Retrieves his various and sundry weaponry, including two crossbows, a small hatchet, a 110lbs-draw long bow, two swords, a home made, hand-held flamethrower, a guarter staff, a random assortment of throwing knives, and a katar.....let's hunt some animal abusers!

I'll take the long bow.

No...its my favorite. You can have one of the three other ones though! They are all in the 75-90lb draw range, little bit less power, MUCH easier to actually draw.

Actually that is something that has always bugged me in fantasy stuff. The "Archer" is usually the scrawny guy, when in reality you needed to be pretty buff to actually draw a bow that could do some real damage.

I'll take some knives to cut their little plastic pouches open :war:

Pfft, you guys.

**powers up his plasma blades and gauss cannons**

My way is more honorable!

Also....as long as no one wants more then one weapon I could probably arm ALL of us on this forum! And people called my obsession with having a large collection of authentic and combat capable middle age weaponry weaponry was stupid.

Also, also...I just realized, how the hell do the turtles breath? Unless there are holes in that bag they will run out of oxygen fast.

It's not about buying and selling animals, it's about the conditions they are kept in.

What I mean is the animals are sold as a novelty, rather then as a pet or companion. If an animal is bought or sold purely for that then the animal's welfare isn't often the main concern.

(Add on)

The seller of animals usually has a responsibility for their welfare up until the time when the buyer purchases them. So when you look at it that way, the conditions that the animal experiences-such as in this case the turtle having no room to move and very little air to breathe is directly caused by the seller as they were responsible for knowingly putting the turtle in that environment to start with.

Both the buyer and seller are at fault for the conditions of the turtles in a way because the seller holds the turtles in this environment as a "novelty" and does this to attract more sales and the buyer reinforces this behaviour by buying the product.

Exactly.

I have as many animals as I do because I like to observe their habits and behaviors, and because they keep me connected to the natural world without having to leave home.

Just as I wrote this post, my White's Treefrog was croaking; I had never heard that frog call until a few days ago when he started doing it in the mornings, and that so far has been one of the greatest joys of having him around.

^ My Chinese Water Dragon is biting my toes right now. Apparently SOMEONE doesn't like it when they get ignored.

i just remembered the time when one of my friedns adopted a cat because the girl he was trying to impress said she liked cats. few months later he returned it to the place he got it from. some people just dont understand that animals aren't disposable objects -_-

True.
The sad part about that is that it's not an isolated incident. :(

If you have the capacity to look after every one of those animals and treat them with the respect they deserve then that's one of the best things that you can do for them. :)

Physignathus cocincinus?

Picture thread, now.

On topic, yes, it does take quite a bit of work at times to keep the animals I have healthy and well-fed, but it's really a "labor of love" more than anything.

Also on topic, I emailed this to someone by the name of Frank Indiviglio, who happens to be a herpetologist and turtle conservationist. Hopefully that will give it some higher-level recognition and get the attention of some more powerful people in the right areas.