Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary O
I know what I am sponcoring. You do not need to bring up something that the people that is running that came to me personaly and asked me to sponcor
I say it agian. As I have for years. It needs to be put on the site and info that the animal has chance to become hot again and have you yourself and others working for venomoid inc to stop free handling venomoids like gaboons within feet of general public.
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Thank you for the clarification. I WILL put the video on my website and I will suggest to Dr. Sabatini to include the video on his website. We can have different views, but as far as this video goes, I personally think it is important for people to know.
In reference to free handling at the Hamburg show, that's up to the show's sponsors to communicate to Venomoid, Inc or myself when I'm free handling a venomoid. For your own reference, any venomoid that is taken out in public is is out of the reach of children and show participants; however, we have allowed adults to touch perhaps the tail of a venomoid, but we do not allow them to handle any of them. For obvious reasons, we have not taken out vipers, I don't even do that myself. Why would we take out a large Gaboon to hold behind a table? That would be like holding a big snapping turtle. I wouldn't suggest that to venomoid gaboon owners like myself. However, have I been guilty of holding a venomoid viper without a proper tool used for venomous snakes? Sure, I have done that, but that's only my decision.
The whole handling argument can get out of hand quickly. I've seen youtube videos of snake owners that hold very large constrictors that can do a lot more damage than a 2" fang, but that's their decision. Do I think they are showing the wrong impression to viewers? Do I think they should be more careful? Unfortunately, my answer is accountability. People as adults need to understand the results of their mistakes and decisions.
If someone wants to purchase a cheap venomoid because it will be half the price as opposed to getting from an experienced licensed DVM, nobody will stop them, but when that snake ends up in a video like the one you shared with us? I don't blame you for not doing a better job at presenting your subjective opinion and nobody should blame me for handling venomoids or for that matter, blame Venomoid Inc for selling venomoids to the public.
The only culprit is the idiot who bought the snake without doing any research. Just to give you a quick example, we had a guy that came to our table with a king cobra inside a small clear plastic container. He wanted to know if we were interested in buying the snake. Unfortunately, we already have quite a few kings and we were not interested, but I asked him why he wanted to sell the snake. He said he got the snake but his wife didn't want their basement bathroom to be a snake cage. A bathroom? Gary, there is a lot of education that could help many people in the reptile industry, I congratulate you for the efforts you have contributed to the community, but please, we are doing our job educating on our side and rather than debating we should educate people like the poor guy keeping a hot King Cobra in a bathroom.
As much as you want to try, we can save them all.
In contrast, what would say to vendors with 12' + foot burmese pythons around their necks who displayed the animals at the hamburg show also behind their tables? I understand your concerns about veterinary malpractice and the risks associated with a DVM lacking experience and sleep doing surgical procedures.