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Here's a sticky situation that I wouldn't be sure how to handle without being able to post in an advertisement, and I would like to know the procedure if posting does eventually get turned off.
I often skim ads for species that I know are State or Federally endangered, species of special concern, or subjected to different sorts of protection depending upon the state. Recently, there was an advertisement for spotted turtles in Rhode Island selling for $250 each, when Rhode Island has extremely clear laws about the ownership (permit required) and selling (absolutely not permitted) of spotted turtles. The seller wasn't violating any Faunaclassifieds rules that I know of in his advertisement, but he was violating state law.
In this situation, do we report the ad to a moderator to get it locked, or do we post in the BOI despite the fact the seller has not violated any Faunaclassifieds rules? I would be extremely reluctant to contact sellers in this situation, because poaching is such a huge problem for many of these species. For example, I used to know a biologist who, after showing a "friend" his bog turtle study site, later returned to find that every single wild bog turtle had been captured and presumably sold to the pet trade. Considering all of the problems we're having with the U.S. Legislature trying to pass laws against reptile ownership, this is a relatively uncommon situation but it needs to be addressed immediately when it does happen.
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