Dangerous wording on letter to congress re: salmonella and reptiles as pets
 

I dont know how many of you noticed the big red link on all pages of kingsnake that link to a proposition and letter to congress about salmonella and turtles, but...
http://personal.riverusers.com/~richardfife/page20.html

Anyhow, I find the letter that we are all supposed to send to our congressperson to be a little scary in its wording. Here is the quote that I find troublesome:

"The occurrence of Salmonella is frequent in all reptiles sold as pets, yet the FDA has banned only the sale of turtles under a certain size. "

Doesnt this look like a quote promoting banning all reptiles??? To me, this only seems to encourage congress--well if you are going to ban turtles, you better ban all reptiles... and how about some stats as to "frequent" and how "frequent" in reptiles vs other animals.
I wrote the guy who developed this letter (and kingsnake) about possibly changing the wording. If anyone else sees this as troubling as I do, please email the guy and ask him to change that wording.
The last thing I want to do as a reptile keeper is to encourage congress to look at banning all reptiles. And it being posted at the top of KS, I can see a lot of people just signing it without really seeing how it can be interpretted.

Thanks
Dana

I do see what you mean. It could potentially be a loop hole for someone trying to ban reptiles as being pets as a whole. I have reptiles and in the time I have had them or the time that I have known people to have them, I have never seen a case of salmonella. I am not saying it doesn't happen just that I believe a lot of people keep themselves, cages and reptiles clean and practice good hygeine.
For activists this could indeed be a great way to get around what the true issue of it is, and twist it around. There are a lot of people who see unban the turtles and sign without realizing the implications of what they are signing

Hi, I agree the wording is very dangerous. This Salmonella thing has initiated many of these uneducated Bills in New York State. The latest is the Tonko Bill A07375. Purpose of the Bill and I quote: "To ban the ownership of exotic animals as pets in New York." IMHO terrorists have killed more people in NYC than Salmonella has killed in the entire state since it was a state. So why are these politicians spending so much time and our $$ on this?
Sorry, This stuff drives me crazy!
Listen to this. They have passed a law here: Wild Animal Notification Law 209-cc section "(5) all venomous snakes and all contstrictors and python snakes that are ten feet or greater in lenght:and(6) Crocodilia that are five feet or greater in lenght." (I only mentioned the #'s regarding herps.)
If you own these you must go and register with your village or town hall in order to protect firemen and emergency service personnell. "The States Fire Administrator in consultation with the Dept of Evironmental Conservation, shall develop and maintain a list of the common names of wild animals to be reported."
I don't own a snake that will make it to ten feet? but I'm still concerned about this law. If the Tonka Bill passes they will already have names of people that will be violating this law and then they can make them surrender their animals for euthanasia. Then after that's done what do ya bet they'll go after the rest? Very Scary. The Tonka Bill was initiated by PETA and HSUS. The first is not surprising but HSUS? WOW. IMO, I love THE US, I was in the Army 6 years, but if every state outlaws HERPS I'm outta here! And when we all leave, then the lawyers and politicians can pick up a gun and defend this Great Country. I bet they'll forget about the dangerous wild animals then.LOL.
Sorry this is so long but everyone in every state should be abreast of the bills in their states regulating herps and be prepared to fight against and not VOTE for these people.
Thanks, Rob

Just wanted to say I agree. I read the letter and decided that I could not send it out because of the way it was written. I too felt that it could be cause for banning all reptiles.

I have not seen the letter myself, but just the wording makes me wonder if a certain pro-ban ks moderator wrote it.

Looks like the Kaplanites are truly taking over at KS. What ever happened to their link about the CDC's stance on Salmonella? I was looking for the info they posted last year (or year before??) in opposition to the HSUS smear campaign last night, and came up with zip.

I tried the Animal Issues page and found nothing but crap.

Now we have this garbage? That statement is utter crap. Some aquatic turtles may be prone to being salmonella carriers, and they may even require some salmonella in their systems. Sure. But "frequent" in "all reptiles"?

This is STUPID. First, not all reptiles can carry salmonella asymptomatically. Second, I've NEVER read about any reptile related salmonella cases outside of an incident at a zoo and the odd case of some idiot allowing free range reptiles (usually iguanas) in their house. The reptile salmonella risk is WAY overblown.

Bottom line, cats can carry THREE types of salmonella and quite a few other zoonotic diseases, including some that are fatal to healthy, adult humans, which salmonella seldom is.

But cats are everywhere.

I guess that the Kaplanites have pulled any teeth that KS had in regards to helping us protect our hobby.

And maybe the idiot who wrote that letter should stick to using the word "turtles" instead of making blanket statements.

According to the CDC you can get salmonella from goldfish. Uh oh! I wonder if they'll try to ban those too. No, of course not, they're not reptiles. :angry:

Erin B.

Who firmly believes snakeheads (Channa) wouldn't have gotten so much attention if they were called puppyheads.

I was forwarded the letter and asked to send it to my congressman. I simply replied back to the person who sent it stating that I will in no way take part in the distribution of this letter as it is a danger to the entire reptile keeping hobby.

Cases of reptile-related salmonella in humans are very few and far between, however, when a child does get sick, it is plastered all over the news. But that's ok, because when you pick it up from undercooked chicken or eggs, it's not newsworthy. Nobody gets frightened when they see a bucket of fried chicken. I believe that if you are going to point out that all reptiles carry salmonella(which they do), then you need to also point out the fact that birds, dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, and just about EVERY other animal can carry it as well.

I strongly urge people NOT to sign or forward this petition to ANYONE. It appears to me as a poorly worded subterfuge by the reptile ban supporters to sneak their way into getting hte reptile community to back their agenda.

OOPS!!!!
That was actually a quote from the proposal, not from the letter. The guy wrote me back--there are quotes around that section. I guess it was not clear.
Sorry guys.
Dana

Actually, that quote IS in the letter to Congress that is being sent all over the net and posted on various boards.