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Zuzana was the only that actually put exotic pet ownership in an appropriate light. The lumping of all exotics under one title is the HSUS's game. They're the ones that are calling to end the exotic pet trade, not REXANO (Zuzana's group). If you listened to the entire hour you would have seen the "panel discussion" was biased in favor of HSUS. You would have also seen that Andrew took every bait that Wayne threw out to him, and Andrew missed some golden opportunities to pick holes in Wayne's arguments. You would have also seen that Andrew stumbled throughout the process. Nothing against Andrew, but he lost this debate. He went after the entire organization (HSUS) instead of looking at the arguments. He blew it. They were against him to begin with, but the little opportunity he had was wasted. Zuzana actually made valid points about responsible exotic (which includes cornsnakes, leopard geckos, retics, and lions) pet ownership.
HSUS and their allies see all non domestic animals as exotics. Their bans aim for ending the exotic pet trade. So for people to say the big cat people don't have anything to do with leopard gecko keepers is a fallacy. They're just as involved. HSUS isn't content with banning large predatory animals and nothing else. It is no different than us sitting back and saying they banned only four snakes that I don't even keep so who cares? The answer is we should all care. Instead of sitting in our little reptile keeper world we need to join with the other groups and let Washington know we're more than just a bunch of angry giant snake keepers. We're snake owners, lizard owners, aquarium owners, large mammal owners, dairy farmers, poultry farmers, etc. ALL of which are seen as enemies to HSUS.
In short the NPR broadcast was a joke. Zuzana had good points but was silenced by the biased host. Wayne was allowed most the time to speak his garbage. Wayne was articulate. He has done this before. He had experience. Andrew was unprepared. He poorly expressed himself, and he lost this debate. He missed a few opportunities to really poke holes in Wayne's statements. Zuzana did well. She said her piece. Kept to the point. And both the host and Wayne felt it necessary to interrupt her. Unexpectedly I think she did more for even reptile hobbyists than Andrew did.
I have actually gone through the entire transcript and added critique and comments. If people want to see it I'll make it public. The show was a joke and I think it did nothing positive for our hobby. Nothing against Andrew or USARK, but let's call a spade a spade. HSUS won the NPR debate.
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