Python kills toddler

You are very right that they wont listen but the thing is why would they want to listen when all they need to hear is more ways to get more money out of the people. All they need to hear is lets charge a fee and they are all for it. They have permitted us to death just to justify more fees. I agree with You that we need to do everything we can to not give them a reason to be able to take our rights away but I just dont know how we can do that when the other side is there waveing the money at them and we all know they follow the bucks.

We can either Regulate ourselfs and Enjoy our hobby, or we can let Uncle sam do it and be livid.

its not really a money trail, it is much more of a FEAR issue. They use the general publics stupidity and help make laws like this legal with titles like " Stop the importation of the dangerous burmese python" when yet in reality it does much much more than just that.

Besides, Haven't you noticed That a BIll is like 200 plus pages, and they get 24 hours to read it, who do you really thinks reads that whole thing? the Title, and summary is all they read, and if it sounds good, it gets passed. Thats how stupid little laws make there way in, the politicians Being paid to read these, simply aren't.

I agree that if we regulated ourselves, the government wouldn't have problems to use against us, but that's never going to happen. There will always be people who own giant snakes and keep them in insecure cages. There will always be people who release their pets when they don't want them anymore. There will always be people who would rather act on an irrational, ignorant fear than try to educate themselves and overcome it.

Unstoppable force meets immovable object.

I'm not saying we shouldn't even try--quite the contrary. It just seems futile most of the time.

Self regulation requires the cooperation of the uneducated, the errogant, the stupid, and the greedy; none of which will ever self regulate in any form. I agree that I don't like regulation, but it is unavoidable at this point. That is why I think the hobbyists need to draft the solution and present it in a sellable fashion, as a lesser of the evils type situation.

Anyone else notice how both parents were recently arrested for manslaughter in the third degree, and child neglect? So its a case of who done it???

We all know the python didn't, but it still fueled a hell of a fire for us to fight, and in the end the snake's just as much a victim as the child.

They both got charged because they are both culpable. Turns out SHE owned the snake.

As I always said when I worked juvenile probation in this state and told some parents "unfortunately there's no law that says you can't be a dirt bag."

I'm going to go out on a limb and make a few guesses here (and some established truths) about these folks:

Lack of legal, gainful employment
Ignorance and apathy about the law (see step-dads previous offenses and offenses after the child's death)
IQs below the 100 level (probably much lower)
Children that probably don't have much of a chance in life (including the unborn)

Basically, a couple of ass-hats who would have stayed off the radar if they didn't drag an innocent child into their messed up world.

I've got no sympathy at all for the low-life guy or the woman who let him pollute her womb. Hopefully the state makes sure they never know the one that's in there now!

I'm not from the USA and not in the USA, so this doesn't affect me directly, but I just wondered....

Given, from what has been posted here, that it looks as though this bill is coming like a freight train, and that herpers will likely be outvoted by the snake-fearing majority, I'd think that trying to get regulations on the big 5 that you can live with, to avoid being blanket-regulated by outsiders, would be a priority.

As there are already licensing /permit requirements on "hots", you have a system in place. Can't this be extended to licensing the big 5 on the grounds that these are all snakes that IF MISHANDLED can be dangerous?

Just a thought from an outsider, I realise there may be issues I haven't picked up on.