What is the current status of reticulated pythons in the USA?

Just wondering if you can freely breed and ship reticulated pythons? If there are regulations does it include the dwarfs as well? Thinking about breeding them only if I can ship them...

Today you can only ship retics interstate if you were a USARK member as of 04/08/2015.

Seriously? So US Ark is controlling who ships and who doesn't ship?? US Ark has that much power?

No USARK does not control anything the government does USARK has been fighting for your right by engaging in a very expensive lawsuit to try to protect our rights as keepers.

http://usark.org/library/lawsuit-fws...appeal-dkt-71/

http://usark.org/2015-blog/7182/

Soooooo, can I find someone that's grandfathered in and have him ship for me? Sounds like the only way I could breed is to find someone grandfathered in that would buy all my babies and put them up for sale themselves... A current USArk membership doesn't work?

I guess what this is doing is keeping any one new to the snake hobby from breeding retics, I guess that was the intention of the law?

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I guess what this is doing is keeping any one new to the snake hobby from breeding retics, I guess that was the intention of the law?

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It's more complicated than that.

For years Animal activist (PETA, the Human Society of America) have been trying to go forward with their ultimate agenda which is a ban on pet ownership as a whole, the first major law they tried to pass was HR669 which was to ban exotic ownership (anything from BP to betta to ferrets to parakeet would have been affected) that did not work (people fought this together) so they decided to divide and try to conquer choosing to attack a smaller target starting with reptiles, giants in particular, and of course the issue and misinformation regarding Florida invasive species have been a great help to them.

While many people believe it only has to do with large snakes and therefore those laws does not concern them it has to do with a bigger picture.

Honestly these questions should have been asked before a retic is ever purchased. There are a lot of laws regulating the species at state and local levels and they lacy act controls it at a federal level. I am a strong proponent of everyone should have a retic if they want and can keep one, but due research is needed in all matters. I am glad you're hitting the forums up for as much information as possible, I just wish it had been prior to purchase.

Cheers


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Originally Posted by Deborah

It's more complicated than that.

For years Animal activist (PETA, the Human Society of America) have been trying to go forward with their ultimate agenda which is a ban on pet ownership as a whole, the first major law they tried to pass was HR669 which was to ban exotic ownership (anything from BP to betta to ferrets to parakeet would have been affected) that did not work (people fought this together) so they decided to divide and try to conquer choosing to attack a smaller target starting with reptiles, giants in particular, and of course the issue and misinformation regarding Florida invasive species have been a great help to them.

While many people believe it only has to do with large snakes and therefore those laws does not concern them it has to do with a bigger picture.

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It's way more complicated than just that as well. This may be what drives the additions onto the lacy act and the pure non sense going on, but the lacy act itself is very complex and very much needed for animal conservation on a global scale. It sought to add protection to animals not protected at the local level in countries that are highly exported out of. It made it illegal to import certain animals so the effects of the pet trade would be less felt on wild populations of species in decline.


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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Seriously? So US Ark is controlling who ships and who doesn't ship?? US Ark has that much power?

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No. The federal judge in Washington, DC who is hearing the case has that much power. After USFWS enacted the ban USARK filed a preliminary injunction in court to have the ban's implementation delayed until their case was heard. For various reasons the judge granted the injunction but only for USARK members as of the filing date.

Wasn't your retic shipped in from another state?

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Originally Posted by GoingPostal

Wasn't your retic shipped in from another state?

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negligible. . . as long as the shipper was qualified to ship across state lines via the USARK agreement with the injunction, he's fine. NOW, should he need to move it across state lines again - that's where the issue will rise.

And you be could destroyed at the municipal level far easier than the federal level should your city/county decide to mandate what type/sizes of snakes are allowed in your area.

The boa constrictor business lost probably the world's greatest asset to locality boas because of local ordinances. Gus Rentfro is sadly out of the boa bizz just like that.

USARK is really one of the best things we have.

Research very carefully and also consider what breeding any type of snake will do for you and the hobby. Most everything is over saturated these days and you may get stuck with your whole clutch. Not an easy go if you have retics so keep that in mind.

Well I didn't actually plan on breeding her, but I did notice that a lot of big name breeders were breeding and selling retics and shipping them all over the country. It's odd that I can get one shipped to my house from one of these breeders but then I'm stuck with it in my state since I wasn't a USARK member pre ban. Now that I know the laws there's no way I'd breed my retic unless they change the laws to where I can ship out the babies. There's no way I'd be able to sell a whole clutch of retics locally, even ball pythons would be a hard sell in my state without being able to ship.

The main reason I bought a retic is to eat all the frozen thawed rodents that my ball pythons won't eat, so I can put them to use instead of throwing them away. Also needed something big to eat all of my retired breeder rats that are too big for my ball pythons. So far it's working great. And I also wanted a large snake, something big and impressive. I did a lot of research into housing, feeding and caring for a snake like this before I bought it, it was a well thought out purchase that I didn't take lightly. The thing that really pushed me to buy this snake is that with all the new laws and regulations we may someday find ourselves not being able to have a magnificent snake like this at all, this may be the only time a person can buy a snake like this, I'm thinking we may end up with a full ban on them someday, which would be really sad.

I'm not sure they would ever have local regulations against this snake in my local area (county) unless they banned them at a higher level. I live in the mountains away from the city in the middle of no where LOL.

I also have African Soft Fur Rats that I can't transport across state lines. That one is crazy too since my rats and mice produce faster than ASFs.

It seems like they should have an exception for super dwarfs that don't get that big....