Due to the further spread of the new coronavirus, the TERRARISTIKA will be canceled on March 14th, 2020 and relocated to June 13th, 2020. Reservations that have already been made can be left standing or canceled for the above-mentioned date.
Thanks for your understanding, Frank and Nicole.
Original post in German
TERRARISTIKA am 14.03.2020
Nach langem Überlegen haben wir beschlossen, die TERRARISTIKA am 14.03.2020 ausfallen zu lassen. Dieser Schritt ist uns nicht leicht gefallen, aber wir möchten das Risiko nicht eingehen, dass es zu Infektionsfällen mit dem neuartigen Coronavirus auf unserem Treffen kommt. Es ist uns wichtiger, im Juni wieder ein entspanntes Treffen mit allen durchzuführen, als im Moment eine von Unsicherheit geprägte Börse zu veranstalten. Es ist uns bewusst, dass nicht alle unsere Entscheidung mittragen werden, aber wir sehen im Moment keine andere Lösung.
In all den Jahren haben wir uns in Hamm immer gut aufgehoben gefühlt, und wir empfinden daher auch eine besondere Verantwortung den Hammer Bürgern gegenüber.
Auf Grund der voranschreitenden Verbreitung des Coronavirus wird die TERRARISTIKA am 14.03.2020 abgesagt und auf den 13.06.2020 verlegt. Bereits getätigte Reservierungen können für den oben genannten Termin bestehen bleiben oder storniert werden.
I understand their decision especially since it is really an international event but still am a little sad about it. Was just planning to check for a nice pastel ghi girl. Hope they don’t cancel Houten in april. l’ll seriously get withdrawal symptoms if I go without reptile expo’s for months
To be honest, I think the virus is not the problem, the media attention around it is the problem. If you consider that world wide during a “normal” flu season up to 650.000 people die because of the “normal” flu and no-one is even worrying about, than the corona virus suddenly doesn’t sound to bad with it less than 3000 people. In 2018 the flu was quite severe and only in Holland almost 9000 people died of it, but was it in the news…no! In an average year in Holland alone about 820.000 get the flu and about total 3 million people get flu like symptoms. Does it work different than a normal flu? …also no. The people who die are mainly the elderly and people with weak immune system just like the normal flu. Spanish flu, mexican flu and SARS where different. They effected the ones most with healthy immune system. Every death is a major loss but that is also the case if people die from the normal flu.
Back to Hamm or other shows I can understand they cancelled it. The media attention is huge and everything considering the corona virus is under a magnefiying glass. In Hamm people come from all over Europe. If someone is infected and comes to the show and infects other people they can spread it to many countries. If it hits the news that the virus was spread all across Europe through visitors of a reptile show the media will explode. And I am not too worried and al lot of people around me are not worried but still a lot of people are because they are unaware of the seriousness of the “normal” flu. I can imagine as organisers of a big expo like this you prefer to not to take any risks and don’t want to draw that kind attention. If the virus spreads, at least they didn’t contribute to it. But personally, I will not lose one night sleep because of the corona virus, and even if I get it I will simply do what I normaly do when I get the flu…stay in bed, sleep a lot, try to get enough vitamines and drink enough and simply wait till it’s over.
(I’m not a pathologist) At this point overreaction/panic is probably bigger problem (or the effect on the global economy) but those in charge of containment need to take it very seriously because if it is allowed to spread widely enough it could do far more damage than influenza A/B.
Definitely stinks about the festival though, sorry for you guys
I think I heard about the 2020 Olympics on the cancel chopping block as well thanks to the coronavirus. I thought only Asia was currently getting hit hard with it right now not Europe. To all you out in Europe who were looking forward to Hamm Im sorry it got cancelled and sorry you have to wait longer.
Thank you …luckily we found a alternative in a small expo here in Holland the day after so we can still do some reptile watching Here in Holland everything is still going like normal. There is a different approach of the disease here in Holland. The doctors here don’t believe lockdowns help. The idea is that even if we keep it out now it will still come and hunt us an other year because the virus will maybe cool down in summer but not totally disappear. They also believe that you can only infect others if you have symptoms so before that there is no problem. must be our Calvinistic nature. What is the truth…I don’t know. Luckily most people will still simply recover of it. Hope life will soon pick up for all the people in the world and indeed economy didn’t suffer to much because if it. For all you around who suffer the consequences of the disease in one way or the other…I really hope everything will soon be better for you. And for all who don’t have problems yet, eat healthy, sleep enough and stay positive
I do understand the reasons, the Hamm community has been welcoming to the reptile hobby for many years, it wouldn’t be fair for the expo to be the cause of a outbreak in their home, no matter the seriousness of it.
@masterofpythons
I know I’m going to Tinley, though if there was gonna be an issue you’d of thought they would have announced a cancellation/reschedule by now
I highly doubt it because we are much farther from the virus outbreak than our European counterparts so it would really surprise me if they did cancel it
@masterofpythons Im hoping to attend Tinley this October. Although its looking like my chances of pulling it off are dwindling (Im from Canada btw). It sucks because Tinley seems to be my best shot at getting my first ever reptile. I hope things look up as I really want a Uromastyx geyri lizard thats fairly young and CB.
I hope for you all it will not be cancelled. But what most likely is different is that the Hamm expo is in the middle of a residential area. Nextdoor is a supermarket and some several other shops and restaurants and it’s an area where a lot of ocal people do their daily shopping. In the message about the cancellation they also mentioned that they don’t want to be responsible for bringing Corona virus into the Hamm community. If an infected person goes to the expo he/or she will almost for shure also infect local people and like @eaglereptiles said, it wouldn’t be fair to cause an outbreak in the homes of the Hamm community. Also a big difference is that Europe in total has more infected people and many countries are directly bordering each other. Some have many infected people, but some don’t have any yet. So it’s easier to bring it to new countries. The infected people her in Holland almost all just came back from winter sports holiday in Italie. We just had a holiday week. All and together, I understand the decision about Hamm but a lot of motivations don’t apply to Tinley. So I wouldn’t worry to much.
There are currently four cases of Covid-19 in Chicago. So not particularly far away at all… And as a point of reference, the Seattle outbreak went from four cases to thirty-two cases with nine dead in a bit over a week.
.
It is much different than the normal flu. Covid-19 has a higher infection rate and a higher mortality rate than the seasonal flu. It is closer to the 1918 Spanish flu if you are wanting to make comparisons - Seasonal flu has a mortality of 0.1%, Spanish flu had a mortality of 2%, Covid-19 is just shy of 3.5%
.
.
While I readily agree that the media is putting their spin on it, as they always do, it is equally irresponsible to be putting out blatantly wrong information to overly downplay it as well. This virus is a concern and most of the agencies/authorities involved in this kind of thing are right to be considering it as a potentially dangerous pandemic situation.
.
I’ll not say it’s not serious, because it is, but till now we still don’t know what the real mortality rate is. The expectation is 3 % but because it is still new and it’s still difficult to really know. Most western European countries have infected people but in most no one died. It is spreading like wildfire, also here in Holland. First day 3, second around 8, thirth 15, fourth 32 and now the fifth day we are at this moment on 82. A lot of them are only getting a sore throat and almost nothing more. For especially older and people with weak immune system it can really be a threat. But for healthy people it’s in general not that serious. There is also a normal flu and most people who didn’t go to Italie are not even tested so there might be even a lot more people with corona virus here.
Like I said, I support the decision to cancel Hamm, but I 'm also worried of the effect of the panic. Because of the panic and lack of import of goods from China every single mouth cap is sold out. General practitioners and hospitals are now calling out in distress because of lack of protection they face a serious problem in helping patients. Operations are beeing canceled because they don’t have mouth caps anymore. Even dentist have difficulty because of that. There are even people who are caught stealing the caps from hospital’s. I think it is important to keep it cool and not start behaving like we are facing ebola or something like that. But at the same time it is important to be aware that it is there. Wash your hand regularly, it is not the best time to bring your sick child for daycare to for example to your parents if you know they have a weak immune system. Maybe it’s better now not to shake hands with a person who you know is vulnerable ect. But to be honest, I don’t think you can really dodge it if it comes in your neightborhood Wuhan region and Italie proved that. I know as soon as it comes in our town, which is only a matter of time, if it is not already here, I will come in contact with it too. How can I not unless I lock myself in my room and don’t put one foot out of the door? So the only thing we can really do is simply keep our immune system up and don’t start acting crazy because there is one thing that is really different than the spanish flu. The victims of that flu where mainly between 15 and 40 years old and corona is mainly dangerous for the people for who normal flu is also dangerous.
So I’m not trying to play it down, I’m just trying to keep some senses and not blow it up more than necessary. As long as you take care of yourself it will most likely not be that serious, but if you get sick, Corona or something else infectious, just stay for the time away from the elderly and vulnerable people. But I hope we all stay sensible enough to not let the result of the panic, fear and extreme measures become more disruptive than the virus itself.
Facebook was recently in the news for a contractor that brought covid19 into a Seattle location. My workplace and many like it have cancelled all normal travel and are suggesting even local travel be restricted if possible. There are many such sites and services here in Chicago along with both ORD and MID.
I don’t honestly see how the March NARBC in Tinely Park could remain open. I guess we’ll see what happens. Maybe someone should open a “Tinley Watch” thread specifically for that one? I haven’t seen Freedom Breeder, ReptileBasics, etc, cancel any deliver-to-show orders.
I just heard that because they cancelled the Hamm expo organisers are really facing a lot of problems. Many people do not agree to this decision and the reactions are not really nice, to say the least. A lot of people are planning to go to Hamm to do their own alternative “expo” in the parking areas around the Zentralhalle where the expo would be to sell their animals from car trunks, ect. The amount of people is so much that police decided to lock the whole surrounding of the halls and you can only get in when you can prove you really have to be in that area. There will also be extra police to control the rest of Hamm and surrounding area. The organisers are now really calling on everybody to please stay away and if you has plans to transfer an animal to do it either in the house of the seller, the house of the buyer or at the next expo in june.
I really hope we can all respect their decision to cancel and stay away. This was, like they said, the first time in 25 years to cancel and it’s disappointing for everyone, but for them themselfs also. I understand the financial burden for breeders, the disappointment of not being able to pick up your snake ( I also wanted to buy one), the maybe not agreeing to the decision but I just hope we can stand next to them and support them. We can be happy and thankful that they, for 25 years , are putting all their energy in organising one of the best reptile expo’s in the world. Let’s not make it more difficult for them than it already is, and not create a problem and dislike in the community for future expo’s to come.
Underneath a screenprint from their message on facebook. Didn’t know how to put the link.
Here in Holland everything is still going like normal. There is a different approach of the disease here in Holland. The doctors here don’t believe lockdowns help. The idea is that even if we keep it out now it will still come and hunt us an other year because the virus will maybe cool down in summer but not totally disappear. They also believe that you can only infect others if you have symptoms so before that there is no problem. must be our Calvinistic nature. What is the truth…I don’t know. Luckily most people will still simply recover of it. Hope life will soon pick up for all the people in the world and indeed economy didn’t suffer to much because if it. For all you around who suffer the consequences of the disease in one way or the other…I really hope everything will soon be better for you. And for all who don’t have problems yet, eat healthy, sleep enough and stay positive 
