Chris Newman personal invitation to Elaine Toland

[Chris Newman]

Open letter, dated 24th September, 2009

Dear Elaine,

For the nearly ten years you have been making inaccurate and defamatory statements that ‘Breeders Meetings’ are illegal and a threat to public health and animal welfare, so I would like to extend an invitation for you to attend this weekend’s event so that you can make slightly more informed decisions in the future. You are perfectly entitled to you views and opinions, as are we all, but it would not be entirely reasonable for you to perpetually attempt to force your minority and extremist views upon the rest of society, indeed this would seem to be bullying of the worst possible kind.

Your organisation is called the Animal Protection Agency and I fail to see how hassling pet keepers protects animals, quite the contrary I would have thought. I would also have thought that breeding reptiles (many of which face a hard time in the wild) in captivity could only be construed as a positive activity from an animal welfare viewpoint.

The group you are currently bullying and attempting to intimidate are the Essex Reptile and Amphibian Club, a group of reptile and amphibian enthusiasts actively engaged in reptile and amphibian conservation, public education (much needed in a field where the animals are still persecuted due to ignorance) and captive breeding. How your persecution of such a group fits in with your agenda of ‘animal protection’ I fail to see.

I have personally invited you to many previous events and you have always failed to acknowledge or respond, and I assume this is connected to your obvious aversion for animals but I would urge you to bury your distaste in the interests of animal protection, a field in which we all (supposedly) work.

As it appears that you have personal issues with people having contact with animals and we would respect your views and keep all livestock sufficiently removed from you in order that your comfort zone was not in any way violated.

On a closing note, I realise that the mere mention of the t*rr*r*sm word strikes fear in the heart of the animal rights activist but actually using scare tactics in order to foist your views upon the silent (and suffering) majority does fall within the wider definition of the term, I would suggest.

I had the decency to attend the Animal Rights conference you sponsored earlier this year and listen to the arguments put forward and I believe you should reciprocate.

I hope to see you on the day.

Yours faithfully,
Chris Newman

[Chris Newman]

Copy of a previous letter, which I am still awaiting a reply!




Date: 22nd July 2001

Dear Ms. Toland,

I am writing with regard to the letter sent by you to St Edmunds Road Catholic School. Not only was this letter very threatening, it was also highly inaccurate and emotive. It is a great pity that you feel the need to use such tactics to get your own (minority) point of view accepted by the public and that you resort to lies and propaganda to foist your own misguided beliefs upon others. I accept that we are all entitled to a viewpoint, but trying to get your own way should not blind you to moral issues and the rights of others to pursue their chosen way of life.

What you describe as a show/market is, in fact, a meeting of a long established society which promotes the conservation, captive-breeding and furtherance of knowledge of reptiles and amphibians. As your organization is called Animal Aid, surely your sympathies would lie with such an organisation. What benefit is there to animals to stop breeders meeting and/or exchanging knowledge, information and, indeed, breeding stock? As you well know, there has been no attempt to use devices of membership – you just made that bit up for effect. If you can’t get your own way by truthful means, you invent something. Very ethical. Of course the organisers attempted to conceal the venue, with threats held over them this was the only sensible course of action.

There was never any chance of the health and safety of the school, pupils, their families and staff being at risk from the meeting; the only risk was posed by yourselves. The risk of reptile-related salmonellosis is so small that it can be discounted. With even the most basic hygiene practices, the chance of contracting disease from a reptile is infinitesimal, unlike the real risk posed by domestic pets (principally dogs) and contaminated food. Should your group, therefore, not campaign against dogs, cats, chickens and all those other animals out here posing a real threat to public health? If you want to run campaigns at least run them on a real issue – inventing a non-existent threat to human health just furthers the public dislike of a group of animals that are already much maligned.

Throughout the world reptiles and amphibians receive a hard time at human hands. In many countries reptiles are killed on sight. Educating the public as to the value of reptiles and amphibians has been an important part of the herpetological scene in the UK but this valuable conservation work is now being seriously affected by your activities. Exploiting the public fear of reptiles generates publicity and you milk it for all it’s worth. You don’t care about the harm you do in the process. You are not aiding animals – you are harming them. You are also harming their long-term future on the planet.

How will the next generation learn to respect and care for the natural world when denied access the living things which enrich it? Presumably your organisation does not look this far ahead. Captive breeding can offer hope to species which face the real threat of habitat destruction but your organisation does not want breeders to meet, thus denying them the chance to increase their knowledge and perfect their husbandry techniques. Most people who keep reptiles and amphibians do so from a deep love and respect for the natural world and a desire to further the knowledge of a group a animals which are in need of support.

I do hope some of you will attend the meeting on Sunday so that we can discuss the issues at greater length. My children would, I am sure, also be interested to see the sort of people who are attempting to criminalize their interests and make the world they will inherit a poorer place, where the freedom of the individual can be quashed by a minority group who wish to inflict their views upon the majority and will stop at nothing to win.

It is interesting to note that your consultant, Mr Clifford Warwick, has become involved in an organisation which is so against the reptile trade as I, like many others who will be at the meeting, remember well his reptile-dealing days. Perhaps he would like to come along and reminisce about the good old days.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,


Chris Newman
Lifelong herpetologist & father to four animal loving children.

[messengermatt]

I dont think she will make an appearance, and that tells me that she knows she's in the wrong.

It's a great letter let's see if you get a response

Chris has anyone spoken to the school about this ?

[mieze09]

I like the letter which you send to Ms Toland but I doubt that she is coming to the show

I have to laugh about it that Ms Toland said about health 1. I always have lived with animal cat,birds even reptiles now and I never had any health problem if you go to a hospital you can get more ill from there as from the animals

I also have read from Ms Toland that she said that the reptiles are kept in small tups and this is cruel but " Hello " if you go to a pet shop and want to buy a hamster the hamster will be put in a box even a gold fish will be put in a plastic bag,I just bought my self a budgie and the breeder did put the budgie in a box so that means in her eyes that the breeder was cruel.

[blood and guts]

Chris mate give it up, we all know she swings the other way

[mieze09]

[karlos79]

they might be busy shutting down the animal farms for children as its also such a threat! depends on the weather. I reckon next on the ban list is walking your dog in a public place as this in itself will carry the risk of disease from the faeces and worms!

well done Chris, we are all backing this! and for what its worth I have been approached by my old high school to come in (with snakes) to do a talk on keeping them, husbandry and what we can do to protect an ever declining wild species from man's destruction of the planet!

[mieze09]

and to ban cats coming into someones garden as they cause a health hazard

[loz+j]

Originally Posted by mieze09

and to ban cats coming into someones garden as they cause a health hazard

To right i have a cat hair allergy!!

[Tarn~Totty]

I hope you do get a response from her, doubtful but I hope you do. And a very well put together letter there Chris

I agree with messengermatt...she wont respond or show up at the meeting, cause she knows she's in the wrong with what shes doing and how shes going about it