We have just been notified that there will be a public hearing on this important piece of legislation on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 in Austin, Texas. It is important that your emails, faxes, phone calls, etc. be made no later than Monday afternoon, March 19, 2007.



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Important Legislation Pending
Herpers, we need your help!

The following House Bill has been introduced to the Texas Legislature by Representative Harvey Hilderbran, a Republican, who represents the Kerrville area in the House. This would affect all of those who own or possess or transport into this state a live venomous snake or live constrictor that is not indigenous to this country, (That's right, country, not county.) This proposed Bill would require permits from everyone who deals with these reptiles and will be enforced by Texas Parks & Wildlife.

A copy of this Bill in its entirety is below. It is up to us to stop this Bill in its tracks. Please participate in this important Legislation.

We need to send letters, emails, faxes or make phone calls to Rep. Harvey Hildebran as well as the members on this Committee. We also need to contact the House Representatives and Senators in our area, as well as the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House. And, it wouldn't hurt to contact each Member of the House and Senate. Anything and everything you can do will help.

Some thoughts from Dave Barker:

Some thought on HB 1309, a bill proposed to the Texas Legislature by Harvey Hilderbran that would ban the possession of non-native snakes.

First let me communicate to all Texas keepers, herpers, and herpetologists, and for those of you who may not have snakes but are sympathetic to your friends with snakes, this proposal is the real thing! If you want to keep snakes as pets, and if you don't want to have the State meddling in your snake pursuits, you better respond to this threat by communicating your displeasure to the State RIGHT NOW!

If you are not certain what HB 1309 is, for the complete text go to: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HB01309I.htm

Basically it outlaws the possession of "constricting snakes" and venomous snakes, and provides a penalty for violation. It does mention a permit system managed by Texas Parks and Wildlife, but the details are obscure.

Don't wait for someone else to do it. It's only if many, many keepers send letters and emails, and make phone calls to their own representatives and to Representative Hilderbran that the powers of the legislature will pause to pay heed to us.

As was said back in the Revolutionary War, we will all hang together, or we will surely hang separately. Every single letter you write is important. Every phone call you make is important. Be sure to specifically criticize the proposal, which is identified as HB 1309. Please do your best to request everyone you know to write letters.

THIS IS POLITICS AND IT IS THE GREASY WHEEL THAT GETS GREASED. WE HAVE TO BE THE SQUEAKY WHEEL.

You are not restricted to one letter. Write one or two emails every day to people in the Texas Legislature. Most important is to write to Representative Hilderban, to your own representative, and to the Speaker of the Texas House. You probably have received info from Bonnie with information on how to find your own TX representative and his/her contact information. If you didn't get the letter, basically search using Google and it's easy.

Also, it's a good idea to write letters to the editors of the Kerrville newspaper (Hilderbran's local newspaper, http://dailytimes.com/letter.lasso), the San Antonio Express News, and to the Dallas Morning News.

Here follows several letters that you are welcome to use as general templates, but please modify each of these so that it is YOUR letter or email.

Let the State know you are unhappy with this proposal, or we will all be living with it. Act now!

Dave Barker


HB 1309 Complete Text


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Legislature Contacts and Sample Letters
Please send us a copy of any letter, email or fax that you send to these representatives. Please make sure that you include your name, address, email address, telephone number(s), fax number as well as the name of the country from where you are from.

If you are sending an email from your computer, please blind carbon copy us on it. If you are sending an email from the legislature email, please block copy it, forward it to us, then send it to the legislature.

Additionally, if you have any photos of your children holding snakes (i.e. a little ball python or boa) that are non-native to this country, please attach them. This will be effective in getting to the heart of this matter -- cute pictures with cute children!

We will act as a clearinghouse for all of these documents. In the event we are able to meet with this committee in Austin, all of these documents will be very helpful. Again, we cannot stress the importance of this.