Legality? What was heard on the news

I hope I put this in the right place, if not I'm sorry.

This morning I heard on the news that 12 snakes, they were BP's, were seized from a local home. The were seized due to neglect, no food or water poor conditions, and "illegal on-line sales". The news did not elaborate any further than that. So I may be naive or just miss understanding something, but if there is no regulation, other than shipping company policies, against on-line sales and shipping of BP's. What could be some of the reasons for "illegal on-line sale"?

Maybe they didn't declare the sales on their taxes? (No idea - just a guess). It's more than likely just a BS charge...seems to be the most common type of charge (the BS kind)

I bought a snake from a breeder at a local show that was selling some snakes from a good friend of his. He said that his friend just didn't have the proper licenses to sell them so he did it for him. I'm not sure if there really aren't any regulation on selling snakes online, but that sounds a bit off to me. There are so many rules with shipping live animals over state lines (or international lines) that I don't think it's too crazy that someone was doing illegal online sales.

Usually the radio stations simply report on articles from the local newspapers. If any of your local papers are online, check to see if you can find the full story.

Maybe all of the snakes were not BP's. Could have had a Burm or Retic in the mix.

OK, just checked online for the article and found this...

"Washington Township — Authorities say they’ve removed 14 snakes from a suburban Detroit home where they were being bred and sold.Macomb County Animal Control Officer Jeff Randazzo tells The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens that the reptiles, which include ball pythons and corn snakes, were removed from the home in Washington Township on Tuesday.

Randazzo says some of the snakes, which were in aquariums and rubber storage tubs, didn’t appear healthy and were in need of medical attention. He says authorities responded after receiving a call about snakes being sold from the home by a couple living there.

Animal cruelty charges could be brought in the case. Randazzo says it’s illegal to possess exotic animals under a township ordinance."

Source: http://www.detroitnews.com

This makes more sense to me.

Neither of the new articles say anything about online sales. Problem is many of the areas around me do not allow exotics, city rules are city rules. a few years ago sterling heights banned them, which is right near there. that's the big reason I started to look at houses to move out, so I moved to a city with no rules against it and I don't tell my neighbors about what is in my house to not have an issues get brought up. Legal or not, no reason to get it brought up at a city meeting by a bunch of uneducated and paranoid people.

Quote:

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"We don't want people out there breeding exotic pets and selling them to unsuspecting buyers who then may be stuck with sick or abused animals," Randazzo said.

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I bet they stop the sale of dogs and other "acceptable animals" :rolleyes:

The illegal sales bit could be as simple as not having a local business license. Some municipalities only require a business license if customers come to the location, some do for any business.


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I can only speak for Florida...

That said... here you must get a license to sell Class III exotics in order to sell BPs(and many other exotics). So if I were to sell BPs online to people without this, that would be a illegal online sale. If there are local laws prohibiting sales/breeding/owning the animals, those sales may also be illegal online sales.

If the snakes were indeed in need of rescue, I hope they are in a better place.

There are no license in michigan, local laws said they were illegal. The sale method wasn't illegal, the animal being sold was, which still makes it an illegal sale.

My attempt at an analogy:
You can't go buy a certain plant in colorado, then come to michigan, harvest its seeds, grow your own certain plant and sell it out of your home legally.