• 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.

Shingleback Skink (Tiliqua rugosa)

Those are useful anecdotes, and it is good to be able to talk to someone who has such a long history in captive herp circles, sincerely.

With all due respect, though, I don't think I will be backing down on my own position much at all -- though I readily admit that claiming "they're all smuggled lineage" was somewhat hyperbolic; the universal quantifier is always a risky gamble (see what I did there?).

In regards to the AZA affiliated importer from England, I think we're on the same page about the (remote) possibility that there may be rugosa in private hands descended from such stock, and there is a (even more remote) possibility that lineage to the present could be established. Why there haven't been known sales of such animals from that time period to the present (as with other "zoo line" animals that I'm familiar with such as the very common San Antonio Zoo line T. micropholis) is a troubling question, though, and suggests that such lineage cannot be established, and that any claims of lineage are very likely to be fraudulent given the financial value of the animals. Aside from human nature, finding one of those animals in the current captive stock would be (statistically speaking) the needle in the haystack.

FWIW, there have been Federal permitting procedures in place for Australian exports back to at least 1982 -- the Wildlife Protection Act predated and was replaced by the EPBC Act. There were certainly state procedures in place before then, but they're hard to find.

I think the Tarpon Zoo mention undermines your position quite a bit, since Mr Tsalickis served about 20 years for his involvement with cocaine trafficking. To think the animals he sold were all or even mostly legal strains credulity to the point of absurdity.
 
Alright this has been moved to the discussion forum, since the op was looking for information. Just keep things civil.
 
"In regards to the AZA affiliated importer from England, I think we're on the same page about the (remote) possibility that there may be rugosa in private hands".
The point is the zoo system and their affiliates delt with these and I personally saw that SOME ended up in private hands. I do not know if they were confiscated, CB adults or LTC WC traded by an Australian Zoo.
This still happens in certain circles ( including Australian zoos) the general population knows nothing about and legal CB rugosa are being traded among these zoos and their affiliates and eventually to some private breeders. I say this only to make clear that it isn't "remote" for someone to have legal animals as these are mostly "closed" circles. The problem with many closed circles is eventually they fill up with desirable species and the overflow needs to go somewhere. Then we may see a private breeder or even a dealer with them.
Positing that a dealer from the 1960's having gone to prison for drug trafficking makes his importing equally illegal is not much of a case against legally required animals particularly since most of the laws pertain to importing/exporting from Australia, SA, Mexico, Europe, etc did not exist then. It wasn't until 1968-'73 that the permitting processes began being implemented. Also, TZ wasn't the only importer at that time. There was Bill Chase (who sold Chinese giant salamanders at the time) , Bern Levine of Pet Farm, Gators of Miami, Ray Singleton Imports in Tampa and Bill Thacker of Love for Sale (some name for a reptile dealer, huh?) from Gainsville just here in Florida.
Many individual people imported boxes into the US and we had "unboxing parties" because you never knew what would pop up (particularly exciting when a large cobra sprang out having escaped its bag!). It was like a Herpers Secret Santa event.
The parties ended, as they were, in the early '70 once the trade became more regulated and packing lists had to be accurate so nothing surprising was to be expected.
 
There are breeders in Europe that have had producing colonies for over 30 years. Ancestors of animals that could be obtained legally before the ban. There are also breeders in the US who have been successful, but do not sell for obvious reasons. Not everyone is a criminal who owns one. They can be obtained legally, if you are willing to do the work and sacrifice a few mortgage payments.
 
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