We are official!!!!

Well I know it doesn't mean much to a lot of people and we are putting the cart probably well ahead of the horse since it will probably be a year before we have any baby snakes, but we just wanted to let the world know we are official.

We got our business license on the 19th of January and then just today our breeders license came in the mail! :banana: Hopefully we found all the legal things we had to do to get going.

congrats:gj:

breeders license??

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Originally Posted by jdmls88

breeders license??

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It was difficult to find out about it, but we found out a breeders license is needed in several states including PA to breed any animal that you intend to sell the offspring from it. It is hard to read through all the legal mumbo jumbo and figure out what states require them and which don't. Actually when we contacted the Department of Agriculture they were very surprised that we knew about it! :weirdface We just figured out with all the legal stuff being talked about with Pythons in general we should make sure we are perfectly legal, so if they just decide to start cracking down using existing laws (that generally are not currently enforced) then we are covered. :)

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Originally Posted by Gloryhound

It was difficult to find out about it, but we found out a breeders license is needed in several states including PA to breed any animal that you intend to sell the offspring from it. It is hard to read through all the legal mumbo jumbo and figure out what states require them and which don't. Actually when we contacted the Department of Agriculture they were very surprised that we knew about it! :weirdface We just figured out with all the legal stuff being talked about with Pythons in general we should make sure we are perfectly legal, so if they just decide to start cracking down using existing laws (that generally are not currently enforced) then we are covered. :)

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cool, kudos to you guys! do you know if MD was one of them lol? also how hardw as it to get?

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Originally Posted by jdmls88

cool, kudos to you guys! do you know if MD was one of them lol? also how hardw as it to get?

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Once we knew about it we got it pretty easily as it is pretty much you pay a fee, fill out a couple of forms, send it in, and a couple weeks later they send you your license. Here in PA it costs $150.00 for 5 years. As far as Maryland goes I'm not sure! I did notice a lot of east coast states come up during our search. I'm betting a lot of breeders that need them don't have them since the department of AG was so surprised that we found the regulation here in PA. You'll just have to search around on the Maryland agriculture sites and see if you can find anything. May even have to call someone to find out. We were almost to the point of hiring a lawyer to look into it until we found a brief statement concerning it and a contact name and number. Here in PA they sure didn't make it easy to find out about.

congrats and kudos to you for doing things by the book :gj:

best of luck for your future breedings and sales :banana:

Here's state by state information on licensing concerning exotic animals: http://www.api4animals.org/b4a2_exoticbreeding.php

I should've stayed in Ohio! No regs! :P

"Pittsburgh Python Project" is a very cute name...=D Congrats!

'The Parks and Wildlife Department may issue permits for the taking, possession, propagation, transportation, sale, importation, or exportation of a nongame species of fish or wildlife if necessary to properly manage that species.2'

Is that government language for "You need a liscense to breed snakes?" I can't tell.

And congrats on being legal! Hope you have lotsa babies!

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Originally Posted by spix14

'The Parks and Wildlife Department may issue permits for the taking, possession, propagation, transportation, sale, importation, or exportation of a nongame species of fish or wildlife if necessary to properly manage that species.2'

Is that government language for "You need a liscense to breed snakes?" I can't tell.

And congrats on being legal! Hope you have lotsa babies!

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That sounds like it needs further research. "May" being a word that gives them the option to do so. I would contact them and see what they have to say.

The list for regulations on the web link http://www.api4animals.org/b4a2_exoticbreeding.php mentions no breeder regs for Ball Pythons in PA. But I can attest they do exist! I don't think they have spent all the time needed to dig up all the laws for each state!

Alright, just got off the phone with Texas Parks and Wildlife. No permit needed unless I'm looking to breed one of the snakes that's under the new permit system (retics, afrocks, annies or non-native venomous) or any hybrids of said snakes. So I'm good to go.

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Originally Posted by cassandra

"Pittsburgh Python Project" is a very cute name...=D Congrats!

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We thought it was pretty cool! :D We had to get it registered as an LLC though since it did not have any part of our actual names in it. If we would not have anyone could have come along and registered the name and then we would have no longer been able to use it. Also now other people who use the name are infringing on our rights to it now. We have been getting crash coarses in all kinds of business laws and regulations since we started all this. We initially thought "Breeding ball pythons, how hard could that be?" After having to dig through town/city laws, county laws, state laws, and federal laws our head was spinning.:weirdface We spent days trying to find out everything on the internet and on the phone. Normally once you find out about the regulations it is not hard to meet up with them, it is just finding out about them. At one point we thought about just giving up on it as we couldn't see as many breeders as our out there going through all this research, but we have stuck it out and we are still doing research hoping we have already found everything, but you never know with all the laws and regulations that have been passed at different levels of government. It also seems the state doesn't know anything about the county, city, or Federal regulations and vice versa for the county, city, or Federal groups. :confused: So you have to work through each one individually which can be a pain as you all know what it is like trying to get ahold of real people in Government.

yep, being a business owner is a whole new world - I was dumbfounded when I started mine. Once you figure it out the first time though it's easy!

Something to be proud of - small business owners like yourself are the lifeblood of the country :salute:

don't forget to deduct your breeder-related husbandry expenses at tax time!

Congrats on the LLC,

I know in NJ you do not need a permit to breed, just a permit to posess!

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Originally Posted by fishmommy

don't forget to deduct your breeder-related husbandry expenses at tax time!

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One of the good things about being legal and legit is we can do that! Even the cost of the snakes we buy for later breeding is a write off. Part of the house as that is where we have them housed and my wife has an office for the business set up, vet bills, rats, mice... all a tax write off! Considering the time it takes before you ever make a profit if you ever do it is about the biggest benifit of it all!

Disclaimer: The writer of this post is not a CPA. For actual details and info on tax laws contact your local CPA.

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Originally Posted by Gloryhound

Disclaimer: The writer of this post is not a CPA. For actual details and info on tax laws contact your local CPA.

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Love that!

Congratulations!! And kudos for taking all the time in making everything legit!! Lots of luck in the future!!! :gj:

Congrats. great you made sure you were 100% legal. that will help to give this hobby a great reputation.

Congrats! Being a licensed reptile breeder/small business is such a great step.

BTW, the link to state laws is not accurate for Florida either. We have a ton of new rules. In fact, I just got my instructions in the mail today from Florida Fish and Wildlife regarding the new critical incidents and disaster plan I have to file.

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Originally Posted by monk90222

I know in NJ you do not need a permit to breed, just a permit to posess!

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Charlie, you also need a permit to sell.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/exotic_apps.htm

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/permregs.pdf

I have to fill out that form to Alice because I have a permit to sell in Florida. It sucks!

Brock

When I looked at that site it said that for Virginia, you may need a permit to breed and sell NATIVE reptiles. Does this include the cornsnake, because I plan on breeding corns as well.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

When I looked at that site it said that for Virginia, you may need a permit to breed and sell NATIVE reptiles. Does this include the cornsnake, because I plan on breeding corns as well.

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No idea!

I'm wondering if we need to look into getting a moderator to start a forum on state regulations that have a post for each state that we can post findings on rules and regulations for that state as they are found? Could save people a lot of hassle and keeping breeders legal will help the image of the hobby/industry.

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Originally Posted by Gecko Den

Charlie, you also need a permit to sell.

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/exotic_apps.htm

http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/pdf/permregs.pdf

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Yep thats true, I got one of those also!

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Originally Posted by Gloryhound

No idea!

I'm wondering if we need to look into getting a moderator to start a forum on state regulations that have a post for each state that we can post findings on rules and regulations for that state as they are found? Could save people a lot of hassle and keeping breeders legal will help the image of the hobby/industry.

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Hi,

Well we already have a sticky in this very forum for a similar idea. :)

The problem with trying to keep a thread on all current regulations would be trying to make sure all the information was correct and fully up to date - basically people would still need to double check everything they read to make sure they were ok.


dr del