myball123

Found this whilst looking at the BBC website

BBC NEWS | England | Essex | Snake den found in raid on house

This is another piece of rep news which could well turn more people against the hobby, knowing that individuals keep DWA/venomous snakes unlicensed. What the report doesn't say is how the animals were kept, i.e. in the correctly secured enclosures etc.

How do you guys who keep/trade DWA feel about the fine, costs and ban levied?

Simon

lizardking

good find , interesting post, be interesting to hear from ty and tom on this, if he was a trader in these animals 2000 aint much of a fine and i wonder how they keep track of the 10 year ban?

TyMilsom

Same old, same old....

The issue of a DWA licence, in no way monitors their welfare, for starters. And they have not mentioned they were kept badly.

Question is, why did he not get a licence? Normally it is for one reason, and that is the ludicrus obsicles that the local councils put in the way of the applicant to curtail the hasstle of having dangerous animals on their patch.

Typical reporting though!!

myball123

Thanks for your response guys.

I just wondered what keepers of DWA thought about it.

As Ty says typical reporting, it is only ever the bad things that happen with reps that make the news, despite the vast majority of keepers being spot on with the way they care for and secure their reps.

I agree with Ty's comments also on the variety of charges different Councils actually make, and tend to agree that many price the licence just to make sure that people don't legally keep DWA on their patch.

Simon

lizardking

i agree you never see the hard work and dedication that some people have just bad story`s about the stupidity of some reptile keepers and the councils well i wont start with whats wrong with them ill be here all day, but brings you to another point if you thought you could get away with keeping dwa without a license would you take that gamble to save the money and out of inerest how much paperwork is involved in getting a dwa?

TyMilsom

If the local authority is cooperative, the whole process is not expensive, and painless.

It is LA's that CAN cause the problem and promote DWA licence avoidance.

It is the case, that by virtue of what they are keeping, DWA keepers generally are experienced good herptoculturists. They have kept a large variety of species and know their stuff.

If there was a central body for UK applications (maybe like DEFRA), rather than LA's, im sure applications would go up.

myball123

The DEFRA idea is a good one but I doubt that any government would take this up unless there was a string of incidents that proved the LAs weren't dealing with licences properly.

I guess some people, as the story shows, will keep DWA without a licence. I would be too darn scared of a DWA getting out to actually keep one, although I would love to have a breeding pair of Golden Eyelash Vipers.

I can dream of them I guess, but I wouldn't keep DWA in all honesty.

Rob

This story is relating to Lee Thompson.

Lee was once my venomous handler at Scales and Fangs, I purchased a few DWA snake species but wasnt experianced enough so Lee helped me out and gave me a lot of training. Lee had worked with DWA for many years and I regarded him as somewhat of an expert in the field.

Then on Monday 19th May, Lee was biten by a Common Death Adder at the shop, here's the story. How I survived deadly snake's bite (From Echo)

A few weeks following this, Lee's full time job demand more of his time which meant he was unabe to dedicate time to the venomous snakes we kept at the shop. I took the decision to move away from DWA snakes due to me still not being confident enough and I arranged for the snakes to go to another shop.

Lee then detatched himself from the shop and concentrated on his job. I havent seen Lee in over a year.

The next thing I know is I get a call from my mum of all people telling me to check the paper, "that bloke who got bit in your shop is in it again"

I bought the paper and read this article Danger pet ban for 'Lee Snake' (From Echo) this is when I learned about it.

One thing I will say is that it clearly states:

He pleaded guilty to keeping a number of dangerous animals – including scorpions and snakes such as an Asian pit viper, Egyptian cobra, a Siamese spitting cobra and a Gaboon viper – without a valid licence at his home. The animals were not being mistreated.

I have been informed that someone on another forum tried to claim that we at Scales and Fangs have done something illegal. Let me assure you that this was a prosecution towards a private individual for not having a valid license and Scales and Fangs have no involvement what so ever.

As for the punishment, I think it was suited to the offence and I hope that it make others think seriously if they are currently doing the same.

Rob.

__________________

myball123

Rob

Thanks for the information, really interesting to know more of the background and the story.

It is outrageous that you have been implicated in this on another forum, when clearly people don't know the facts and have made assumptions based on old information.

Simon