• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

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    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Animal Planet documentary

Having venom glands is diffrent then having venom. A garder snake has the same type of glands. Has work been done to test it? If its not lethal for humans, why would it be used? And just because the glands are there does it mean they have venom in them? (Sorry if I don't make sense)
 
And again ................. since it seems that what I said isn't being believed.
If was 'venom' why don't the CAPTIVE dragons or monitors have it??? :shrug01:

In the skeletal structure yes scientists have believe what they found to be FORMER sockets where the glands MAY have been held. But no they do not have venom or venom glands.

So again I ask ................... if it's really venom and they really have venom gland why are these completely missing from captive komodos and other captive varanid species???
Why aren't all wild caught varanids being tested for this "venom"????

And that quack on Wild Recon didn't even catch a wild Varanus varius (aka Lace monitor). It was staged. A captive monitor!! And where is the scientific proof of the retrieved "venom"?

Folks, they have been trying to prove this since 2005!!!! So this is not new. So for five years there still has not been a single ounce of true proof of glands or real venom. As a matter of fact also the same European quack who started this back in 2005 has lately been trying to get more funding to prove something he hasn't been able to prove for five years. Wouldn't you think after five years something would be proven?????? And I'm talking solid - concrete scientific publications. NOT "one scientist found this" type article.

The facts are simply it's all TV drama hear say. It's NOT a scientific proven - publication. And again ALL varanids, including captive komodoensis, would have this if these venom glands and venom was real. But they simply do not.
 
Misleading, but not necessarily untrue...

I'm in agreement with you Tails, but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary. I just pulled this from an article I read the other day. I haven't read through the other cited articles yet, but they're out there if people want to build an argument.
"Effects of the toxins from Varanus have usually been ascribed to bacterial infections caused by a virulent oral bacterial flora (Gillespie et al., 2002), but recent systematic and toxinological analyses have discovered the presence of venom glands and venom in Varanus (Vidal and Hedges, 2005; Fry et al., 2006). It should be borne in mind that only few Varanus species have been examined in this way (V. acanthurus, V. mitchelli, V. panoptes rubidus, and V. varius), but V. griseus, V. komodensis and V. scalaris bites on humans have also shown signs consistent with envenomation (Sopiev et al., 1987; Ballard and Antonio, 2001; Fry et al., 2006; Fry and Scheib, 2007)." (Arbuckle, 2009...AKA Your European Quack?, 2009)

Personally, I believe that's it's bacteria and think these shows like Wild Recon and Life use the term "venom" in a misleading way. They are not incorrect, but they use the general definition of venom: "material that is poisonous". It's very irresponsible of them to use it in this way, especially because television seems to be the main source of education for the majority of Americans (if not the world).
I don't believe that something like this can be proven in only five years. It takes awhile to obtain a varied population of animals to test, let alone performing the actual tests and compiling the data. You would need WC's, CB's, LTC's, etc...to cover every variable and then you would still have to monitor what they eat, what their prey eats, etc. Funding for studies like this is what the zoological community is all about. Without these "quacks" we wouldn't have 90% of the knowledge we have today.
 
wild recon is a joke and and should be removed from the air it is a disgrace for the herp industry along with any of the conservation efforts. just a sorry attempt to entertain the masses and make money. in my op
 
What makes it untrue is that the full blown taxonomy studies have shown it to be bacterial infection when the substances taken from the animals was put into the lab and this is based easily over the last five years. Taken from dozens of species including not just what's been listed above but also v. albigularis and v. salvator. Nothing in those studies have proven to be venom or anything other then bacteria filled saliva. And when tested in captive animals it does not show even remotely the same amount of bacterium as what's in a wild monitor.

Also another thing sighted was a human's reaction to a bite. Not all humans reacted the same if they reacted at all. The most serious reactions were documented as causing swelling, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, pain, bruising, numbness and of course bleeding. Which are fully - 100% signs of one of two things. 1) anxiety attack 2) Nerve interruption /damage (excluding the bleeding, swelling, bruising at the bite site). This was documented not just from captive animals but also wild.

So again ............ if varanids had venom glands and truly venom wouldn't everyone who was bitten experience a reaction?????? And I'm not talking since 2005 when this really started hitting daylight but I'm talking the last 5 - 20 years.
 
Tails, captive varanids and beardies DO have venom. Because it is not injected, and they don't have grooved teeth, they would have to chew on you for a long time to work venom into the wound. When they did, the amount would be so small, you would probably only experience a bit of minor swelling.
Garter snake bites cause this too. Someone actually let a garter chew on him for a half hour to test it. His hand swelled up like a balloon.
 
Here's a good species to test the venom theory on:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100406/sc_afp/sciencespeciesreptilephilippines_20100406161501

@Urban_Exotics: I don't know of anyone being bitten by one, but i remember reading years ago that Sharon Stone's husband was bitten by one at the LA zoo. Apparently he was wearing white tennis shoes when they took him into the exhibit and the dragon bit his foot through the shoe because it thought it was one of the big white rats they fed him. i know the bite happened, but am sure the details are a little bit off.
 
I liked the show snakeskin. I have already autotuned it on DVR. Not a real "proffesional" show, pretty much just a man and his wife that capture and release snakes from peoples houses. But I am definately hooked.
 
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