Geez folks...I sell at the shows and I don't care if someone wants to walk around and try to trade or sell their snake.
Okay, you spend a good deal of time and money to pay for tables, transport animals, set up show worthy displays and tell me it does not bother you that someone can "walk" around and sell animals in the aisles for the mere price of $12.
Bull crap.
I don't care if
you don't care. Show policy is show policy. I will never advocate someone skirting rules, none of the vendors I work with do either.
We don't even let walkers near our table. At the last Columbia show there was a guy walking around with a boa that was dripping mites off it.
There is a line between ethics and stupidity.
Telling someone it's no big deal to walk around with a FWC is highly stupid. I've seen plenty of bite accidents at reptile shows from non-venomous animals that were very bad, imagine if it was a FWC inflicting those bites. Lethal or not, those are painful bites and what if someone has an allergic reaction? Do you really want that on your head?
Why not just do the safe and ethical thing from the start?
To shrug this off is the most irresponsible thing I have ever heard.
You should be advocating responsible husbandry and ethical behavior, not telling people it would pose no more of a thread than any other snake at the show while telling them it's okay to skirt the rules.
Ridiculous.
I can't wait to see how you back peddle over this one.
Ethics and responsibility should be every keepers #1 goal. If not, one highly publicized incident can be turned into knee jerk legislation.