People against wild caught Garters

[PitGirl89]

How do you guys deal with this? I've barely had my Garter for a week and a lot of people are already down my throat about "Whats wild should stay wild" blah blah blah. For the most part I agree... I agree when it comes to morons keeping pet lions and tigers... but here where its illegal to breed and sell Garters, I didn't have a lot of options. I didn't go looking for this snake, I wanted a Garter, but I just happened to stumble across No Feet and having had all of the materials to house and properly keep her already at hand, thought that it was a good oppurtunity. Its just frustrating, the only thing I can tell them is that there aren't any Garters readily available for sale here and that No Feets odds for survival in the wild weren't exactly in her favor... Atleast in my care I can guarantee her a healthy and safe from predators life...

What do you guys tell them? I imagine there has to be a handful of them everywhere...

[guidofatherof5]

I haven't run into much of that. I wish I did.
I get the "I kill everyone of them I see, how could you keep one of those in your house".
I'm not keeping 1

[brain]

I haven't run into much of that. I wish I did.
I get the "I kill everyone of them I see, how could you keep one of those in your house".
I'm not keeping 1

Good 1 ...hehe

[PitGirl89]

I get the "I kill everyone of them I see, how could you keep one of those in your house".

I'm sure I'll run into that shortly enough as well. You know what they say... Ignorance is bliss.

[Millinex]

I think it really depends. For a first keeper in a lot of situations taking a single garter (not a gravid female) is perfectly ok. I grew up collecting them around my town, and to this day I take wild garters. I do however make a point to take from only certain areas. I will take snakes from being killed, or from construction areas. One of the parks I herp is doing some new construction so I collect there, because snakes that are moved and relocated do so poorly I would rather care for it than it die.

[Didymus20X6]

because snakes that are moved and relocated do so poorly I would rather care for it than it die.

Really? I've been catching snakes around the neighborhood and relocating them so the neighbors won't kill them. I've been taking them to a little stream about 10 miles away, where there's plenty of woods, and I'm sure far enough away from people. I'm hoping my efforts haven't actually put the little guys in any danger.

[bkhuff1s]

.... in area where a specific species is thriving I don't see a problem with taking a couple out of the wild population. In all honestly a few hundred years ago they were probably hunted by humans for snacks.

[wolfpacksved]

Collecting a few WC animals is nothing compared to habitat loss. Snakes have the odds stacked against them from the day they begin to crawl. Humans, predators, pet trade all take their toll, but habitat loss decimates populations more than anything.

[Stefan-A]

Collecting a few WC animals is nothing compared to habitat loss. Snakes have the odds stacked against them from the day they begin to crawl. Humans, predators, pet trade all take their toll, but habitat loss decimates populations more than anything.

So why do it? To get a snake for free? That it's not as damaging as habitat loss, is not really a justification.

[Didymus20X6]

Depends, Stefan. In some of the cases described, what is taking place is loss of habitat, in which case the collected specimens might be doomed anyway. For example, collecting snakes from a construction site. Once the building goes up, the snakes have already lost their habitat, and apart from finding a new one quick (where they would still be subject to predation and competition with other predators in that area), they will die anyway. At least catching them would prevent their immediate demise, even if the end result for the immediate environ is the same.

I look at it the same way I looked at my own attempts to rescue snakes: in my neighborhood, the snakes have already lost much of their habitat to humans, and the more they encounter humans, the more likely they will die. But at least by catching them and moving them, I hope I'm giving the individual specimens a chance at survival. Granted, I don't know how much of one (they still have to compete with other species), and the problem with loss of habitat is still an issue, but it's better than seeing their headless corpses lined up along the street for the garbage collectors, IMHO.

Bottom line: if they are already losing their habitat, and relocation cannot guarantee their survival, then collecting the animals that are going to be killed anyway isn't going to have the same impact as collecting wild specimens haphazardly with no regard for the local population.