contractors, stock brokers, longshoreman, pharmacologists and information technology professionals.  And virtually all of them have as much usable knowledge about genetics as I do.  That impresses me.  It doesn’t take college or graduate courses to learn how to do any of this.  It does, however, take motivation and a desire to learn.  And it takes a lot of ‘doing’.  The more I do this the better I get.  Yeah, yeah, we all love reptiles but it’s the attachment of dollar signs that really gets a lot of us motivated to figure this stuff out.  Visit any reptile forum and you will read everyday people talking about Punnett Squares, dihybrid crosses, genes, alleles and loci (locus) just as naturally as they talk about cooking with a microwave oven.   It just goes to show the chinese proverb, “What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand” is as true today as it was  2,500 or so years ago when something like it was first written.

My whole point is this:  We are a community that has become functional (if not proficient) in a field that until a few years ago was reserved for academics.  The past 10-15 years in the reptile industry have been a whirlwind.  We have become better at herpetoculture, breeding and genetics.  Rather than having a bunch of snakes in glass aquariums we have applied science and capitalism to reptile husbandry.  I’m glad to be part of that.

…And then there was H.R. 669.  While not the first (or last) assault on our rights to own, breed, sell, trade and transport reptiles, I witnessed two things happen as a result of its introduction:

1. We galvanized as a community in a way I honestly didn’t think possible.  From the largest breeders to the guy with a single pet reptile I saw people get fired up and say, “What do you need me to do to help fight this?”  People quickly became willing soldiers, ready to fight for their right to own reptiles.  That impressed me.  Using the Internet as our primary vehicle (forums, Twitter, email, web sites, etc.) we all worked to get the word out and get others motivated.  The axe has not fallen on H.R. 669 but, to steal from a famous story, ‘Horton heard a Who’ by the time 4/23/09 came around.
2. We got also got an unexpected education through this ordeal (not unlike the genetics education we have all received over the past 10 years).  I met more than a few reptile people who got caught up on all the stuff they missed in high school about how our government runs.  How many of you reptile fanatics out there now have a much better understanding of how things work in the House of Representatives?  Maybe you didn’t put it all together but there are a lot of us who are much more acquainted with how the process works.  And if H.R. 669 ever makes it out of the House we’re going to all get a lot smarter about how things work in the Senate.  We’ve got to be educated, organized, and vigilant if we’re going to win this.  People who used to say, “I don’t vote.”, are beginning to realize that their voice, when combined with others who share their beliefs, actually does count.

In one form or another, being in the reptile business is an education…

Cheers,

Colin Weaver

So today I get this email from a girl named Leigh Anne Serrano.  This is how it reads:

Well, you’re email address says it all.  Yes, this would absolutely impact you.  But trying to mislead the public regarding this is absolute crap.  OR maybe you haven’t actually read the whole document in it’s entirety, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.  So, to help YOU become more informed, so that you don’t continue to misinform others, here is a section that I have cut and pasted directly from HR 669, just for you:
(f) Animals Owned Lawfully Prior to Prohibition of Importation- This Act and regulations issued under this Act shall not interfere with the ability of any person to possess an individual animal of any species if such individual animal was legally owned by the person before the risk assessment is begun pursuant to subsection (e)(3), even if such species is later prohibited from being imported under the regulations issued under this Act.
You know, you could look at it in a good way…..It could make the lives of the snakes already out there so much more valuable, and so much less likely to be dumped, abandoned, killed when no longer wanted.  And if you really love those creatures, that will make you happy.   All in all, what you or I or any of us want is irrelevant, the big guys do what they want (think bailout money, it was given….)   I just hate propaganda filled with alarm tactics that are false.  There are enough breeders, hobbiest, enthusiest out there that will side with you based on fact alone(this will shut you down) without resorting to circus ads.  If you are proud of who you are and what you do, have some dignity.
Leigh Anne Serrano

So I’m thinking she’s one of the haters.  I’m glad to have received her email because it illustrates a few important points.  One, there are a lot of people out there who don’t want us to be able to own and breed our animals and two, they are confused.  Here is my response to her:

Hi Leigh Anne,

I appreciate your email but I don’t like that you think that I’m misleading
people.  I have read and re-read the proposed law and I am aware that I
will be allowed to continue to own the animals I have today.  But it will
prohibit me from breeding them, selling them, trading them or transporting
them across state lines.  This includes the animals I currently own; not
one’s I might import  in the future.  In fact, I don’t import at all.  All
my animals are captive bred either by me or other breeders around the
country.  This bill will eliminate the trade of captive bred animals, not
imports.

So no, the animals I have will not become more valuable.  They will become
useless.  The hundreds of thousands of dollars I have invested in my
business will be lost.

So, with respect, you do not have all the facts.  It is you who are
confused.  This is something that will devastate the pet trade but I am
suspecting that this is what you want.

Colin Weaver

If you would like to help Leigh Anne Serrano further understand what the passage of HR 669 will mean you can contact her at lserrano3@cox.net.  I’m sure she will appreciate the continued education that the reptile industry can drop on her.

Regards,

Colin Weaver