Amphibian IMPORT ban, coming soon! - Page 3

Chris Newman · #21 (**permalink**) 02-05-2008, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by royalpython

yeah that's what i was getting at Myo. I PM'd Chris with some information about optimizing in google. I was half thinking about contributing towards making sure the website was optimized and on the front page, so i hope you're not having a dig at me

I usually sign all my emails to the various groups (FBH/FOCAS/REPTA) as ‘depressed of Southampton’ - that’s on a good day! The problem is, for me, I only ever see the bad news, very rarely anything good. If you reside in a morose world, you tend to have a rather pessimistic outlook! That is why these days I rarely post or start new threads as people are fed up with hearing bad news all the time.

Reptile keeping and trade has been under immense pressure for the passed ten, fifteen years. We have very powerful and wealthy opponents who are opposed to what we do. When I posted those items about (above), for which some success had been achieved it makes you think, “well actually we haven’t done to bad a job”. Perhaps we should publicise more the ‘good news’ – two problems, one: I hate doing that as it sounds naff and all you want is a pat on the back. Two: by the time you are in a position to make it public (months after you actually know what is happening), some other price of cr*p has landed on your desk and you have forgotten about it!

Ok, well if you want some positive news, I hesitate to say good, then those who keep DWAA animals should be happy quite shortly. We are about to (June) start a deregulatory review of the primary legislation, i.e. it should be cheaper and easier for people to get and comply with the Act. Other than that, the news is not positive.

Regards,
Depressed of Southampton

Chris Newman · #22 (**permalink**) 02-05-2008, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peterf

A Year ago I was asked to participate in a study of the amphibians we both kept and shipped from our Indonesian farm.
I met Dr Kate Smith and Dr Pete Daszak (and old brit reptile keeper whose name you may recognise, who now heads up a big conservation organisiation in New York) at our farm in Indo.
This was a risk, but I knew Pete was honest and would use the data found honestly and appropriately.
Thy were unable to identify the fungus in any of the thousands of amphibians we kept there.
Pete's organisation also did a study into H5N1 avain flu.
It showed that no pet trade birds were responsible for its spread. Migratory birds contributed but the poultry trade was the primary distribitor.
So even after these facts were identified the pet bird trade was stopped and the poultry trade was allowed to continue.
So don't for one minute believe that the facts will guide the legislation!

Peter has raised a very valid point, the prohibition on the wild bird trade into the UK was not a decision biased on science, it was purely a political decision. The instigator of this ban was the UK. The same mechanism used to ban the importation of wild birds, SANCO, is now being considered for implementing a ban on the importation of wild reptiles and amphibians into the EU.

Chris Newman · #23 (**permalink**) 02-05-2008, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott W

Chris, I am not suggesting that you haven't achieved anything, far from it. You know full well I support the work that you do and was happy & pleased to attend the various meetings you organised (pet fairs, rspca etc).

My point is that we need to do more and I know that you have not got the time to do anything else, that's NOT a criticism it's a fact.

My criticism is that you / FBH does not seem to be doing anything to help in terms of what is missing. I'm sure there are MANY people capable of keeping the FBH up to date and fresh, and would do it FREE! I'm happy to host it FREE.

There's such a vast untapped resource in our herp community that in my mind is wasted by the apparent unwillingness to bring in more help.

Point taken Scott.

I would be more than happy to receive any offers of help, if anyone is interested in helping and thinks they have some skills they can offer then I would love to hear from you.

Ssthisto · #24 (**permalink**) 02-05-2008, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myo

Well if there is less money there is obviously gonna be less advertising!! Adverts cost money and the reason the RSPCA come up near the top of the list if you type in animal care on google is because they pay to be there!!

Actually, being the second link in the natural listings has nothing to do with paying for advertising. You get there by having a well-optimised site that uses headers and general readability functions correctly, that is linked to by enough people to make it a "valid resource".

Chris, I offered some time ago to help with the FBH site, but ran into a number of problems based on the lack of knowledge of how the site works (and whether there's even a "back office" administration area for it, or if it's just plain HTML) and who had access to the site for editing. Unfortunately all of my details are stored on my old PC at the moment.

I'm still willing to help.

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