Ms Sandstrom who dose reptile shows at schools, parties and other functions says her 2.6m long croc named Snappy will be sold as he is to large and dangerous for her to handle anymore. Snappy will be replaced by 2 smaller Crocodiles. I really have to speak out on this one. A pet is a pet for life not just until it gets to big and inconvenient for you. Stories like this are all to common in America and it really pisses me off to hear of this one. I mean what the heck did she expect the Salt Water Crocodile to stay small forever. I honestly think she should not be allowed to keep them anymore if they are so meaningless to her that she can just dump them when they get to big. Like it or not but I dont care, this is one of those stories that I really do not like to tell. I equally hate to give the website a plug but everyone should go there and tell her how much of an immature keeper she really is, check the link below.
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Hi Jason,
I am the last one, really, not to advocate responsible animal ownership, but I have to add – in all fairness – a few comments that I hope you find time to read.
1. An animal used in shows etc. is not a pet; sorry if it sounds like a technicality, but even zoos or other institutions “using” animals “dispose” of them if they are in some way no longer “suitable” for the purpose; the problem here being the “usage” purpose.
2. Ms. Sandstorm should look for a more suitable kind of animal in the future, granted, but there are certainly thousands owners of kingsnakes which suddenly find out that they don’t want their snake anymore for whatever reason, and they should be judged equally with Ms be equated with Ms. Sandstorm. Size of the animal is artificially picked out here; rehoming an animal due to any such circumstance is never ideal, but the responsible choice is to look for a responsible next party, and each community (small-critter keepers or large-critter keepers) has the same percentage of “donors” and “acceptors”.
3. For the stereotype of large reptiles/mammals: The crowd of owners of these is VERY limited: (i) in the face of the expenses, effort of feeding and having to scoop pounds of waste every week, the commonly advocated “ego” owner is a myth and only serious keepers persist), and (ii) from my experience: I spent the last 3 month organizing a large python for a local zoo. This proved to be extremely difficult: I’ve been scanning all available listings for months, posted “wanted” ads, and called stores and breeders across the US. We found only a single animal in the U.S for sale that was over 17′, and the animal was not intended for sale (NOTE: I came across several ads of animals claimed to be large, but they all turned out several feet shorter and pretty handlable size when the measure stick showed up). Finding any animal of larger size (as a zoological display attraction) was harder than pulling teeth, and we finally settled for MUCH “less” than we had expected, despite available budget.
Local animal shelters in the bay area have only had 1 reptile considered “large” (a 9′ python) in the last years (as part of a reptile club we usually get the call, these animals aren’t typically adopted out publicly).
The myth of the “reptile that got to big for the owner” (and he didn’t know where to go with it) is WAY overrated. At least I wasn’t able to find even one such case, after considerable effort.
So why do we hear about it? Because single world-wide incidents are a media attraction, and are kept alive by passing them around. An example is this channel, and I wanted to point out this is a self-inforcing cycle. The beneficiary? Certain groups that take advantage of the bad press.
4. Now the dilemma: If you want to pass on a kingsnake for any reason: No problem. If you want to pass on a larger python: Bang! Media outcry blood danger: You run danger of being flamed as irresponsible stereotype. Reality is, no matter if small or big animal keepers, in each group there will always be a small percentage animals transferred. There are fewer places to rehome large animals to, but there are also MUCH less of these out there (see above, I had trouble finding any).
Sorry for the long ramble, as mentioned I am aware of irresponsible ownership and against it hand-and-feet, but after practical involvement over a period of time I came to understand that the “big animal keeper alarmism” is an artifical focus of media focus and general fear of the uneducated general public.
We have enough Rush Limbough’s out there that blast agenda’s and leave fact checking to the audience. But fact is, poeple believe the stories that are picked out for them. Everyone I know has already heard about the “imminent” threat of burmese python invading the US, instead of understanding that feral cats are the WAY bigger problem.
While providing media content to the public, I hope that you (Jason / DRN) move into the direction of acting as a “low pass filter” balancing out hyped news, instead of becoming part of the hype-spiral.
Thanks for listening!