Spankenstyne

Hrmm well I s'pose I'll offer up a few sacrificial babies for "the cause". My first snake breeding after more than 20 years in the hobby... Appropriately little worm & fish eating worthlessers:

Interesting... I do wonder why it took over 3 months and 12 pages of posts before an all-inclusive, anti-censorship thread inviting difference of opinion & respectful open debate is suddenly without warning being silenced under the weak argument of elitism and being exclusionary. Wouldn't pushing to exclude and silence the voices here due to disagreeing with opinion in fact be that very thing? Ironic. Stav it's your site to do as you please. You can certainly just ask us to cease and leave your site without any further word. There's no need to get into the details of what you posted, other than to say it's unfortunate if one got that view from reading the thread, even more unfortunate for anyone to feel challenged by the content. Instead I'll leave it at thanks for the invite and the use of the site for as long as it lasted. Au revoir... Last one left please turn out the lights. Don't forget to tip your waitress...

Can I still get one even if I don't feel pointed at or angry?

Interesting to see how it's going to play out. I feel pretty fortunate to live in Alberta all things considered.. It was about 25 years ago a group of respected hobbyists & academics out here saw the writing on the wall and pre-emptively got together to work with the provincial government to come up with regulations & restrictions. This is the short version of how TARAS came to be. While our regs are far from perfect, they're certainly reasonable and workable. Some of the big box folk out in BC for example scoffed at our regs for years as they essentially were unregulated (provincially anyways), and now they've come to their own broken arrow situation with some extremely restrictive regulations forced onto them. Not only have they lost the giants, crocs, and hots but also a ton of very commonly kept species. They had no voice in the process because they refused to believe it could happen. It's much tougher to change stuff after the fact than to be proactive. Sadly it appears it's a necessary evil if it cleans up the hobby some.

Happy lil blues number goes nice with the smiling avatar. Unfortunately like most great artists you'll only truly be appreciated long after the big dirtnap.

I agree, very well said rancor_. Fortunately I also live in a province where people worked with the legislators in creating the bylaws, instead of butting heads after the fact. While not perfect what we have are a very workable set of regulations. I can live with not keeping a few species I'd love to keep to be able to choose from so many alternatives. The very same points you're making (though not as well stated as yours) have been repeatedly made in regards to some situations out west here, but had long since fallen on deaf ears to the I'll keep whatever I damn well want set.

Proof that Garter snakes are cool: "It's science" - Ron Burgundy Easter ps: pps: ppps:

Another incredible photo essay, thanks for posting those. I always get a chuckle out of the lookout pose. The snow's rapidly melting out here but those kinds of shots only help fuel the fire in the meantime. Nice comparison shot with the Dekay there. That ps sure looks like Gina has been by already.

Well I was everywhere from Calgary to Medicine Hat to Lethbbridge all week and only managed to *hear* a couple of those funny short n' rubbery snakes with legs that Nir posted. No pics yet to contribute to all things Thamnophis & dirty... Nice pic(s) Nir. Happy Easter indeed:

Jon, absolutely. Don & Jeremy thanks for the synopsis. It's what I figured and although it'll irritate and anger me, I'll probably end up picking it up anyways. Thanks for the other suggestions as well Jeremy, I haven't read either of those.

I haven't yet. Have heard some of the stories over the years but kinda torn on buying the book or not. I have a feeling my morbid curiousity will take over in the end though hah. It'll probably just make me mad.

Feeling much better today ...and now for something completely different..... Happy to also report that our female horsfieldi dropped two more eggs. She started digging yesterday so we knew it was coming, but surprising overall. I've read that two or three clutches are possible but I had expected if it happened, to be much later in the year. ...In 1945, peace broke out. ...

Great questions (and great pionts brought up in the posts following). Too bad it has to be rhetorical what ifs... The tiny step forward out here has been embarassingly long overdue but is at least a small step in the right direction, with hopefully many more to follow. There's some small solace when one considers who and where the majority of dollars donated came from Well said as well Jon... but to be honest I do find myself feeling a bit dirty & hypocritical as well though considering I do have a small collection of mutant sand boas that's a guilty pleasure of mine

P. m. melanoleucus aka Northern Pine snake. Thanks for the kind words I love these serpents. Still anxiously waiting to see how the expert snake breeder replies to "Jeffy" and his perplexing conundrum..

Haha I think I would almost pay to see that SSAR definitely deserves our support. I'm kind of embarrassed to say i've thought of it many times before and have no good excuse to have not done anything about it. I will throw in that I'm quite proud to say that the non-profit organization I'm currently president of: The Alberta Reptile and Amphibian Society (TARAS) on April 25th will be donating $3,000.00 for scientific research on our native Short Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma hernandesi). The first of what we hope to be yearly grants towards scientific research and conservation. Proud to say that the entire board was unanimous, so there's always some hope for the hobby yet