Big brothers goin to hunt us down!

Hello everyone!

I heard recently a few disturbing things rumbling down the track from the Eu for one they are trying to ban the import of koi, the keeping of reptiles and I think fish keeping in general maybe on the chopping block. I for one find this completely ridiculous. I ask my self besides a few quid what is the point of being strapped to these bloody self righteous do-gooders that seem to have little more to do than dream up ways of controlling everything we do.

I have to laugh. I really do. I know for a fact there are a lot of people out there that deal in the illegal trading and transport of animals. I know for a fact that a large number of people reading this know someone who transports reptiles from the continent in the back of a van or from the UK. We have to jump through hoops to get our stocks certified for entry into Ireland while backyard dealers flaunt the law for a quick buck.

The result will be that the trade will be put to sleep because of this. Our policy at Aquatic Village has always been we will take back and re home any animal we sell. I don’t know anybody else with the same policy or even the same facilities do you guys? This is a problem that needs to be addressed. Should shops sell Pacu and Oscars etc if they cannot take them back the answer is no. In my opinion if you cannot take back the stock then do not sell it in the first place. Do you know how many turtles are dumped at my door every week? We do not sell yellow-bellied sliders or any of the larger breeds but still my place is full of rescues. We stopped stocking these animals years ago because of this instead we do dwarf species.

Can you see where this is going? How do we expect to maintain a trade when half the dealers are just money heads? How are we going to keep Koi when so many are smuggled over the borders and are sold from back yard dealers that claim to have a 100 yrs experience and I know them to be incompetent Muppets. Who will suffer if some sort of control is not put in place? The answer is staring us right in the face…. you and I.

I think we should seriously consider pressuring the powers that be to regulate the sellers of livestock and I mean regulate I mean grill them…. if you don’t know your stuff then you cant be in this business. I think we need a national standard that must be reached before one is allowed to deal.

I hate do gooders I really really do but I cannot ignore common sense or else I have a serious deficiency that needs addressing…I still cannot believe that people smuggle poisonous animals into Ireland it frightens me. I know guys that have snakes that will kill you and I mean dead and quickly dead into the bargain. The nearest anti venom is in the UK and to get it its something like 20k and an RAF flight.

I know a guy that was contacted by a woman. You may think to yourself that this in itself is quite normal Ian but er no. This guy is a bricklayer a woman rang him from an un mentionable part of the town she asked him to extend her garden walls he said he would pop over and give her a quote. When he arrived he said he nearly died of shock the woman had two fully grown black panthers walking around her garden she even told him there was another a couple of doors down. He left!

Does this sound weird to anybody? Does a young fellah in a housing estate selling crocodiles sound weird to anybody? Does 20 sheep killed by an unknown animal up the hills in Brittas sound weird to anybody? Our lakes are being destroyed by Zebra mussels is this someone else’s problem? I know a geezer who keeps horses in the back garden of his ma’s council house and he brings it through the kitchen every day and the mother is only concerned that the animal doesn’t poop on the floor. As I write this my conviction has dwindled a little for we are such an irresponsible bunch of retards when you look at it. We dump rubbish all over our roads because it will be someone else’s problem as soon as we do. Blessington lakes has been destroyed by twats and beer cans and I live beside it …..It’s a mess.

We are going to lose ourselves bit by bit because we are a nation of Muppets… tiny islands of me myself and I. Now to be honest I do not know what we are going to do I am open to suggestions. I know there are a lot of willing and able-bodied people on here maybe to get a debate going even if it is outside their comfort zone. I was informed by an outsider that we are disorganized pussies and we need to organize ourselves fast and I have been thinking more and more about this subject…..

I have spent the last hour writing this and now I am late for work as a good boss I will give my self a good verbal…what’s good for the goose eh? At least while there are some geese left that is…

Thank you for reading this and if you did not bother thanks anyway…..
IAn

Have to agree with most if not all Ian has written. Animals only scrape the surface when it comes to neglect blind eyeness and down right complacency. Government will hit every soft target for money throu taxes until the well is dry. When i began my journey into fish keeping i bought a small tank from a shop, the owner gave me 5 oscars and from what i recall 4 gold severums. These fish would be more at home in a swimming pool not a 40L tank. We are suppose to be a nation of animal lovers i honestly think that boat has well sailed, situations change granted but it's no excuse to leave animals tied up or thrown out, there is always a someone that will take it in or hold it till somone wants it. I have 2 dogs 1 i took off a clown who called himself a breader the dog was about 3st under weight skin eyes and ears in flitters she was lucky to survive. MUPPETS leading this Island down an awful slippery slope and like lemmings we are following them. Jaysus i'm ranting and i dont even own this section. Sorry for hogging Ian your right, but its far from irretrievable.

John

My opinion, for what it's worth,......

Tackle it at the source... educate your children, educate by example... bring back Civics to the Classroom... explain that we are mere caretakers of this beautiful Planet.

Kev.

Hi Ian
If you have a look in the conservation section you will see Ian miilchip post regarding the public forum and questionnaire .at last months Itfs club meeting we filled out this and have submiited it .the said questionnaire is a bit confussing and it took a while to do
John

john is that questionnaire to be send to the people in power if so is it downloadable, i'd do it, some of us keep fish not just as a living room object but as an effort at conservation, why is the government f***ing this up for us now, sure ban monsterfish unless someone can prove they have the space to keep them, sure ban invasive and dangerous species, but leave the rest of us alone, what next will we have to de-claw cats incase they scratch someone or pull out a dogs teeth on the off chance it may bite someone...

is she selling any panther pups?? .... i'm serious dude... pm me

seriously though, who's gonna give up the hobby?... its only gonna do shops outa business but there's still gonna be koi and reps in the country...
i know of 1 bloke who can get ye in anything ye want (my sister got a croc off him) yet he'll expect you to do your homework first and offer virtualy no help after that apart from the fact he'll take it back if needs be to sell on to someone else... some public forums are allowing this activity on their sites which is as good as saying 'sure whats the problem'.....

dave

I've have just got back from a day-long conference on this.
Prior to today myself and some others have been in person-to-person meetings with those who draft legislation.

Most of that in-person discussion was about fish and aquatic plants. Hence, the reason why I had posted a link and alerts within the COnservation section of this forum.

Much of the in-person meeting was about how to minimise the impact on any restrictions of IAS on the trade.

I had actually invited a number of aquatic shops here to attend and be involved with these consultation processes, and a number of reptile vendors were also invited.

There is absolutely no evidence that the EU are drafting legislation to ban reptiles.
Whether or not that comes in the future is a different story altogether; but as of now all this is somewhat just scaremongering by a few individuals (usually across the water) who have probably (I'm being generous on that) done very little to be involved with Public Consultations until after the horse has bolted.

Here, in Ireland, it was decided by a few people to get involved with the Public Consultation rather than take the rather lazy way of some other groups (across the water).

There are some serious threats to our native ecosystem from plants and animas sold in the pet trade, and that needs to be addressed.
However, there were no signs given to me that things were as draconian as some may think.

As I said, there may be changes in the future......but then, one day, there will no petrol to run our cars.
And it is what is realistically planned that should be considered and not some made-up stories unless those made-up stories become a reality

One of the points that I brought in my meeting was the need to look at non-legitimate trade, and to protect legitimate traders who's livelihood depends on the trade and who pay VAT and Leases etc etc.

On a personal level, I believe that car=park dealing in 'questionable species' is not conducive to the hobby and can damage legimitate trade. How to tackle that one? well, that is a different story altogether.

Ian