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Miscellaneous Corn Snake Discussions This is a "none of the above" forum. All posts should still be related to cornsnakes in one form or another, but some slight off topic posting is fine.

Model reptile husbandry Program in the cards?
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Old 06-10-2003, 12:01 PM   #1
CowBoyWay
Smile Model reptile husbandry Program in the cards?

"those who won't stand together,
will all hang separately..."

A Model Snake (herpetoculture) husbandry program?...
A Possible means of protecting the captive reptile breeding industry from the unwanted rules and regulations that various "do-Gooders"will decide in the future are neccessary to protect the public at large, for their own good, as they know not what they do, blah, blah, blaaah.

Not many politicians get a warm fuzzy feeling when the discussion turns to reptiles.
Not too worried about being voted out of office by the "Reptile people", I dare say.


Lets start this thought about a
"Model Herpetoculturists Program"
by examining what the pet bird industry has been up too in the past 15 years or so ...

M.A.P.

"MAP stands for Model Aviculture Program.
In order for an aviary to become MAP certified it must follow basic standards and record keeping practices in its facility.
This program translates into benefits not only for the birds in their care, but for pet owners and breeders as well.

* Birds raised in a MAP certified aviary have been raised in a safe and healthy environment.

Good practices are used and there is an annual inspection of the facility by a qualified veterinarian.

The inspection includes such areas as breeding aviaries, nursery, record-keeping system, food service system, quarantine area and hospital or isolation area.

MAP certification is a 'seal of approval' which gives buyers confidence and helps the aviary in selling its birds.

* MAP is a process which enables the avicultural community to be self regulating and thus minimizes the need for involvement of state or government agencies.

* MAP has also affected regulations in individual states.

Many state legislators when informed about MAP, have dropped support of state inspection programs, believing that MAP is a reliable and adequate private sector program which meets the concerns of animal welfare groups and state agencies.

* MAP certification helps to protect individual aviculturists who are being harassed or threatened by neighbors or local activists."

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww11eiii.htm

"Why Do We Need MAP?
For the past 15 years, rules and regulations on a local, state, and national level have been considered and proposed.
Responsible people within the avicultural community and within the governmental agencies have attempted to regulate the pet bird industry, which would, of course, affect all of aviculture.

In addition, since the early eighties, animal rights groups, sometimes with the help of the conservation community, have attempted to ban importation of wild-caught birds into the United States, prohibit interstate transportation by air, and regulate ownership and care of exotic birds within the U.S.

When there is a law in force dealing with exotic birds, there will be regulations in association with that law: permits, fees, licenses, inspections, a definition of legal and illegal activities under those regulations, and perhaps even stipulations about the care of exotics.

Across the U.S., both state and local laws have been proposed on these matters.

Historically, aviculturists have been anti-regulation, privacy-oriented individuals.

They have resisted all attempts to regulate their activities, until the passage of the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992.

In fact, this law would probably not have been passed if aviculturists had joined together to form a professional association or organization which would have set basic standards for bird care.
The lack of such a nationally-known organization left the door open for restrictive legislation.

Unfortunately, throughout the eighties, aviculturists did not join together and work in a unified manner to meet the rising tide of animal rights legislation.

Hopefully, we will remember and respect the old saying: "...those who won't stand together, will all hang separately...".

It is time for aviculturists to join together to work for our common interests.
The alternative is to be overcome by those who do not believe in captive breeding and do not want to see birds in cages for any reason."...]

The 3 Key Elements of MAP
(1) The very first key element of MAP is the use of models for husbandry practices involving the areas of quarantine, safety systems, caging, nutrition, nursery, and record keeping.

(2) The second key element of MAP is the use of the veterinarian as inspector. The veterinarian who inspects the bird farm facilities is chosen by the aviculturist. The veterinarian imparts the authority of a state-licensed professional to the MAP process, while maintaining the confidentiality of the aviculturist.

(3) The third key element of MAP is the utilization of the Closed Aviary Concept. Avicultural facilities which use this concept have an effective means of disease control. The Closed Aviary Concept provides the aviculturist with a means to secure and maintain flock health, to isolate and control disease outbreaks in flights or in the nursery, and thus to reduce losses and achieve production goals.
http://www.modelaviculture.org/closedaviaryconcept.htm

Many bird breeders that I know of, are not "officially" M.A.P. certified, but diligently follow the M.A.P. precepts.

Perhaps... the time has come for Herpetoculturists to consider developing a cohesive process (in its own common, self interest/ defense) which enables the herpetological community to be self regulating and thus minimize the perceived need for the future involvement of state or government agencies.
Preventive medicine, so to speak.



PIJAC
has developed a "reptile specialist" Certification Program...

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) is working with top veterinarians and animal experts to offer educational programs to increase the professionalism within the industry and to portray an image of knowledge.

Currently available in six animal specialty areas -- avian, canine, feline, freshwater fish, reptile and small animal. A seventh on marine fish is under development.

Each animal specialty program is comprised of one intensive seminar taught by a leading veterinarian or animal expert and one home study course.

The seminar covers veterinary care and husbandry...while the separate home study module covers facility maintainence and care and breed/ species identification & behavioral traits.
Either module may be completed first.
http://www.pijac.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=99
 
Old 06-12-2003, 01:07 AM   #2
CowBoyWay
Public threat perceptions are changing...

and they are not positive.

Current events...
"Growing number of diseases jump from exotic animals to humans

LAURAN NEERGAARD
Canadian Press
Monday, June 09, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP)

The monkeypox outbreak illustrates a growing problem:
Exotic animals give exotic diseases to people who get too close, a trend that some medical specialists call a serious public health threat.

Such diseases can become a threat not just to the people who buy and sell exotic pets, but to the general public if they spread to native animals and become established in the United States.
Federal health officials are working frantically to ensure doesn't happen with monkeypox.

"This is a harbinger of things to come," warns Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, who advises the government on infectious disease - and has long warned that there's too little oversight of the health threats of imported animals.

"There are some of us who feel like lone voices in the night" in calling for better scrutiny, adds Peter Jahrling, a scientist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute.
"Perhaps incidents like this might bring some much-needed re-examinations."

Monkeypox, a relative of smallpox usually found in tropical African forests, apparently jumped from an imported Gambian giant rat into prairie dogs when both species were being housed together by an exotic pet distributor in Illinois.

Health officials are investigating nearly three dozen possible cases of monkeypox in people who bought or cared for the prairie dogs, in Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois.

The outbreak marks the first time monkeypox has been detected in the Western Hemisphere.
Nor is it the only threat, say critics who fear a growing trend.

SARS, the respiratory epidemic, is thought to have come from civet cats bred as an exotic meat in Chinese markets where bats, snakes, badgers and other animals live in side-by-side cages until they become someone's dinner.

Japan recently banned the importation of prairie dogs because they can carry plague. The rodents had been wildly popular as pets in that country.

Just last summer, a group of prairie dogs caught in South Dakota was discovered to have tularemia, a dangerous infection, typically spread by the bites of infected ticks, deerflies and such or through ingesting contaminated material.

The disease was detected only after the animals were shipped to 10 other states and five other countries.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention never recorded any human illnesses, it advised adults who handled the ill rodents to take precautionary antibiotics.

Then there's salmonella, which iguanas and other reptiles, as well as birds, routinely shed in their feces.

The CDC counts a stunning 90,000 people a year believed to have caught salmonella from some form of contact with a reptile, either touching it or touching a surface where the reptile had tracked the bacteria.

A common scenario, Osterholm says: Parents wash the reptile cage in a bathtub or sink their child uses, and the child gets sick. Salmonella can be life-threatening in children.

Worse is if a disease jumps from exotic pets into native wildlife - a threat whenever owners dump an animal that gets too large or tiresome to care for.

CDC's Dr. Steve Ostroff made a plea Monday for prairie-dog owners not to release their animals into the wild, but to call a veterinarian or their state health department for proper care information. Call ahead before taking a sick prairie dog to a veterinary clinic to guard against possible exposure of other animals to monkeypox, he said.

Already, a sick prairie dog has infected a rabbit who lived in the same house; Jahrling worries that hamsters and gerbils could be incubating monkeypox from pet-store transmission; in Africa, squirrels carry the virus.

"Even if we do manage to bring the prairie dog problem under control, . . . it's very important that we keep our guard up" by watching for monkeypox in other species, Ostroff said Monday.

There are no good counts of how many exotic animals are sold, but they're immensely popular, says Richard Farinato, director of the Humane Society of America's captive wildlife program. Some 800,000 iguanas alone are imported for the pet trade.

There is little federal scrutiny of most imported animals for potential human health risk, and rules on owning and selling exotic animals vary by state and city.

"We have a policy that says don't buy these kinds of animals as pets. This (monkeypox) is one example of why," Farinato says.

But even the critics aren't immune to the lure of exotic pets. Osterholm several years ago let his teenage son buy an African dwarf hedgehog, another pet fad - on condition that it be tested for disease. Osterholm's laboratory found the animal harboured three strains of salmonella never before seen in Minnesota.

They kept the hedgehog, but "extreme hand washing took place," Osterholm recalls. "It wasn't that fun." "
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...threadid=19886


And quoting Member Darrin Chapel from a Faunaclassifieds post where the above news story was linked...
Quote:
Here they come! Hold on to your Herps! I just read this article online. I think it is amazing that the salmonella threat mentioned in the article says nothing about raw chicken, only that birds carry it along with reptiles! Amazing that the CDC is able to distinguish where it is that the 90,000 people per year got salmonella from (and how many were from eating undercooked food??????)!

Oh well, at least the HSUS won't have any effect on our industry, right?
I tell you all, if we support the HSUS or PETA, we might as well destroy all our herps, because they won't allow us to keep them one day, and they cannot be released to the wild! Time to wake up and smell the hypocrisy, folks!
HSUS=Humane society of the United States
Peta= (Extremist) People for the ethical treatment of Animals.
 
Old 06-12-2003, 01:28 AM   #3
CAV
CowBoyWay,

I think a certification program is a fantastic idea. Kind of like ordering your next corn from the "gold certified Lexus dealer" nearest you. At least you will know that it has passed a 16 point inspection. I could certainly help weed out some of the fly by night operations. As long as the gov't doesn't get involed, of course.

The jury is still out on the prairie dog story as far as I'm concerned. I grew up on the high plains of Texas messing with prairie dogs and never got Monkeypox! (OK so we were "eradicating" them for the local ranchers at a quarter a piece to pay for ammo) Before I get flammed, this is all in jest.

How can a person be scared of a disease called "Monkeypox" anyway.
 

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