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Hundreds of reptile keepers were licenced in 1974 when the laws were first established
I vaguely remember something about that but I was only 4 yrs old at the time.
Silly me! I thought the current licensing system only came in in '97 and Jeff Hardy has license RK50001.

I just a simple country boy.... Ma! Where's me banjo?
 
I think CALM should put an immediate ban on WA reptile collecting!
My opinion changed now I own these animals! Anyone who wants cb wa hatchys please pm me and get on my waiting list.
Seriously, the main benefit is owning some of the best reptiles in the country -previously unavailable. Once CALM dont renew licenses this will never be repeated again, I am hoping they add ant-hills to the list soon. Guaranteed I will get some and without a hint of moral guilt.
 
You will have to wait for us to stop collecting them for ourselves first Ad. I love the little guys and see heaps of em.
 
I believe Ad is talking about WA Black headed pythons. They are gorgeous for sure!!! :D
 
Greebo, in 1997 the current reptile keepers licences came into use, but before then everyone held reptiles in NSW on a General Licence.
 
To every one thinking that collecting reptiles from the wild will have an effect on wild populations, you should try and find the scientific paper that was co authored by several professional herps in NSW several years ago.

In this paper they estimated the over 20,000,000 reptiles are killed by man every year. These deaths are attributed to personal attacks on reptiles, roadkills, land clearing and fires lite by men.

Now in this paper they estimated that around 20,000 reptiles are collected from the wild by kids, reptile keepers and professional herpers in a year also.

They go on to conclude that at these figues you would need to collect for 1000years just to match what is killed by man in one year in Australia.

This does not take into account the billions that are killed by feral cats, foxes, cane toads and pigs each year.

Another interesting paper that was getting around was the one that estimated that the Wildlfe authorites around Australia had spent a multi million dollars budget on law enforcement over a ten year period. In this time some several thousand illegal reptiles were seized from around Australia, which the authorities felt justified their huge budgets.

The paper went on to say that if the authorities had spent about $0.40c and purchased just two 22 calibor bullets and shot just 2 feral cats they would have saved the same amount of reptiles.

When you look at it like this its had to justify the huge budgets wasted on the law enforcement of our hobbies.
 
That's incredible bigguy, puts some perspective on it.
 
Grieg
How do you think I have belittled you? I simply asked you a valid Question. Regardless of the fact that we may not agree with all of your views, We here at Pilbara Pythons have enjoyed this forum and are glad you started it. After all look how many hits this bebate has created and people are being entertained. Have a very strong coffee Grieg and chill out.
 
I never said you belittled anyone PP. I commented about Bob (Bigguy). You must have read it wrong. You've had too many coffees old mate. Time to cut back I reckon :wink:

It has been a good thread, in general. I'm certain we've all learned a lot from it.

Greg.
 
Grieg your words were in fact these (No need to put a bloke down). Now when I went to school Grieg that had the same meaning as belittled. Is it that you didn't actually ever go to school Grieg that you can't seem to grasp this?
 
but it seems to to be supported by many people that have graduated with degrees in environmental science etc. Could it it be that they have a clearer understanding of the matter than people like your self?.

I think Greg was refering to this comment, in which in my eyes, is "putting a bloke down". Whether or not it means belittle, you certainly have proven the meaning of belittle in your last statement.

Time for you my friend to cut down on the caffeine, and stay on the topic without insults or "belittling".
 
westaussie said:
One of the landowners that have given me permission to take reptiles from their land is the "Satterley group" - This company clears land on a large scale for new housing development. ( I cannot complain about this practise as I choose to live in a house myself)

I particularly targeted these areas to do my "poaching", as I feel I am giving some of the wildlife a second chance at life. Unfortunately the animals that I do not find are left to tackle the bulldozers.

On other properties that have given me permission to enter their land, much of the habitat is already cleared for agriculture and grazing.
(The two largest threats to our native wildlife are destruction of habitat and introduced animals.

I have studied & worked with reptiles for over 15 years, but as yet, i have not developed the skills to find every individual reptile in a given area. The bulldozers & introduced animals seem to be far more effective than me.

landowners are allowed to clear their land of habitat and keep any feral pet and breed these pets without any breeding restrictions at all.

Saying this, I seek permission from landowners to remove some native reptiles from their property so we can establish these animals in captivity and give some kids the opportunity to keep a pet reptile.

In turn these kids will develop a better understanding of our native wildlife and hopefully a better appreciation of native ecosystems & habitats than the generations before them.

So I will continue to do what I do and invite anyone who believes that I am a poacher to come along on a field trip with me and see first hand what actually goes on out there before judging me.

You never know - you may even learn a thing or two! ( because I do everytime i get out there )


Thanks westaussie for a very well thought out comment And thanks for clearing up a few things I love the Fact that you collect from places where the Reptiles have little chance of survival .

I originnally did not like the idea of wild collection and voiced my opinion I would now like to say As long as collectors Do what westaussie is then i will have to eat my words.......
Cheers mate
 
So I will continue to do what I do and invite anyone who believes that I am a poacher to come along on a field trip
Well, I'm not saying you are a poacher but that would be one cool field trip!
 
I don't think we should turn this into a slanging match now PP. We've been going along pretty well with no Admin intervention. It only defeats the purpose if we bung it on with each other.

Oh and you don't spell Greg with an I PP.


Greg. <--------- see! No I.
 
It has been a good thread, in general. I'm certain we've all learned a lot from it.

I haven't learned all that much, but my knowledge of the fact that people are far too emotional and will talk too much, irrespective of their level of knowledge or experience and disregard the fact that others may have far more knowledge than themselves has been reaffirmed. No, I'm not claiming to be the most knowledgable or experienced person here, but I do claim that my opinions on this matter are based on reason rather than emotion. Despite that, it has been a good thread in many ways.

I think bigguy summed it up best when he put into perspective the numbers of reptiles killed needlessly by people each year as well as the huge numbers killed by feral pests next to the comparitively tiny numbers taken by people to be kept alive and cared for, and also the insane money spent regulating the whole thing next to shooting a couple of cats. What a joke when two bullets put into a couple of cats will save more reptiles than the numbers nabbed from poachers and smugglers, even after the millions of our dollars that go into policing the whole thing.

What has always been an astonishment to me is that no one tells me off when I catch dozens of fish to kill and eat once each but legally catching an animal to be cared for as a pet is considered by some to be 'immoral'. I can't quote exact figures, but I'm pretty sure Aboriginals kill and eat more reptiles than are captured for pets, yet no one (or at least very few) seems to think this is bad. I am quite certain that there is far more benefit in breeding a wild caught reptile, or even caring for it as a pet without breeding it than making it into part of a meal. It is quite a sight when a group of aboriginals tuck into a large meal of womas (no, I haven't seen it in person, only footage and photos).

Sure the system may not be perfect, but it's not a terrible system and we can't just say that because it's not perfect it shouldn't exist. No system will ever be perfect. If I'd designed it, it would have been different, but along with my system removing some of the current problems and adding some benefits, it would have caused other problems and not have had some of the current benefits. I think the same can be said for the systems most of us would have come up with from scratch.

We have to accept that without being silly there isn't much of an argument for animals not to be collected within some legally regulated system and no system will be perfect and there will always be the opportunity to abuse it, but having no system at all will cause more problems than the current regulated system.

I say bravo, it's great to see a regulated system in place, even if I think it's imperfect. I hope to see more species added to the list, particularly pygmy pythons... (hint hint to anyone with any weight in getting it to happen ;) )
 
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