HappyHillbilly

Hi there!
I've got something buggin' me that I wanted to get some opinions on.

If a person posts photos of their reptiles to show them off and their reptiles are obviously in poor health (fat, skinny, or whatever) is it not our responsiblity to say something about it? I don't think we should blast the OP right off the bat, but put it in a nice manner.

Let's face it, there are quite a few people that just don't know what they're doing or know what a healthy specimen of their particular reptile should look like. Some people think small snakes should be skinny and big snakes should be fat.

What gets me is when I see several other forum members reply to the photos of an obese snake with comments of "Beautiful snake!" or "Nice photos!" and not one mention of the poor health of the poor animal.

For the record, I haven't seen anything like that here at Fauna, but I've seen it on a few other sites that I'll not mention by name.

Should we keep quiet and not speak out? One of the main reasons I participate in forums is to try to help better the lives of reptiles, not pat their keepers on the back for merely (and sometimes, barely) keeping it alive. I want to spread knowledge. Another reason I participate in forums is to learn. Some of the things I've learned on some forums I could've gone the rest of my life without ever needing to know (I'll not go there).

So, what's your take?

Thanks for sharing, and caring.

Have a great day!
HH