Just be carefull how much attention is drawn to our hobby!!!!
Be aware of the general threat to all animal keepers and dont be hasty to judge others.
I enjoy my T's but they are mine,dont have tons of nosy visitors or take them around for people to admire.
My legal feeling is exotic species have spit to do with Conservation.Their task should be the conservation and protection of our indigenous species.Just look at our rhino crisis to see whats going on..Its far easy to beat up on some little guy than take on crime syndicates.
OBT'S are great spiders..they are deserved of special protection a mandatory species in any collection:]

Monalishh wrote:

Your arguments are so simplistic, I think you are all missing the big picture!

Yes!that is the problem here, it's all about the hobby!
The big picture is the preservation of our local fauna and flaura... with which I agree wholeheartedly.

It is still a fuzzy picture though, I think in 2008 there was a supposed draft of T's that
were going to be made illegal to keep in SA! This draft
was stating that a few specific species(not specific genera!) would be made illegal!!WTF??
You just have to look at the list to see that some uninterested or uneducated(in theraphosids) official/s only picked
some of the more common species available in the hobby.If they were sure about the threat, I doubt it would come down to a
species level!? I hope that someone with the right "credentials" makes a call on this one!Even so, they may be justified at the end?e.g. Someone
losing a few hundred L.parahybanas might just cause a problem(sorry stalker, accidents happen:-)).
Although very unlikely, with something like a few hundred parahybanas roaming around, there may just be a few survivors and
if they do prosper, the local T's might be affected!!Very unlikely!...but there are many factors.

edit:sorry, my post might come across as someone against the legislation of our local T's, favouring exotics but I am just
trying to point out some flaws with this(probably outdated) so called draft! Priority No.1 is the protection of OUR locals, but the argument of keeping exotics or not must be better presented than just pointing our common hobby species!

So how the hell do you think, should Nature Consevation stop illegal pet trade??? Knocking on all your doors and asking you on a daily basis, what the hell you are doing??? Be realistic!

Or, lets rather be ignorant "I take very good care of my spiders and they are all happy, but sorry for all the other animals that are exploited (even Trantuals), left for days without food and water. Let them suffer in little boxes with poor ventalation. Let them even rot in their own excretion...but leave my spiders alone, cause I am not part of the problem"

May I remind you, why can you not obtain a inport/export permit for T's. EXPLOITATION!!!

Oh, yes I have T's...and will I get rid of them if that law is passed? YES!!! In order to safe more lives? DEFINITLY!!!

Wether you all like to hear it or not! We are part of the problem! The qeustion is? Do you have the balls to admit it?

peregrine wrote:

My legal feeling is exotic species have spit to do with Conservation.Their task should be the conservation and protection of our indigenous species.

So please indulge me, since you seem to be such a expert on the field of conservation....
What animals according to you should be allowed legally and what should not? What animals will destroy our indigenous species and what won't? That is if exotic species ummm....like ummm Indain Myna, which is destroying of our indigenous bird species. Because another idiot decided that it was cool to have one as a pet and it got out.

Just look at our rhino crisis to see whats going on..Its far easy to beat up on some little guy than take on crime syndicates.

It is not about YOU!!!

Moderators please edit Monalishh's posts and take out the vulgar language. Thanks

I would like to know how exactly they plan on implementing this law. What is their plan of action for the exotic animals already in KZN / SA? Are they planning on building "Exotic Animal Parks" to keep all these animals? I'm talking about the exotic animals ALREADY in captivity.

The PTA Zoo cannot even cope with the confiscated tarantulas alone, what about the rest?

Maybe this law will be passed... who knows? But IMO it will just fade away like every other 'clever' idea some idiot thought they had in this country. We simply do not have the resources to enforce something like this.

The 'best' future conservation plans and laws will never be implemented, because all people's opinions involved in it differ, and TIA... Although I believe that it is possible that we can manage the trade of exotic animals without severely affecting the local environment.