Watch the HR669 Hearing LIVE from your PC!

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Originally Posted by Laooda

If I understood correctly, they are going to review all notes and testimonies... they are welcoming advice and suggestions from both sides... can't remember the time frame on the deliberation.

Someone confirm: was it mentioned that this is only geared towards non-native INVASIVE animals? And what's the definition of that?

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I believe this was geared towards determining WHICH non-native speces ARE invasive and so should be on their black list. I also got the impression that they weren't so much worried about species already in this country, but more about species which could be imported at a later date?

I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing because I started watching at home but then had to drive in to work and pick it up again once I got to work. Will there be a chance to see the whole thing? Are these hearings recorded and archived?

Since Adam was sitting at the table, i'm sure he will have some more info for us later today.

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Originally Posted by RoyalGuardian

I so totally wanted to punch dude that said that he didn't have the correct statistic for the dollar value of the pet industry and that most of it was dog and cat. Good job you simple minded moron. We are trying to learn about the money value of the non native species trade and all you can come up with is " I haven't looked.. all I can vouch for is the dog and cat food industry." THATS TOTALLY BESIDES THE POINT!!!!!! These people don't care one lick about anything about the actual issue if they won't even do a small amount of research on both sides.. I AM SO MAD!!!! I can't believe those idiots would go straight from Pythons to tigers and big cats!!!! OMG.. Yes I can see where these old people would feel that there is a problem but most of the species he mentioned was NOT a part of the pet industry at all! Zebra mussels and apple snails were NEVER pets to begin with. I want to beat these idiots over the head with a blunt object screaming MY BALL PYTHONS ARE NOT DANGEROUS!!!!!

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Actually he said it was 43 billion for both Cat/dogs AND the non native species.

Not that 43 billion was just for Cats and Dogs

So he said it was a couple billion for our stuff.

laooda - yes they put on record that this was just for invasive species. But as the pijac guy was trying to say (heres my example) A giant python that is invasive in florida doesnt mean its going to be invasive in colorado. Everyone speaking today thought the bill would be good just rewritten. But they are going to charge you to get a permit and then decide wheter the animal you want is invasive or not. Pretty much all exotics could live in florida if released so does that mean everyone in the other 49 states is going to be subjected to that it could be invasive becuase they could live in florida. Remember the second guy said he would like it to only contain a 10 percent risk factor!

Another thing that was upsetting.

The woman from California was the one that asked, will they take your pets. Answer: NO.
It isn't such a cut and dry answer as such!

Later they went on to say, for those who own these potentially black listed animals, can they transport them: NO, but we are willing to review a permit.

How is that not at odds with the first answer?

Woman from cali: Will this bill target all non natives: No, just the invasive ones.

However, they did say that (dr. science dude) that any animal that is potentially at risk can be black listed. How is that answer not at odds with the first???

Grr...

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I believe this was geared towards determining WHICH non-native speces ARE invasive and so should be on their black list. I also got the impression that they weren't so much worried about species already in this country, but more about species which could be imported at a later date?

I didn't get a chance to see the whole thing because I started watching at home but then had to drive in to work and pick it up again once I got to work. Will there be a chance to see the whole thing? Are these hearings recorded and archived?

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Yes, it will remain open for 10 days.

So will they re-write this bill, or move on to a full commitee hearing, guess I need to start printing more letters.

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Originally Posted by ScottyBoa

I got the email from USARK saying they think the sub-committee will pass it and it'll get killed in the full committee. If it does pass today do not despair, it still has many hurdles it'll have to get over and we're going to make sure they are too high.

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I think if it passes this committee, it's a done deal.

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Originally Posted by grammie

I think if it passes this committee, it's a done deal.

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Where is school house rocks when we need it? Bills go through a long tough process before they are passed. So truly, lets not call defeat just yet.... ;)

Watching that display was pretty rough. I missed the first half, but I saw a lot of the wrong questions being asked, and a lot of bogus and contradictory answers being given, like Connie said. And I still don't understand why a representative from Samoa cares about any of this when it's already illegal to bring any animal into Samoa.