O'reilly Factor Pet Exotic Animals Segment Thursday 3-13

ZJBDragon · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Westminster, MD

This is the first post I've made on this forum so hopefully I'm not too far off base. I can't find a subforum that seems to fit this and it'll probably wind up in the news on Thursday anyway.

While checking all the news channels today to see what's going on I came across a Fox News commercial for the O'reilly Factor advertising a segment on "Why people are having wild animals as pets". The segment will air on the show on Thursday, March 13 at 8pm EST and repeat 3 hours later. It may be of particular interest to some people visiting here because this has the potential to go either negative towards exotic owners or positive towards them. I really have no idea which way it's going to get spun, but I would assume negative due to "wild" being heavily emphasized, the tone of the commercial, and the way another Fox commentator reacted negatively to a video game called Mass Effect that had a slight sexually suggestive encounter in it if you played it right. The commercial prominently featured an alligator, light green snake (sorry, I forget what these are called), and a cougar. Given that Fox has such a huge audience and the O'reilly Factor is still #1 in news network ratings, I think that this is a big deal because I fully expect to see some HSUS person sitting on one panel of the screen while an exotics breeder (or, heaven forbid, some idiot from Big Cat Rescue) sitting there on the other panel of the screen while the entire debate shifts against exotic ownership.

Personally, I'm quite concerned because all of the activism and legal boundaries that have been going up against owning pets are really getting out of control, especially on the exotics front. I certainly don't think an Australian or Chinese water dragon, bearded dragon, iguana, serval, or hybrid cat is a wild blood-thirsty animal like they're made out to be. Sure, they don't like you at first, but the bond resulting from weeks and months of built up trust is unlike anything a dog or cat can deliver. All of these "wild" animals take much more care and attention, and the challenge of ownership is much more rewarding. I do hope that this segment on Thursday casts things in a positive light or I'm seriously going to call up O'reilly's radio factor on Friday and give him a piece of my mind. I would hope that anyone reading this message and/or seeing the segment on Thursday and being disappointed with it would do try to do the same.

Thanks! And nice site btw. I've been lurking for quite a while. I caught the link over at Repticzone.com months ago. Only thing I don't like is the outdated HTML, but that's just because it's my occupation to make good code for a variety of uses. =P

**REXANO** · Site Admin Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 446

I plan to watch it, I am sure AR will write and thank him for sensationalized piece (I assume it will be), so we have to write now, even now before the show to educate and see if we can affect it somehow.
oreilly@foxnews.com

Zuzana
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ZJBDragon · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Westminster, MD

ZJBDragon · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Westminster, MD

For anyone that wasn't watching, the Exotics segment got rescheduled for Tuesday March 17 because of an "angry snake". I'm not sure what to make of that.

They probably were too busy reporting on other things to cover Exotics...at least that's my guess. I would like to think that people who wrote emails, myself included, got through but that's normally wishful thinking.

**REXANO** · Site Admin Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 446

Maybe it is good it got rescheduled for Tuesday the 17th.
Yeah,lets all email and tell him to do happy exotic pets instead of dangerous exotic pets program, I will send him some happy happy exotic pics myself.

send email to Bill at oreilly@foxnews.com.
Z
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**REXANO** · Site Admin Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 446

Please note this python / O'REILLY FACTOR interview is from 2005, but it gives us some insight on where FOX/O’Reilly stand.
So will see what happens on Tuesday 18th when they are supposed to run the rescheduled ‘exotic pet propaganda’.
Z
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172124,00.html
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > THE O'REILLY FACTOR
Pythons on the Loose!
Thursday , October 13, 2005

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," October 12, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Back of the Book" segment tonight, according to The Miami Herald, the National Park Service has captured 156 pythons (search) in the Everglades over the past two years. Pythons are not indigenous to the USA, but apparently are all over the place near the glades.
Now, last weekend, a python ate a cat in the town of Miami Gardens, and another snake tried to eat an alligator. That snake actually exploded trying to do that.
This comes on the heels of the monitor lizard situation on the west coast of Florida. These things are from Africa. But a bunch of them have now made the Sunshine State their habitat. Imagine running into that swimming.
Joining us now from Miami is wildlife biologist Joe Wasilewski.
Joe, poor Frances the cat, 15-pound Siamese, running around in Miami Gardens...
JOE WASILEWSKI, WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST: Not anymore.
O'REILLY: Yes. A python eats poor Frances? I mean, what's going on?
WASILEWSKI: Well, I'm sorry about that for Frances, but, you know, the cat probably should have been inside anyway.
O'REILLY: Well, what if it was a kid, though? What if it was a little kid?
WASILEWSKI: Well, the python is more in tune to animals with fur and raccoons, possums, and a cat and/or a dog.
O'REILLY: Yes, but Miami Gardens, I mean, you know, come on. That's not Everglade City. That's where people...
WASILEWSKI: No. It's...
O'REILLY: Those are the 'burbs.
WASILEWSKI: Well, that was probably an animal that either escaped or was released. And judging from the timing of all of this between the python in the Everglades eating the alligator, there could have been someone that saw this story and said, "I need to get rid of this thing," and just dumped it.
O'REILLY: On the day before — the day after Frances lost his life, another python slithered into a farm in Dade County. That's Miami. And ate a turkey, apparently feeling that Thanksgiving was this month instead of next.
WASILEWSKI: True. Well, that was an African python, which we really haven't recorded down here. And, again, that was in, like, a rural area. So there's really two problems, and it's the urban exotic wildlife, and it's the exotic pythons that are in the Everglades proper.
O'REILLY: Now, the problem here for Floridians is that you have an exotic pet industry, and you have that in a lot of places in the USA, where you can buy these things, it's legal to actually buy pythons and anacondas and everything else, and then when you get sick of them or you can't handle them anymore, you dump them in the glades. Is that what's happening?
WASILEWSKI: Well, it's bigger than that. It's actually a worldwide problem, but it's accentuated here in Florida because of the climate. Now, I can tell you that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who regulates this, has a statute. It's 325.162, that prohibits releasing exotic wildlife.
O'REILLY: Yes, but so, who's going to know? I mean, you drive out to the glades at night. You dump the thing out the window.
We've got a picture of you holding this Nile Monitor Lizard. Now this thing is actually swimming off the coast of Captiva, which is a very swanky resort.
WASILEWSKI: Right.
O'REILLY: I mean, can you imagine if you're, you know, snorkeling a little bit, and there it is saying, "Hey, this is my turf"? But that could happen.
WASILEWSKI: It's happening, and it's happening more and more with more and more frequency. Right.
O'REILLY: This is not good for the Florida tourist business, I don't think. Is it?
WASILEWSKI: Well, I don't know if it's going to hurt the tourist industry. But it's certainly going to hurt other aspects of the state. You know, ecologically speaking. And we need to get a handle on it. That's for sure.
O'REILLY: How do you do that, though? How do you go into the glades, thousands of miles of wilderness, and track down pythons? How do you do it?
WASILEWSKI: Well, people have been working at it at the Everglades National Park for a couple of years now, and there are methods to actually trap these animals. And we really don't know to what degree they're there. We don't know what the population is.
O'REILLY: No. You caught 156 of them, but there could be 15,000 of them out there.
WASILEWSKI: Could be. We have no idea yet. But — but we're willing to go in and try and get a handle on it and get rid of them.
O'REILLY: Well, I don't think you're going to get rid of them. And I think everybody, and this is to be serious, with pets and little kids in Florida, with the gators, the lizards and the pythons and everything else floating around out there, you've got to be careful. You've got to fence your yard and you've got to watch.
Joe, thanks very much. We appreciate it.
Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!"
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**REXANO** · Site Admin Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Posts: 446

I just checked Bill O'Reilly factor, don’t see exotics in the schedule for today as announced last week…
Z

http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/

Tuesday, March 18:
• Obama gives a speech on race and addresses the Rev. Wright controversy. We'll have analysis
• Plus, the Spitzer prostitute threatens to sue the media! 'Is It Legal?' weighs in
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ZJBDragon · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Westminster, MD

Looks like he's probably too busy with Obama and Wright to talk about exotics. Nobody else wants to talk about Obama and Wright so it's a hot topic that's a virtual exclusive to Fox News. I will say nothing about my stance on this because this is not the appropriate place and I'm only bringing it up because his audience wants more of this subject.

If Bill does end up running the exotics segment, however, I will call in to his radio factor show tomorrow. All of this exotic sensationalism has hit close to home lately and I've had enough of it so I'm looking for ways to get actively involved now. I do understand Bill's stance on Floridia (I do not agree with any bans, limitations, or anything that would impede responsible ownership). However, I cannot understand it when it's blanketed to the rest of the country. We don't even have reptiles here anymore because of the severe cold and the number of wild "domestic" cats. We used to see garter snakes in the yard but they've presumably been wiped out now. What we really need are some cougars or wolves to balance that cat population.

EDIT: Btw, if you know anyone that needs help with their website I'm open to lending a hand when I get free time. I've been doing web development for years now on top of other programming.

ZJBDragon · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 55 Location: Westminster, MD

The exotic pets segment ran tonight. I'm recording it right now and will post a video of it online later.