That's not for subtlety, that's for legal reasons. There is no legal commercial trading of reptiles in NSW, and the ARP cannot legally sell reptiles to the public.
Snake Ranch has been setup by people from ARP, but it is completely separate.
That's not for subtlety, that's for legal reasons. There is no legal commercial trading of reptiles in NSW, and the ARP cannot legally sell reptiles to the public.
Snake Ranch has been setup by people from ARP, but it is completely separate.
As for being completely separate - perhaps in a legal sense. But when Snake Ranch is operated by the director of ARP, and uses ARP staff and former staff, I have to wonder how far you can stretch credibility to say that they're a separate organisation.
Mind you - I don't actually have a problem with that. My suspicion is that Snake Ranch, due to its connections to ARP, would be one of the most reputable and reliable of the larger reptile breeders in Australia. I don't see a problem, either, with zoos earning a bit of extra income from breeding species that are legal to keep and not subject to co-operative management programs. You could reasonably expect a ZAA member to be more discerning about who they will sell animals to than a private hobbyist, but even Taronga sells animals, and not just reptiles but exotic mammals.
According to the recent Special Inspection Report NAZF don't sell pets, but if they did on occasion it would be at the discretion of the Zoo Licensing Authority as to whether they needed a pet shop license.
They should really decide whether they do or not, and if they do whether they need one.
I don't have any particular problem with any zoo selling livestock if done responsibly, but it is my understanding that it is against BIAZA rules for members to do this (happy to be corrected if not). And as NAZF was a member at this time it should not have been selling animals to the public.
So from my point of view, they weren't necessarily doing a bad thing in selling the snakes, but in joining BIAZA they agreed to a set of rules that they then didn't follow.
