West Virginia Seeks to Prohibit All Exotic Animals

http://usherp.org/2014/01/17/west-vi...xotic-animals/

This abomination is SB371.

I hope horrendous laws like this are shot down. Unfortunately though, the exotic animal community hardly has any lobbies, except for USARK which covers reptiles. But there's no lobbyists for the bird keepers, exotic cat keepers, fish keepers or any others as far as I know, which is a pure and unfortunate shame.

Terrible. I dont even know to say

I fear that the state,county,city laws/oridinences will be worse battle than the federal has been thus far. I just cant see for the life of me how hsus and peta have survived to push the intro of these laws without being exposed as the crooked non profits that they are.

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I started copying and pasting parts of this with my response to it on here then I realized I was pretty much copying it all. What a fantastic way to start out my Sunday morning by browsing through this pile of dung.

Obviously the legislators ate not using the established definitions actually used in the field of biology, because of they were, they would realize they ate effectively banning every animal kept as a pet, including domestic livestock. Even using the very loose definition of "anything other than a dog, cat, or domesticated livestock" that leaves a broad list, possibly including rats, mice, hamsters, Guinea pigs, rabbits, all birds (besides farmed poultry), all reptiles and amphibians, fish, and more. Even livestock is open to debate, where some would consider things such as llama and alpaca as domesticated, others wouldn't, bison and some deer may be considered domestic, but others wouldn't consider them such. Even the definition of "domestic" is vague and open to some interpretation.

Unfortunately the general public doesn't seem to realize how much kool aid they are being fed.

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Originally Posted by sorraia

Even using the very loose definition of "anything other than a dog, cat, or domesticated livestock" that leaves a broad list, possibly including rats, mice, hamsters, Guinea pigs, rabbits, all birds (besides farmed poultry), all reptiles and amphibians, fish, and more. Even livestock is open to debate, where some would consider things such as llama and alpaca as domesticated, others wouldn't, bison and some deer may be considered domestic, but others wouldn't consider them such.

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Hmmmmmmm... I know two farmers in the area, old money and have lived here for generations, I bet they would have more pull with the reps than I would. I need to make some calls tomorrow. THANKS!

This is very upsetting. I really hope that we can veto it.:(

There's a group on Facebook, if you don't mind me posting the name here...

Exotic Animal Allies of West Virginia

Now, I don't live in WV, but I joined because if "they" start banning in one state and succeed, they'll be banning in all states, and I don't want that to happen! We're currently working on letters and petitions about this VERY thing.

Update from the WV Reptiles group on FB:

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Just got the ban list for SB4393 it is as follows: Retics, boas, anacondas, Indian and Rock pythons, sea snakes, vipers, all rear-fanged venomous, and alligators

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Great, we just put a retic into QT, and apparently there is no differentiation on boas.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Update from the WV Reptiles group on FB:


Great, we just put a retic into QT, and apparently there is no differentiation on boas.

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I would still keep whatever i wanted and they can eat a d$&!


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Burmese slip through lol awesome


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Originally Posted by MonkeyShuttle

Burmese slip through lol awesome

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Oh I know, BRB, Sand Boa, & BCI bad, Burm ok. Lunacy!

Has it been passed yet?

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Originally Posted by MonkeyShuttle

I would still keep whatever i wanted and they can eat a d$&!


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A lot of this stuff I'm starting to see, regardless of where it is in the U.S., is just making me lose my respect for the law.
Screw the dictatorship. Best of luck to REXANO and USARK (I do hope they do get involved in this) in fixing this. I hope the day never comes to where people just force themselves to disobey the law to enjoy anything in life, but I can't guarantee it.

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Originally Posted by pythonminion

A lot of this stuff I'm starting to see, regardless of where it is in the U.S., is just making me lose my respect for the law.
Screw the dictatorship. Best of luck to REXANO and USARK (I do hope they do get involved in this) in fixing this. I hope the day never comes to where people just force themselves to disobey the law to enjoy anything in life, but I can't guarantee it.

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heck yeah! breaking the law is fun. as long as its not causing anyone harm i condone it:gj:. i grew up on Robin Hood who in the laws eyes was a villain.

Stuff like this is why I've been swinging more and more towards liberalism... None of the political parties or politicians care about what is and is not constitutional any more and only cater to their own goals or those of the extremist groups like PETA and HSUS that lobby them. Why people give others authority over them and then believe they know more or are "better" than the rest of us is beyond me. IMO the US is on it's way to being totally socialist.

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Originally Posted by artgecko

Stuff like this is why I've been swinging more and more towards liberalism...

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Edit: Depends on how you define liberalism.

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Originally Posted by MonkeyShuttle

heck yeah! breaking the law is fun. as long as its not causing anyone harm i condone it:gj:. i grew up on Robin Hood who in the laws eyes was a villain.

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Well, typically I wouldn't talk about illegal activities online seeing how I could risk that being subpoenaed in court, but all this stuff I'm seeing pop up recently makes law breaking seem inevitable...

Eck! Typo... I meant libertarianism... Sorry. ;) I don't think I've ever been classified as a "liberal".

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Originally Posted by OsirisRa32

Has it been passed yet?

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It's actually a House not Senate Bill, so HB4393. It passed the Judiciary Committee and is now before the full House for a vote.

Any update on this? I am originally from WV and may move back there someday.

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Originally Posted by bsifx0692

Any update on this? I am originally from WV and may move back there someday.

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Never mind. I found it. I can't believe this actually passed...

We are thinking of moving to West Virginia in the next six months to a year. I know a lot can happen in this time, but I was wondering if there have been any changes to the ban list and such? I currently only have a small collection of ball pythons, but am seriously concerned for if we do move there. All I keep finding on this is pretty much the same as posted on here.

The DWA Board submitted the list of animals to the Legislative Rules Committee on 8/1. That committee is comprised of 13 delegates and senators, unfortunately 10 of them supported the law and only 3 opposed it.

The Rules Committee is supposed to review the list and can amend it, pass it as-is to the legislature, throw it out, etc. It apparently is also supposed to review the processes used to 1) create the list, and 2) provide for public comment, to ensure that those were done legally. I don't know if they were or not, some people are saying not, and that could potentially delay implementation of the law for a year.

I can't stand people who are not open minded regarding their own ignorance and that are willing to make decisions that will effect others without doing in-debth and proper research. In other words I can't stand about 95 percent of every one involved with congress. My dream job is to be a Senator and sit on tons of committies so I can use my ADD for good by getting involved in a wide variety of issues and also to help people. This makes me dislike them more because they have the power and ability to do really great things yet they don't seem to care as long as thier egos get stroked frequently. I'll gladly write to these idiots in their idiodic language. Does any one have some good sources for information that we could use to cite? If not I'm sure I can find some and if I have the motivation some time in the next week I will post everything I find along. I'm not of facebook so I can't join that group but I might make a page just so I can. Or maybe we could distract them and get this bill pushed to the side... I heard a garbage disposal sucked a couple innocent teens in it some where in WV! What if my garbage disposal could do that??? :/ I'm terrified!!!

Shouldn't these people be worried about more important things than what kinds of (mostly) harmless pets people are keeping? Honestly, if you are gonna ban something, at least they should do some research and give a solid reason towards the ban.

P.S. I didnt look to far into this specific issue, but i know a city near where i live has a by-law that say people cant own ball pythons. Correct me if there were posted reasons for the possible ban. (And maybe state some reasons? [if posted] i would really like to know) :mad:

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED TO HELP WEST VIRGINIA HERPERS/EXOTIC OWNERS

Immediate action is necessary to demand a PUBLIC HEARING on WV’s Proposed Rule 61-30 (Dangerous Wild Animals). Please email the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee (LRMRC) Members and the other Senators and Delegates listed below to demand a PUBLIC HEARING. Here are a few points:

1. WV Government corruption and/or incompetence have resulted in hundreds of pages of public comments being missing from the official record. Obviously these comments were never given the “meaningful consideration” required by WV’s Administrative Procedures Act. Missing comments include comments from USARK, PIJAC, WVUSARC and numerous WV pet owners. Here’s what we are dealing with: When questioned about the missing comments, Chris Ferro, WV Department of Agriculture’s Chief of Staff, responded that it would NOT have made any difference if the comments had been reviewed. Ferro also questioned whether the comments were actually missing from the official record. Ferro said that the LRMRC should review the missing comments. Do any of these responses make any sense or is this a cover-up?

2. WV’s Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) Board has failed to provide the public with any of the required justifications for any of the animals it has included in its list of DWAs.

3. WV’s DWA Board failed to provide the financial information required when proposing a new rule.

4. The LRMRC is scheduled to approve Proposed Rule 61-30 on October 21, 2014.
Please send emails requesting a PUBLIC HEARING on Proposed Rule 61-30. If you put the email addresses in the bcc option, the recipients cannot see that it was sent to numerous representatives at the same time.

Email addresses for LRMRC
barbaraf@wvhouse.gov;cindy.frich@wvhouse.gov;donnaboley@suddenlink.net;herb.snyd er@wvsenate.gov;jeff.eldridge@wvhouse.gov;john.unger@wvsenate.gov;justin.marcum@ wvhouse.gov;sobonya4wvhouse@aol.com;meshea.poore@wvhouse.gov;mike.hall@wvsenate. gov;ronald.miller@wvsenate.gov;william.laird@wvsenate.gov;tim.miley@wvhouse.gov; jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov;kelli.sobonya@wvhouse.gov

Other Senators
clark.barnes@wvsenate.gov;bob.beach@wvsenate.gov;craig@craigblair.com;sam.cann@w vsenate.gov;Mitch.Carmichael@wvsenate.gov;truman.chafin@wvsenate.gov;bill.cole@w vsenate.gov;donald.cookman@wvsenate.gov;larry.edgell@wvsenate.gov;douglas.facemi re@wvsenate.gov;rocky@rockyfitzsimmons.com;mike.green@wvsenate.gov;daniel.hall@w vsenate.gov;evan.jenkins@wvsenate.gov;jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov;art.kirkendoll@w vsenate.gov;brooks.mccabe@wvsenate.gov;david.nohe@wvsenate.gov;corey.palumbo@wvs enate.gov;robert.plymale@wvsenate.gov;roman.prezioso@wvsenate.gov;ron.stollings@ frontier.com;dave.sypolt@wvsenate.gov;greg.tucker@wvsenate.gov;chris.walters@wvs enate.gov;erik.wells@wvsenate.gov;bob.williams@wvsenate.gov;jack.yost@wvsenate.g ov

Other Delegates
george.ambler@wvhouse.gov;bill.ander...ng@wvhouse.gov

Thank you for your help!!

Yesterday I attended the Legislative Rules committee meeting. The committee members gutted the DWA list.

I don't have a complete copy in front of me, but basically the only animals left on it are the truly large/dangerous ones, e.g. lions, tigers, bears, cape buffalo, wolves, etc.

Front-fanged venomous snakes (vipers, cobras, etc), alligators, and crocodiles remain on it. Rear-fanged like the hognose and mangrove are not on it. All constrictor snakes were removed.

Also, several legislators indicated they want to just repeal the whole danged law, while others said that they would prefer to amend it to get rid of the DWA Board and have animals listed by statute, rather than being forced to do an annual review via legislative rules. There will also be a push to remove the insurance and "no breeding" requirements also.

So, a major battle has been won but the war will continue into the next legislative session that starts in January.

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Originally Posted by pythonminion

I hope horrendous laws like this are shot down. Unfortunately though, the exotic animal community hardly has any lobbies, except for USARK which covers reptiles. But there's no lobbyists for the bird keepers, exotic cat keepers, fish keepers or any others as far as I know, which is a pure and unfortunate shame.

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I think USARK should just adopt all exotic animals under their protection and ask for those animal keepers to support the keeping of reptiles and the reptile community help the other exotic pet owners keep their pets. It's a win win.

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Originally Posted by nucklehead97

I think USARK should just adopt all exotic animals under their protection and ask for those animal keepers to support the keeping of reptiles and the reptile community help the other exotic pet owners keep their pets. It's a win win.

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Those of us who addressed the committee yesterday, including the USARK rep, did comment on flaws in the whole law as opposed to our "pet" species of animal, so to speak.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Hmmmmmmm... I know two farmers in the area, old money and have lived here for generations, I bet they would have more pull with the reps than I would. I need to make some calls tomorrow. THANKS!

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Old money always talks. I hope they can help you!!!!

Hopefully USARK can convince them to just throw the whole thing out. Are the HSUS, or PETA trying to get involved in this?

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Originally Posted by nucklehead97

I think USARK should just adopt all exotic animals under their protection and ask for those animal keepers to support the keeping of reptiles and the reptile community help the other exotic pet owners keep their pets. It's a win win.

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I have often thought this too. We also own a German Shepherd, which is often on many banned lists for housing and even some homeowners associations don't allow them. It's ignorant. What if exotic animal advocates other than reptiles, as well as those fighting against BSL, all teamed up to help each other fight our battles?

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Originally Posted by KingObeat

Hopefully USARK can convince them to just throw the whole thing out. Are the HSUS, or PETA trying to get involved in this?

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The HSUS WV rep actually resigned very recently so I don't know if they have anyone working on it.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

The HSUS WV rep actually resigned very recently so I don't know if they have anyone working on it.

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That's good to hear:)

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Originally Posted by bcr229

The HSUS WV rep actually resigned very recently so I don't know if they have anyone working on it.

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I just don't understand why there are so many people who just aren't compelled to ask "Why does a tax-free 'charity' have so many lobbyist and spends so much of its money on lobbying and legal funds?" You'd think you would be donating because you wanted to physically help said animals...

Anyway, they're free to use this as a legal precedence for all the other states should they just can the law altogether. ;)