Empire Gudgeons? Wow, now you know how I feel about Red-Tailed Boas! ;) One
of the commonest snakes in the average US reptile shop, of which there are
literally hundreds spread across the country, yet almost totally
unobtainable here in Australia... And here I am within relative spitting
distance of a couple of shops that are sure to have Empire Gudgeons in
them... It's annoying, isn't it?
>I was so angry and
>frustrated that I forgot to pose another related question in
>my earlier mailing. I will report this dealer to the SPCA
>(potential can of worms?), but can pressure be brought to
>bear on the person selling him the fish in the first place?
As I have said before, Chris, the trade is there to make money, not to
further conservation aims or look after specialists like us. They have to
make money to feed their families, and thusly cannot be relied upon to do
anything not directly attributable to furthering their business. This is
not a condemnation, merely an observation.
Some of them are nice guys personally, and a lot of them in Australia have
been great supporters of ANGFA - I saw this last year when I helped (in my
own small fashion) out in organising and running the ANGFA Conference... we
got stuff from all over the place that made that Conference the most
profitable to date.
But, at the end of the day, they will sell what fish do sell, to whomsoever
does legally pay...
>Surely any reputable exporter would want to keep ANGFA on
>their side. Here's the relentless part: We would have to
>find out who's dealing with this guy in Toronto and fill him
>in and persuade him to cut off the supply. Excuse my naivete
>but how many exporters can there be in Australia?
There may be very little impact that ANGFA as an organisation can make in
persuading exporters who to deal with; I'll leave that up to ANGFA
spokespeople to say: but for myself (only) I'd like to wish you every
success... as long as you keep in mind that if you do close down this guy's
source in Oz, he won't have any fish at all, male or female... Is he
selling only males of all the species he deals in?
There may be a legitimate complaint on this after all from the Australian
end - someone correct me if I'm wrong but my guess is that all exported
Empire Gudgeons would be wild-caught - if half of them are being killed when
they reach some foreign shore I just know that some of our animal
rights/green groups would just *love* to hear about it...
It may be that only males are being exported, for whatever reason, and you
may be maligning the wrong person. While this could be that only the males
are desired by the average joe or josephine for colouration reasons, and
therefore attract a higher price, it reminds me of a story I've heard a few
times now... one of the NG 'bows (was it M. boesemani?) was being exported
by the thousand, wild-caught, but only males were being kept, the females
being left to rot on the shores of the lake...
The bottom line: we cannot rely on the trade to disseminate fish for us.
Regards, Andrew Boyd
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Andrew Boyd - andrew at pcug.org.au - http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew
"A running man may cut 4000 throats in a single night" - Klingon Proverb
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