First round in HR669 vs. Freedom / Advantage Freedom

The proponents of this bill of this bill proved today, April 23, 2009 exactly what they wish to do. The very fact that they continue to mislead and outright lie about the consequences that would surly result if this bill passed as written, is proof of what their ultimate agenda is. They are working hand in hand with the special interest groups that paid for their elections and who continue to fund their re-elections. They have stacked the deck with like minded idealogs whose best examples of invasive species were either brought in directly by the government or were accidental passengers on ship hulls and the like. These previous invaders would have zero regard for any law that might be passed. The fact is the pet industry is not the enemy but we are in the sites of those who just can’t stand the fact that we “humans” own and care for other “species”.



The fight goes on and the need for us all to be unified behind the most effective grass roots organization is of paramount importance. That organization is of course USARK which is not fractured or vulnerable to compromise that could sacrifice smaller portions of supporters in favor of the larger group. The same cannot be said for others who represent the interests of a wide range of others in the pet industry. USARK is in the fight directly and wholly to save our businesses and hobby while not working behind the scenes to compromise with measures that could in effect shut down portions of our industry. Such as the advocacy of a permitting process, which others have already endorsed, that would mean the death of entire groups of the Reptile industry. Our loyalties are to the Reptile industry and hobby alone. As such, USARK is the standard bearer and clear choice for all those whose primary concern is the impact that this legislation could have upon Reptiles.



The grass roots base that USARK has built, has delivered the most effective blitz of written letter communication with the members of the sub committee, charged with considering HR669. The impact of this is unprecedented and undeniable. The fact is the 49,229 paper letters that people signed, and Tom Wolfe, the USARK Lobbyist hand delivered, is exactly what let the opposition know they would be able to just walk all over us. We saw this morning that they now know this is NOT going to happen. This fight costs money that people like me, and many others who have taken this seriously, have been putting up to fund USARK thus far. The efforts of USARK can be even larger than it has been to this point and this need is something that every single one of us must participate in.



USARK has earned your allegiance and needs not only your moral support but you financial support. If you have not joined yet, do it today. We will all need to be vigilant and continue to do letter writing campaigns when called upon. Phone in campaigns when required, and yes perhaps direct appeals will be made in the future, like this one, to ask for additional funds to pay for the behind the scenes efforts that are necessary to make the greatest impact possible. This is your fight and YOUR business AND YOUR responsibility.



Since this is a personal message from me, I would like to personally say thank you to each and every one that has already participated at whatever level. I appreciate this very much and look forward to the time in the not too distant future that we will all breath a sigh of relief. This will happen! The more participation we have both financially and with boots on the ground, the sooner this will be possible.

This is a battle, and it sure seems like a battle we can win if we stick together and work hard!

Everyone, give it your all! :gj:

USARK is doing a great thing for the herp community and has brought us all together in doing so "waking the sleeping giant" that Washington is now seeing.

That said we also need to stand along side the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (pijac) as they are our voice in Washington, and help unite us with the entire pet industry to form a stronger unified being.
In doing so we are standing alongside all other parts of the pet trade and showing that we will not go down without a fight.

Keep spreading the word about hr669 and how it will affect everyone get as many people on board as possible. Lets put an end to hr669 once and for all!!!

Heres a couple photos i took:
The good guy, and he did well in my opion. Was well spoken, new what he was talking about, and was probably the most straight forward and passionate of the "guest panel" and everyone else including the HOR memebers themselves.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...le/goodguy.jpg

And this is the evil with who ran the show.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...eevilwitch.jpg

Over all I think it went well. However the somoan (His name is eluding me at the moment) who is consponsering the bill had to have it clarified to him that the bill was for animals only not plants as he thought. Sad...

Yes friends this is indeed a battle. The herp community has a whole needs to operate as one voice, one army, and then band together will all of our other friends in the pet industry. Together we can and will prevail with greatness.

-Peace All

are you serious....a co sponsor didn't even know it wasn't regarding plants!!!??? WTF is wrong with this!

What about one of them that didn't even know that they were a co-sponsor. I can see where he was confused about plants - that Kudzoo scientist couldn't stop talking about kudzoo as an example.

I recently joined USARK a few days back. Let me make this clear:

EVERYONE MUST JOIN USARK. If you have 1 snake or 1,000 snakes do the RIGHT thing and protect your hobby, business, passion, passtime, whatever the case may be.

If you are on this site, then you LOVE snakes/reptiles. DO the right thing and MAKE your voice heard. No more hoping someone else will do if for you, the battle lies in your hands to stand up for you reptiles. JOIN USARK and write letters and call your representatives! The time is NOW....

Sincerely,

Chris Behof
CB Reptiles

For the record - the "good guy" was Marshall Meyers of Pijac. If you listen to Reptile Radio, he's been a guest a few times.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

What about one of them that didn't even know that they were a co-sponsor. I can see where he was confused about plants - that Kudzoo scientist couldn't stop talking about kudzoo as an example.

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Kudzu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu

Thanks Heather! We spell it Kudzoo in NC. ;)

Did the guy talking about kudzu happen to mention it was delibritely brought in by government agencies as a erosion control? The same type of government agencies that will be decideing on what should or should not be considered invasive?
It's hardly fair to penelize pet owners when all the invasive species were delibritely brought in by the government that wants to blame pet owners for invasive species.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Did the guy talking about kudzu happen to mention it was delibritely brought in by government agencies as a erosion control? The same type of government agencies that will be decideing on what should or should not be considered invasive?
It's hardly fair to penelize pet owners when all the invasive species were delibritely brought in by the government that wants to blame pet owners for invasive species.

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Yes,this was brought up toward the end i believe part of his quote was"i wanted to address this,as my great grandfather wasnt the only person to bring it in,it was brought in on the insistance of the federal government,with financial incentives"

I have talked to many people today who own reptiles and they have the clouded misconception that just because the bill wasn't voted on today, that we're in the clear. We need to stress the fact that THIS IS NOT OVER!!!! On the contrary, this issue is far from over and it will keep rearing it's ugly head with every chance these manipulated political puppets can muster.
I also recently joined USARK and will do whatever it takes to ensure this bill goes where it's supposed to go, right in the bathrooms of the co-sponsors so they can use it for what it is REALLY meant for. I have even cancelled vacation time so that, should the need or opportunity arise, I will have time to take off to make the trip to Washington to defend my rights in person. They are NOT going to get away with this.

So HR 669 was shut down?!! Chris (bf) sent me an email!!!!

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VICTORY over HR669!!!

WE DID IT FOLKS!!!! Victory over HR669! You can thank yourselves and the Reptile Nation, for a hard fought Victory! Our nearly 50,000 grassroots letters and 1,000s of phone calls to the offices of the subcommittee members clearly prevailed at today's Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing on HR 669. HR 669 in it's current form is finished. For anything to go forward it MUST be re-written from the ground up....and USARK will have a seat at the table along with other stake holders.

Delegate Faleomavega from Samoa said, "The letter and phone campaign hit the subcommittee like a BUZZ SAW". Harry Burroughs, of the subcommittee staff said, "I haven't seen a letter writing campaign like this in 30 years! You should be proud of yourselves." Take heart in the fact that the Reptile Nation stopped HR669 in it's tracks!!

We also need to thank Congressman Henry Brown, SC for helping us to focus our fight on the Subcommittee as opposed to the full House of Representatives. He is the one who instructed us to write real letters to be truly effective. He said emails are fine if that is all you can manage, but they can be filtered and deleted. There is no denying the weight of thousands of paper letters from American citizens. The Reptile Nation was responsible for 49,229 letters delivered to the Subcommittee in less than two weeks. Congressman Brown's staff made sure they all got in the door. 38,000 of those letters will be entered into the permanent record. Thank you my friends!

Credit should also be given to Bill Martin, a witness who testified at the hearing. He is the President of Blue Ridge Aquatics, a large multi-state Tilapia farming operation. They farm Tilapia as a food fish. He had some serious problems with the bill and the ear of much of the committee. His plain talk of how this bill would destroy hundreds of families hit home. What they do and the impact this bill would have on them parallels the plight of the Reptile Nation.

Senior Democrat staff from the House Committee on Natural Resources advised Subcommittee Chair Madeleine Bordallo that if she wants something to go forward she will have to go back to square one and draft a new bill. Then have another subcommittee hearing. When and if she does, USARK will be there to represent the interests of the Reptile Nation!! They probably will try, and that will be our challenge for another day. But Today VICTORY is SWEET!...... Celebrate today and rest, because tomorrow we must get ready to fight again.

Thank you Reptile Nation! Thank you Tom Wolfe. Thank you everyone who did their part.

Stay tuned... This fight has only begun!

USARK

A note from Tom Wolfe:

"The good news is, USARK engineered a significant victory which caught the attention of the entire membership of the Subcommittee and their staffs.

The bad news is this is just the first step in the process. Members of the Reptile Nation should be jubilant with this victory. However, our success should be measured, because the proponents of HR 669 will be back soon with another version of the same legislation. They will not rest, so we must not rest either.

Take satisfaction in a job well done and a victory well deserved, but know we all must rise up again to fight on because the battle has just begun!"



( pic above ) - USARK President, Andrew Wyatt presents Republican Staff Director Harry Burroughs the 38,000 letters that were admitted into the record of the official proceedings of the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

( pic above ) - Partial view of the 14 boxes and 11 USPS mail bins containing the 38,000 letters delivered to the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee.

( pic above ) - Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee Ranking Republican Henry Brown, (SC-1) accepts one of the 25 containers comprising of over 38,000 letters from THE REPTILE NATION delivered to the subcommittee hearing on April 23, 2009. Left to right, Andrew Wyatt - President USARK, Congressman Henry Brown and Tom Wolfe - Washington representative for USARK.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

So HR 669 was shut down?!!

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Nevermind folks, me just running my big fat mouth!!!

The government thinks its their job is to block everything we like to do

For instance, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms...all regulated, so much so there exists the ATF, I say instead use the resources for an agency like the RMC (Rapists, Murderers and Child Molesters) - in other words, fight real crimes against humanity and leave our simple pleasures alone.

...Now they want to take another thing away from us. Reptiles.

The reality is, the government does not care about a thing until enough people use it, in other words, can we regulate it, tax it, or get rid of it all together.

I am tired of the government telling us what we can and can't do.

Laws are presented under one guise, and enacted for entirely other reasons.

Its sorta like cameras at signal lights; they are said to be put there for our safety, but in reality they are revenue generators for creating bigger government.

BrandonsBalls

the fight continues, but there is nothing wrong wtih celebrating today!!!

I'll celebrate...heck, I haven't slept well in 2 weeks! ;)
I'm actually in shock that we won this round, especially after everyone braced us for the worse. But I'm ready for the next fight! I now KNOW exactly what to do for the next round; my documents, tools, and methods are in order and it will be much easier to be fully involved next time (and calling was actually a breeze).

BIG THANKS (in no particular order) to USARK, Andrew Wyatt, Ralph Davis, Jeff Ronne, Brian Barczyk, Adam Wysocki, Marshal Meyers, Tom Wolfe, www.nohr669.com, Rep. Henry Brown, all the message forums of the Reptile Nation and all the individuals that helped band together in our time of need!

Man, did we shine this time, or what?!!! :salute:

Ok is it just me or did anyone else notice this STRANGE resemblance...

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http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z...eevilwitch.jpg

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http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/ha...s_Umbridge.JPG
Image source: Harrypotter.wikia.com/wikia/Dolores_Umbridge

:bolt: Noooooooooooooo!!!

roflmao!!!