Bad reporting.

The reporters took a position and then set out to prove it by casting whatever they found in a bad light.

Ok, from the start.
The 2 exhibitors that were interviewed in the start of the program just gave the whole exotic hobby a terrible name. Its people like that that don't know anything about the animals that they are selling that will give their potential buyers the wrong information. Probably guys looking at getting rich quickly by importing and selling off rare animals.

I agree fully that all venomous snakes (exotic) need to be sold with a permit. I would also not doubt that some petshops would sell venomous snakes to children under the age of 18.

As for the space issue of keeping the animals in small enclosures. Spiders do not really fit into this category, but I am sure some people have 3m pythons in small tanks as they don't have the space/money to buy bigger enclosures. Or possibly animals like Chinchilas, monkeys or sugar glidars.

One of the issues I do have with the SPCA is the fact that they make it illegal to feed live prey to carnivores. As long as you can trust people (Something that is easier said than done - and probably the reason that the SPCA has imposed these laws) to not go overboard and feed ridiculous sized prey to carnivores, then laws like this should not be neccessary.

As for the posting of Bengal tigers, that might be true for 10% of the ads, but I would guess a majority would be scams.

Parents releasing spiders or scorpions when their kids go to varsity. I think it is a valid concern.

Altogether many more valid points in the program than negatives and worth the watch. Such a pity there are people that give the hobby a bad name. It is these people that need to be rooted out of the hobby.

Got a thumbs up from me.

Tai-rantula wrote: ok please help me,,,my dog ate a mouse the other day(live mouse)am i going to get fined or locked up?

If you fed the mouse to the dog, then yes.

Ceratogyrus wrote: Ok, from the start.
The 2 exhibitors that were interviewed in the start of the program just gave the whole exotic hobby a terrible name. Its people like that that don't know anything about the animals that they are selling that will give their potential buyers the wrong information. Probably guys looking at getting rich quickly by importing and selling off rare animals.

I agree fully that all venomous snakes (exotic) need to be sold with a permit. I would also not doubt that some petshops would sell venomous snakes to children under the age of 18.

As for the space issue of keeping the animals in small enclosures. Spiders do not really fit into this category, but I am sure some people have 3m pythons in small tanks as they don't have the space/money to buy bigger enclosures. Or possibly animals like Chinchilas, monkeys or sugar glidars.

One of the issues I do have with the SPCA is the fact that they make it illegal to feed live prey to carnivores. As long as you can trust people (Something that is easier said than done - and probably the reason that the SPCA has imposed these laws) to not go overboard and feed ridiculous sized prey to carnivores, then laws like this should not be neccessary.

As for the posting of Bengal tigers, that might be true for 10% of the ads, but I would guess a majority would be scams.

Parents releasing spiders or scorpions when their kids go to varsity. I think it is a valid concern.

Altogether many more valid points in the program than negatives and worth the watch. Such a pity there are people that give the hobby a bad name. It is these people that need to be rooted out of the hobby.

Got a thumbs up from me.

You dont think that these reporters purposefully went out to paint the whole industry in a bad light? We dont know for sure what happened in the editing room, and those exhibitors could have been made to look alot worse than they where. Besides that, why show the most obviously dumb people at the show when there would be knowledgeable possibly right at the stall next door?

They may have had some valid points, but overall they just laid blanket condemnation over the whole industry without actually investigating anything.

Good golly. I do think these people were purposefully trying to put the hobby in a bad light. If you listen carefully in the beggining, Johan Marais, one of the most respected people in the whole snake industry, makes the false claim that Brown House Snakes need 50 pages of paperwork to keep in KZN. If he remember, you are allowed to keep any indigenous reptile in KZN without any permits, thus he was either fed bad information, supported these hippos, or made a genuine mistake.

However, bieng part of the Snake and Reptile keeping hobby, a lot of facts they brought up do make sense, but the way they have gone about it is just wrong. The whole bloody thing was in bloody afrikaans so I didn't get most of it, but what I did manage to understand I didn't like. They make us all out to be a bunch of morons. Most of you who keep snakes and lizards will feel differently about this than most of the tarantula keepers here. Our hobby is under threat, even now, and then these people have to go and make things harder for us, what if NatCon sees this and decides "Right, thats it, time to ban everything". I do also agree with the thing with childen buying dangerous snakes/animals, but if your parents are stupid enough to do that, then rather get sterilized before having children.

The concerns they raise are valid (some of them at least) but I doubt they know what they are talking about. Which two exhibitors are you talking about? I didn't see any that did anything wrong.
Also did anyone see those snakes they had their. Absolutely amazing, need to make a trip up there next year.

P.S Did anyone notice the swastika window behind the guy towards the end?

I don't think that they can paint anything in a bad light, there show is only on KYKNet so would not worry to much. :angel: This is where a debate would start from, good points and bad points, they have there own points. :eyepoke:

Yes they might have a one way track of mind, and not a very good way of doing a show, there is just there thoughts,allot of the time, they actually need to be unbiased about it, and ask the right Questions and have answers not only from 'smart people but from the hobby side, but then there show would of not just been 25mins it would of been 2hours worth of stuff, 1 hour would be enough :angel:

This whole "why do you wont to keep something in a cage" has been going on for years and it is not just going to stop know, I don't think they wore aiming at us in the spider hobby, come to think about it they wore not aiming at any other hobby, they wore just talking about the small cages and what makes people wont to go to a show and buy some exotic pet and keep it.
They wore talking about the boom in the Exotic pet trade and why it is like it is, just did not get there point across very well.

But the points brought through by the Snake handler(which is not the smartest for holding the snake like that and talking and waving he's hands around like that, would have thought he knows better) but with regards to the permits and letting go of some snakes and they will survive(that what Natcon is on about in our hobby)
and the lady with the glasses and the SPCA and the lady in the chair are all correct to a point though.

There is a fair amount of animals getting breed in the hobby in SA, take a look at our tarantula Hobby, how many species are getting breed in SA, a good couple.

A couple of things, he said a 16 year old can go buy a venomous snake, which it can happen most proberly has happened, but no one at the expo would sell to under 18s, a lot of pet stores will not sell to under 18s so it is kind of miss informed there. There aren't many pet shops any way that have venomous snakes for sale.

With regards to the tigers, that will not happen, you need permits for large cats, and the fact is the tigers will not be allowed to leave the airport with out the right documents attached so on and so forth.
Secondly you have to have the space, the correct enclosures the right to keep wild cats as pets, maybe a couple of years ago you could do things like that but know the laws are a lot stricter regarding keeping and breeding of wild animals.

Natcon has stepped up it's game.

From my point, good on them for trying to make some of this It is a "documentary" no where near Natgeo standards or dirt jobs standards :happy: but the fact is it was done, if anything people will get off there couches and go to an expo and go see what the fuss is about and just maybe the hobby will grow a bit more cause of the lovely people on Projek Aardwolf Episode 61 - Exotics!