Fifteen years is a looong time.

On February 8, 1997 kingsnake.com first appeared on the internet; It has been 5,478 days, or 137,952 hours, or 8,277,120 minutes from when our servers first went active. Since then our reptile and amphibian community has been visited by millions of people from around the world who have posted millions of photos and messages about their pets. Yahoo and Amazon.com may be older, but Google, YouTube, and of course Facebook are still our junior.

When I first started this web site few reptile people had even seen the internet, now the internet is so ingrained in our daily lives, in our community, and in our industry, we wonder how we were able to function without it. Along the way kingsnake.com has documented much of it, good and bad, and stored in it's archives is essentially a history of the reptile communities last decade and a half. Wading through it brings back a lot of memories of great animals, events, experiences, and friends that have long past. It will be interesting to see what changes the next 15 years bring.

kingsnake.com will be celebrating it's 15th anniversary all year at a variety of Reptile and Amphibian events, including this weekends NARBC expo in Arlington Texas. Please stop by our booth, pick up a free kingsnake.com window sticker and let us know how long you have been reading kingsnake.com! If you can't make it to this weekends show then tune in here for updates from the expo floor.

I want to thank the many users, advertisers, sponsors, volunteers, and staffers who have made kingsnake.com what it is today: the largest, most relevant, and most popular reptile community on the internet. - Jeff Barringer

Click below to see images of kingsnake.com throughout the years...


Continue reading "kingsnake.com turns 15 years old!"

If there is a cool Carpet Python in North America Kerry King and his Psychotic Exotics probably owns it, or it's one he hatched. California based Carpet Python breeder Kerry King is the first guest of 2012 for kingsnake.com's web radio season and todays interview is now available for download. Kerry and I had a great time talking about what morphs he bred this year, what morphs he plans to breed next year, and what the thinks about the new federal python listing. Kerry and his company Psychotic Exotics are frequent trade show exhibitors at west coast reptile shows when they don't conflict with Slayers tour shedule, so we talked a little about his reptile show plans this year. Will he make it to Arlington or Tinley? And whats the deal with shelf liner? Tune in and you might find out.

And we didn't want to leave you Slayer fans out. We talked about Slayer's one of gig in Austin last year, the plans for this years Mayhem Festival, hitting the European festivals. We also talked about the new albums release date and the possibility of a Slayer U.S. tour in the fall/winter. To download or stream the interview click here http://kingsnake.com/radio/kfk2012a.mp3

Yet another state, Illinois, has proposed a law on "Dangerous Animals" that includes constrictor snakes. The Illinois Dangerous Animals Act of 2012, Senate Bill SB3264, introduced by Sen. Heather A. Steans on Wednesday identifies a class of animals that qualify as dangerous animals, requires that a person must hold a Dangerous Animal Permit or a Limited Entry Permit to possess a dangerous animal in the State and sets forth requirements that must be met before the Department of Natural Resources may issue a Dangerous Animal Permit or a Limited Entry Permit, among other things.

According to the bill as proposed reptiles and amphibians impacted by this legislation include:

(14) Venomous reptiles, regardless of whether they have been surgically altered, including, but not limited to, venomous species of the following families or genera of the order Squamata: Helodermatidae, such as gila monsters and beaded lizards; Elapidae, such as cobras and coral snakes; Hydrophiidae, such as sea snakes; Viperidae and Crotalinae, such as vipers and pit vipers; Atractaspididae, such as burrowing asps; as well as colubrids such as the: Alsophis, such as the West Indian racers; Boiga, such as boigas and mangrove snakes; Conophis such as road guarders; Dispholidus, such as Boomslang; Hydrodynastes, such as false water cobras; Hemirhagerrhis, such as bark snakes; Macropisthodon, such as varied or hooded keelbacks; Madagascarophis, such as Madagascar common snakes; Malpolon, such as Montpellier snakes; Mimophis, such as Mahafaly sand snakes; Phalotris, such as
collared snakes; Philodryas, such as palm snakes or green racers; Psammophis, such as sand snakes or racers; Psammophylax, such as skaapstekers; Rhabdophis, such as keelbacks; Rhamphiophis, such as beaked snakes; Tachymenis, such as slender snakes or false vipers; Thelotornis, such as Twig snakes; Thrasops, such as black tree snakes; Tomodon, such as Pampas snakes; Waglerophis, such as Wagler's snakes; Xenodon, such as false fer-de-lances; Boiga irregularis, including specimens or eggs of the brown tree snake; and any others that the Department designates, by administrative rule, as outlined or deemed medically significant.

(15) All members of the Boidae family, such as boas, pythons, and anacondas as provided by the Department by administrative rule.
(16) All members of the order Crocodilia, such as crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gavials; members of the Varanidae family, such as Nile, water, and crocodile monitors as well as Komodo dragons.
(17) Medically significant poisonous amphibians capable of causing bodily harm to humans or animals, including, but not limited to, Bufo marinus, such as cane or marine toads, and Bufo alvarius, such as Colorado River toads.

Just for good measure they have also included a variety of spiders and scorpions as well.

Thanks to Jeff West for bringing this to my attention.

To read the full text of the bill as introduced, please continue reading...
Continue reading "Illinois proposes Dangerous Animals Act SB3264"