This is certainly true for some chameleon species (the Roti Island Snake Necked Turtle might also agree, for example).  Wild-caught chameleons fare horribly in the pet trade, often dying within a year, often dying in-transit.  Here’s an online source the ASA might have started with September 2001 CHAMELEON information Network Journal No. 41,   p. 11 by Ardi Abate, or even this:   http://www.animalarkshelter.org/cin/.

Here are a couple of stories on a growing problem, or at least an always-evolving problem, the use of reptiles and amphibians as human food.  

Popular among Asians and re-located rednecks, bullfrogs in San Francisco are bringing in the chytrid virus, a deadly amphibian disease that is wiping out frogs around the world.  Here’s a well-written piece on the bullfrog dining issue by John Upton via NY Times Blog.  For more on the virus or on frogs in general go to Kerry Kriger’s comprehensive Save the Frogs, and remember April 28 is Save the Frogs Day (which doesn’t, of course, mean leftovers).

The Washington Post recently had this story on the sale of live animals in Asian supermarkets–live crayfish, eel, bass, bullfrogs, etc.–which are often raised on farms.   The Virginia state agent is wrong when he says in the story that history shows when wildlife is commercialized the population dwindles.  History shows that when wildlife is taken from the wild on a commercial scale its population dwindles, but when wildlife is farmed, as is the case with the species in the story, that is not always the case.   It depends how valuable the animal is price-wise, its reproduction rate, commitment of law enforcement, and the viability of its wild population:  rabbits are better farmed, tigers are not.  American alligators, once on the verge of extinction and now prolific and widely farmed, make a great case study.  They do not, however, make for especially good eating.

My own version of these stories occurred at a pet store not long ago.  I was looking at a pair of red-eared slider turtles swimming around a tank.  An Asian woman standing next to me said to her boyfriend, “They’re so cute.  I just want to take them home and have them for lunch.”  I have heard the same thing about lobsters in Maine, sans the cute part.

I have a post up on NationalGeographic.com regarding Anson Wong’s release.    And here is an interview in the Malay Mail.

I confess, my initial reaction to Anson Wong’s release yesterday was that of a lawyer:  the court’s decision to reduce Wong’s sentence was probably reasonable given the facts as presented.

Here is excellent and insightful commentary from Malaysia on the implications of Anson Wong’s release from Dr. Bill Schaedla of TRAFFIC SE Asia who correctly points out that there is more to the story than simply what reached the appellate court… 

The investigation and prosecution of this case also lends further support for Malaysia’s efforts to create a Green Court.

Reaction from www.nkkhoo.com

A Court of Appeals in Malaysia today released wildlife trafficker Anson Wong.  Wong had served 17.5 months of a five year prison sentence for smuggling boa constrictors.  You can read more here.

Wong’s five year sentence was a significant one for a wildlife trafficker anywhere in the world, and unprecedented in Malaysia.   The Appeals Court today ruled that the 5 year sentence did not fit the crime of boa constrictor smuggling, a defensible conclusion in the limited circumstances of this case.  

Ironically, the failure of Malaysia’s Wildlife Department ever to arrest Wong worked to his advantage:  “It is trite law that Wong’s plea of guilt is a mitigating factor. It is trite law that the fact Wong was the first offender is another mitigating factor,” the judge said.

Agents and prosecutors in US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Operation Chameleon would argue that Wong was hardly a “first offender.”   Instead, as Wong confessed in a US Court room, he smuggled critically endangered wildlife for decades. 

What did occur for the first time was that Wong was brought to justice in his own country.   This is a major advance.  It is the result of  good work by Malaysian citizens, national media, NGOs, legislators, prosecutors, and judges.  Every element of Malaysian society except Malaysia’s Wildlife Department worked hard for justice in this case.   The future is yet to reveal itself…

Rotten food added to ‘specialty meats’

 The Environmental Crime Prevention Police Department recently discovered a sophisticated operation that was upgrading rotten meat to become ‘specialty meats’ in a business facility in Binh Tan district. The facility collected pork, rotten meat and low-price pythons to make the ‘specialty meats’. One worker said that dyed pork combined with pig’s blood became ‘ostrich meat’. Another method employed to make ‘ostrich meat’ was to impregnate pork with sulfur dioxide. Even fake crocodile meat was produced from rotten pork. The meat would then be supplied to many famous restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnamese version, republished from Tien Phong newspaper, January 18, 2012

As I’ve said from the beginning, it is greed pure and simple that prevented the reptile industry from regulating itself with regard to these giant snakes.  Any idiot can see that giant pythons are inappropriate to most buyers, esp. teenagers, but sell to them the industry did.   That same greed led a number of the biggest breeders to import from Anson Wong even though they knew he was a major illegal wildlife trafficker.   As a person who believes in responsible keeping it is a shame these reptile industry leaders could not really lead.

The new rule does not include Reticulated Pythons, the largest python on earth, and among its most aggressive.  That is strange. And no doubt will come up again.

The new rule also excludes boa constrictors from the ban.  That IMHO is a good thing.  Boas are not for everyone but they are manageable at most sizes.  What boa constrictors and other larger snakes need is not a ban but reasonable standards of welfare. That, too, is no doubt in the future of the reptile industry.  Its leaders should get in front of that.  But history says they won’t.

This story ranks among headlines that surprised me today, tigers in New Jersey…. 

New Jersey one step closer to creating tiger-tracking system

Associated Press

Legislation that would create a registry and tracking system for captive tigers living in New Jersey has advanced with unanimous bipartisan support.  Sen. Ray Lesniak’s bill aims to ensure tiger bones and other body parts don’t end up on the black market.

Tiger claws, teeth and whiskers are marketed illegally, but bones are the most valuable on the black market because they are believed by some to have medicinal value. Poaching and loss of habitat are the biggest threats to the world’s dwindling tiger population.

The measure that advanced Thursday requires environmental regulators to keep track of the tigers and for the animals to be micro-chipped. The information would help police track those responsible if tiger parts are sold illegally.  Lesniak hopes the legislation will serve as an international model.

My favorite incident: An 80-year old man is in fair condition after his 6-foot tall, 200-pound kangaroo attacked him for 15 minutes at an exotic-animal farm in Ohio. The man was taken to a hospital…

That’s alot of Joey.

I’m being asked why people keep these animals.  With all due respect to Jack Hanna’s work for animals, one reason certainly is when he and others go on talk shows with fuzzy and cute animals on leashes.  When the bobcat or the lemur or the chimp in diapers jumps on the desk it looks like something one could have at home.  When Dave Letterman pets the snow leopard and says, “Gee, Jack this fur is so soft!” there may be some benefit in public awareness, but there is certainly somebody out there who watches the same moment and says, “Yea, I want one of those, too.”  If they have the money, and it does not usually take much, the only thing they need to get one is the internet.

Reality TV has blurred the line between home and wild.  Shows like Fear Factor, in which people were made to eat mass quantities of live insects, or stick their hands in piles of snakes, turn animals into objects.  They diminish our respect for wildlife.  Note that very few pictures or video taken in Zanesville Ohio show the actual dead animals.  That is the real reality tv, and it would do everybody good to see it.