USARK & Reptile Nation Save 5 of 9 species from FWS Constrictor Rule!

[zeion97]

Its to early in the morning... are Retics on that list..? And no this is not a comprise.. this is how it will start, within a year the other 5 an Maybe more will probably be up there. All they need is ground to start on an That's will gain them motivation in Congress to continue.
This entire thing is BS.. an now I'm stuck here if I want to keep.my Burmese..... which means if I got high class culinary job I have to.pick between my two loves... culinary and my reptiles.
What Is our next step? Do we appeal?

[Dragoon]

the rest of the announcement states that the rest of the species are still being considered. this is still a loss the fight keeps going and we still need to send letters to fight it off

[WarriorPrincess90]

Retics are not on the list. YET.

I don't imagine they are going to have police at the state borders searching vehicles for snakes being transported. So realistically, if you moved you could probably still manage to take your snakes with you. BUT, don't move to Florida. If your neighbor found out you had a Burm, heaven forbid! lol. I understand the concern, but really? I have family in Miami and have driven through the Everglades many time. I have never, NOT ONCE, seen a Burm anywhere. I know they are there, but the problem is not quite as bad as the politicians are making it out to be. Yes, it may be hurting the natural ecosystem to some extent, but it's not like these snakes are everywhere and are a danger to humans. This whole thing is ridiculous.

I know sending the emails to my state Senators probably did nothing (stinkin' Florida), but I will now probably be sending hand written letters as well. I think the best thing we can do at this point is keep supporting USARK.

[adamsky27]

Why is it great news? Because you don't own a Burm?

I got news for you, this is only where it starts. Now all it will take is a simple amendment to add whatever other snake species they want to the list.

It doesn't make any scientific sense to enforce such rules nation wide. Will you still consider it good news when they add YOUR favorite species to the list? Don't think it will happen? That is the same thing everyone thought about this.

It is great news because they saved 5 of the 9. It is better than nothing. Be happy that they were able to save the ones that they saved. What if they did ban all 9? Are you saying that the efforts of USARK are useless? That's what I get from your posts. These people work so hard for us, and when they get something done it is never good enough.

Personally, I am thankful for what they do. Even if they were only to save 1 of the 9 I'd still be happy.

[DemmBalls]

This totally stinks! I will be waiting on further direction from USARK to see what more I can do to help fight these endless battles. Thank you USARK for what you have done so far!

[Kittycatpenut]

Darn Congress... My dad said that I could get a burm once we got a rental house and had the money. Now it looks like that will never happen.

[WingedWolfPsion]

I'm glad that they saved my SD Retic project.
I'm sad that I won't be adding a dwarf Burm project.

I'm still game to keep fighting.

Folks, PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS RULE. This ban prohibits importation and interstate transport, and that is all. You will still be able to keep, breed, and sell these animals inside your own State (provided it's legal to do so now).
That's part of the reason why adding these animals to the Lacey Act doesn't accomplish any of the things they claimed that it would. It's why this is such a stupid rule. It doesn't even do what they wanted it to do, it's bad no matter which side you were on.

If you were planning to get a pet Burm next year, you still can, provided you're not planning on moving to another State in the future.

[spitzu]

While others heaped praise on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s ban on Burmese pythons and other invasive snakes, South Florida Congressman Tom Rooney called it a half-measure that “will not do nearly enough to protect the Everglades and the surrounding ecosystems.”

Salazar’s rules, unveiled on Tuesday, will halt the importation and interstate transport of four constrictor snakes. But Rooney notes that the U.S. Geological Service found that nine species threaten Florida’s environment.

Rooney, a Republican from Tequesta, touted his proposed bill that would ban all nine.

“There are nine species of invasive predators that pose a severe threat to our native wildlife," he said, "and all nine need to be eradicated.”

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news...an_as_hal.html

[purplemuffin]

Oh, yay. Sort of. Sigh.

This is going to happen again. I don't want to hear in the next few years "At least we stopped MOST of it" again..and again..and again. Until they are all gone, and more and more snakes are added to the list.

It sucks to try so hard and come so close and fail. We did fail--it's like a piece of cloth. We feel strong as the reptile nation, no one can break us. But once that cloth has been cut--a ban like this one..It's far to easy for all of those against us to take hold and rip our fragile world apart. This is just the beginning. We can't get soft here. Prepare for statewide bans and more push from the government.

[WingedWolfPsion]

We are going to have to fight harder, and work harder to bring others into this fight. Purplemuffin is correct, now they know that we can't defeat them, and they will not stop.