Hr 669

[SYeretzian]

HR6311 has been reintroduced as HR 669. If passed as written this bill will ban the import, purchase, sale, trade and breeding of many reptiles and amphibians... including Boa, Python and Eunectes.

If this was EVER passed and put into law, let me be the first to say to say that I for one would become a lifetime criminal.

Anyway thought I post this. I know some users on here have boas and pythons.

 

[TylerStewart]

If this was EVER passed and put into law, let me be the first to say to say that I for one would become a lifetime criminal.

I think we all would be in some way!

The biggest problem (I think) with any of these bills and laws banning reptiles from being bought/sold/kept, is the buying and selling aspects of it. It puts thousands of people out of work that are currently in the industry. Not just the snakes themselves, but the suppliers, rodent producers, and everyone that produces those products for those animals. Sure, everyone would still keep them and I think the govt assumes that, but it's easier for them to enforce the buying/selling part of it, like they currently do with the desert tortoises. It's a major fine and/or jail time for buying or selling them (even if they hatched in your backyard), but thousands of them are kept in captivity, and the govt doesn't care. They can't prove that you had it or didn't have it before the ban in 1988 or whenever it was, and they're legal to posess if they hatched in captivity. Throw one up for sale on Kingsnake.com, though, and you'll have a knock on your door from the authorities LOL.

It's currently a very inefficient process for them to enforce many of these rules, besides showing up at the reptile shows looking for banned species. I was ticketed by the Utah Wildlife Resources (along with LLLReptile, Reptile Depot, and Waterland Tubs) in September '08 at a show in Utah for posessing a turtle or tortoise under 4" that was "apparently" for sale (even though I denied that the smallest ones were for sale). I called several times to take care of the fine I was slapped with (and to find out what the fine amount even was - it wasn't written on the ticket) only to get the runaround - answering machine after answering machine calling the numbers that the officer gave me. Eventually, they mailed me a letter saying that they had lost all the citations from that day, and only had our name and contact info still (because of business cards that the guy took from my booth), and basically wanted us to write them back confessing to what we had done. Talking to the other 3 vendors, we all basically decided to do nothing about it, and the charges were all dropped. It's a law that's been in place for a long time, but is enforced by the individual states. California typically doesn't enforce that law, and neither does Nevada, but Utah and Colorado do for sure (at least in a public venue). Even if they do kick a law into effect, I doubt that it would be enforced too much besides maybe at the reptile shows and local pet stores - in the states that passed the law. I don't think many people would hesitate to still ship into those states (particularly the private sellers that don't have a business to be worried about), but that's just my opinion.

 

[SYeretzian]

I would just worry about the importers not being able to bring in new blood for breeders, sure they would find some way around it.

Thanks for the input Tyler, so funny about the ticket-always seems when you get a ticket that is not a huge money maker for the courts its dropped or they loose it haha.