Man forced to find home or euthanize 10 year old snakehead
- Thread starter BreellaBlue87
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In an Updated article from yesterday
Way to go Guys :thumbsup: keep signing
Rocky the snakehead has feelings, too - syracuse.com
Monday, March 02, 2009 JEFF KRAMER
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
This morning Rocky the snakehead is still swimming in his 200-gallon tank in Chris Deverso's kitchen, or he's a fish Popsicle.
However the weekend went for Rocky, we're left with a distinctly fishy odor from the state Department of Environmental Confusion, whose trained bureaucrats know a major bio-threat when they find one in their code book.
DEC officials had planned to apprehend and cryo-euthanize the illegal fish last Thursday. They backed off when the threat of bad publicity posed by assembled news crews at Deverso's home in Clay apparently proved more daunting to the department than its paranoid scenario that this family pet of 10 years might somehow escape its aquarium and stomp through the countryside devouring local fish stocks, cattle, even Wegmans pizza.
Never mind that Deverso purchased the fish legally well before the state snakehead ban took effect in 2004.
Never mind that this species of subtropical snakehead cannot survive an Upstate winter (or fall or spring, for that matter.) Rules are rules, right?
What a perfect refrain for the chronically lazy. I should invoke it more often myself - not that a whole lot of mental effort is required in this case.
Rocky could be implanted with a microchip, so he could be swiftly recovered in the almost unfathomable event of his escape.
DEC officials could set up a webcam to monitor the fish 24/7 if they're so worried.
Rocky could serve as a teaching tool at a DEC facility. Or his execution date could be pushed to say, 2020, so Rocky could live out his limited days in peace.
But why not just kill the thing? It's so much easier.
In California, my former home, state wildlife officials were going to destroy a brown bear that had fallen into the habit of rollicking in a backyard hot tub. A public outcry resulted in a stay of execution by the governor. A small zoo in Orange County accepted the bear. Money was raised for an enclosure that included a waterfall and a pool.
The bear became the zoo's star, and the story became a children's book, "Samson the Hot Tub Bear." It's one of my kids' favorites. Somehow I doubt they'd love it as much if it were called "Samson the Hot Tub Corpse."
It strikes me that maybe I'm sensitive to this issue because, like Rocky, I, too, am an invasive, non-indigenous species with a voracious appetite. And I know what it's like to be netted, bagged and dispatched to a deep freeze. How do you think I ended up in Central New York?
My point is that fish have feelings. Or at least their owners do.
"Some people think a fish isn't a pet, but he's something you have to take care of," Chris told me as Rocky, dark from all the stress, glowered in the background. "Ten years is a long time."
When I was 10, our family acquired a goldfish and named him Fred. I was 34 when Fred finally expired. Sometimes, like now, I think about him. He was slimy and boring, but I've had worse friends.
Jeff Kramer's humor column runs Mondays in CNY. Reach him at jeffmkramer@gmail.com.
Way to go Guys :thumbsup: keep signing
Rocky the snakehead has feelings, too - syracuse.com
Monday, March 02, 2009 JEFF KRAMER
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
This morning Rocky the snakehead is still swimming in his 200-gallon tank in Chris Deverso's kitchen, or he's a fish Popsicle.
However the weekend went for Rocky, we're left with a distinctly fishy odor from the state Department of Environmental Confusion, whose trained bureaucrats know a major bio-threat when they find one in their code book.
DEC officials had planned to apprehend and cryo-euthanize the illegal fish last Thursday. They backed off when the threat of bad publicity posed by assembled news crews at Deverso's home in Clay apparently proved more daunting to the department than its paranoid scenario that this family pet of 10 years might somehow escape its aquarium and stomp through the countryside devouring local fish stocks, cattle, even Wegmans pizza.
Never mind that Deverso purchased the fish legally well before the state snakehead ban took effect in 2004.
Never mind that this species of subtropical snakehead cannot survive an Upstate winter (or fall or spring, for that matter.) Rules are rules, right?
What a perfect refrain for the chronically lazy. I should invoke it more often myself - not that a whole lot of mental effort is required in this case.
Rocky could be implanted with a microchip, so he could be swiftly recovered in the almost unfathomable event of his escape.
DEC officials could set up a webcam to monitor the fish 24/7 if they're so worried.
Rocky could serve as a teaching tool at a DEC facility. Or his execution date could be pushed to say, 2020, so Rocky could live out his limited days in peace.
But why not just kill the thing? It's so much easier.
In California, my former home, state wildlife officials were going to destroy a brown bear that had fallen into the habit of rollicking in a backyard hot tub. A public outcry resulted in a stay of execution by the governor. A small zoo in Orange County accepted the bear. Money was raised for an enclosure that included a waterfall and a pool.
The bear became the zoo's star, and the story became a children's book, "Samson the Hot Tub Bear." It's one of my kids' favorites. Somehow I doubt they'd love it as much if it were called "Samson the Hot Tub Corpse."
It strikes me that maybe I'm sensitive to this issue because, like Rocky, I, too, am an invasive, non-indigenous species with a voracious appetite. And I know what it's like to be netted, bagged and dispatched to a deep freeze. How do you think I ended up in Central New York?
My point is that fish have feelings. Or at least their owners do.
"Some people think a fish isn't a pet, but he's something you have to take care of," Chris told me as Rocky, dark from all the stress, glowered in the background. "Ten years is a long time."
When I was 10, our family acquired a goldfish and named him Fred. I was 34 when Fred finally expired. Sometimes, like now, I think about him. He was slimy and boring, but I've had worse friends.
Jeff Kramer's humor column runs Mondays in CNY. Reach him at jeffmkramer@gmail.com.
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Not many here care about Rocky
well thats a very bleak statement. Sorry we can't be like MFK and have 16 pages. :-( BUT most of us are members over there and have already commented on the MFK thread.
BTW guys, join the facebook group too if you can. Recently groups on facebook have really made a difference and I'm hoping for the best with this one. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=7428&uid=57954035727#/group.php?gid=57954035727
(it wasn't started by me, but rather by Chris's cousin)
(it wasn't started by me, but rather by Chris's cousin)
I dont think its that people dont care about the fish.I ts been years since the laws passed,and i hate it too. Theres a law about it now,you choose to break law,maby you get caught. Its that simple,we have a 55 mph speed limit, slower than anywhere else. I do 80 and get caught,guess what,i decided to ignore the law and got caught. You own a illegal fish,clearly you know that,and you got caught..Sorry it sucks,but a law was passed,so we either obey them or take a penalty..
actually chris didn't know they were illegal until some time after the ban. I didn't know they were illegal either and I used to play close to a pond that got infected with snakeheads who did survive as a kid, I just thought that they dredged the pond and that was that, I didn't think they'd go so far as to ban a whole species because of one type. to me thats like banning labadors because pitbulls sometimes have bad owners.
I signed to. It just seems so wrong to me that in this day and age a pet is the topic of politics. A knee jerk reaction by the state to a perceived threat--how typically bureaucratic.
Who's to say that what we buy today will not be banned 5 years from now. Are we suppose to get rid of what we legally aquired then to appease the law now? Are we to be held subject to fines and possible jail time and a criminal record for legally buying something, such as a beloved pet, then not killing it or throwing it away because of a law? No, I think that needs ot happen here is home inspections and permits given to those that legally aquired these fish, or for any other situation such as this. If the DEC can take the time and money to do this, surely they can take the time and money to issue permits and inspect to be sure the animals are housed correctly and under complete confinement.
AFA spam from signing the petition, simply uncheck the boxes saying you would like to recieve such and such and you won't get any spam, at least I havent.
AFA spam from signing the petition, simply uncheck the boxes saying you would like to recieve such and such and you won't get any spam, at least I havent.
