Injunction hearing TODAY

[reptileexperts]

You can check on the wall of honor on their website for a list of all donors.

[bcr229]

Lawsuit Update 12/9/15: Two briefs were filed today and the links are below. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) jointly filed a brief which begins with twaddle about man-eating disease vectors laying over 120 eggs per clutch.

USARK Update 12/9/15:

The Center for Invasive Species Prevention (CISP) filed an amicus brief (seeking to intervene in the case). Both briefs have asked the Court to overturn the granted injunction. The briefs mirror prior paperwork being heavy on hysterical discourse, but lacking solid arguments.

While those familiar with these species can see through the propaganda presented by these groups, we must realize that these parties have made their agendas to end the keeping of these species and other herps clear. They will do their best to influence the Court.

The herp community must present ourselves publicly as professional, civil and educated regarding these animals at all times. We cannot allow bad actors to be our voice and continue to add to the bias held by the majority of Americans of these snakes. Please represent the responsible side, and majority, of the herp community well. We must illustrate everything positive about our community while remembering that most people fear and misunderstand these animals, and us.

Link 1, HSUS/CBD brief: www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Doc-No-1587617-HSUS-CBD-Intervenor-Brief-1.pdf

Link 2: CISP brief: www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Doc-No-1587688-CISP-Amicus-Motion-and-Brief.pdf

[bcr229]

Next Friday, 4/1/16, a three-judge panel will hear oral arguments on the USFWS motion to appeal the preliminary injunction against interstate transport of the five snake species that were added to the Lacey Act. There is a small update from USARK on the case.

Last Tuesday 3/22/16 those judges issued an order to HSUS and CBD requiring them to explain (show cause) why their briefs should not be treated as amici curiae briefs. USFWS filed a notice of appeal of USARK's preliminary injunction, but HSUS/CBD did not, nor did they motion to intervene in the appeal. Thus, the appellate judges are suggesting that the failure of HSUS/CBD to follow the procedure to file a notice of appeal or motion to intervene at the appellate level leaves them in the same position as anyone else who would desire to file a brief with the court.

One obvious difference is that an amici curiae would not be allowed to appeal (file a write for cert to the Supreme Court) a decision favorable to USARK by the appellate court. Thus, HSUS/CBD could be denied the right to appeal along with other rights of actual parties to an appeal.

The HSUS/CBD filing is due on Monday 3/28/16. This would not change the status of HSUS/CBD as intervenors when this case goes back to the Federal District Court in DC.

The court's order is at http://usark.org/wp-content/uploads/...late-Order.pdf

[Marrissa]

Post from Kevin McCurley today - I went through and starred out any "sentence enhancing words". I hope this is allowed because I thought it was an important post. We do not often think about our actions. Especially on days like today, Easter, and all the "Easter is cancelled" and such posts shows snakes eating rabbits.

Anyways:

"Ok here goes....... if you Keep Retics, if you WANT to continue keeping larger Herps you may really want to take the time to read this (sadly) long post. I think we all need to get on the same page. As you can see we are trying to rethink our position and lead with thought. I can't do this in short form. Here goes :
** Large Python/Boa Keepers - Our present Crisis. **
Our hobby has changed considerably over the past 12 years, we now keep and breed snakes that were only in our dreams. As we enjoy the "fruits" of our labors we are quickly being targeted by anti pet keeping organizations, federal and state legislators. As we progress in our husbandry and breeding abilities we appear to digress in our understanding of how we are viewed by others, people that do not share in our pleasures. Let me be blunt, the reptile, exotic pet "industry" and it's keepers are Ground Zero in the war against the keeping of pets. As anti pet keeping organizations such as HSUS work towards their mission statement , "to end pet keeping in the United States" we come sharply into focus. The easiest target is a bunch of weirdos keeping animals that are considered loathsome, dangerous, disgusting, injurious and unsuitable as pets. As we all know, our pets of choice are not cute and cuddly, often they are at the other end of the spectrum. We are literally the perfect target as we hang out in the open "defending" our "rights" to keep our predatory pets in cages, in a spare bedroom! Well, we do not have the "right" to keep these animals, this is the actual reality, we can argue it over and over but it is not an actual right, we are presently "allowed" to keep these animals in some states. According to USFWS it is a "privilege" that we are allowed to keep these animals. In a rather short time large pythons and boas have risen in popularity with pet keepers and pet legislators. The more people keeping these animals the more people that notice we keep them and the more people that want to stop us from keeping them. Each and every year anti pet groups become more powerful and greatly effect parts of the pet keeping industry. These victories are often quiet as they aid USFWS and state agencies to ban species from the pet keeping world. There is no reasoning with these people, as passionate as we are about our animals they are equally passionate about animal rights and the cruelty they perceive we present. Anti pet keepers would rather a 10th generation captive bred and born parrot to not exist or to be dead than ever to live in a cage. We can argue that the bird is happy and loves its life but these people will never understand, they are beyond rational thinking. Clearly, I can go on for a very long time about the aspects of our plight and our position but we need to all be on the same page now.

All larger reptile keepers need to establish some basic guidelines about what we do, post and say. We keep carnivores, we know what they do, they eat other things, DON'T post any of it! Don't post them eating, don't post what they are eating, we are not sadist and we do not need to publicly relish this activity. The people that continue to do this make all of us look bad. Remember one very important thing, it may only take one person, one incident to change everything! We are only as strong as our weakest link. Time to firm things up and disassociate ourselves from the people that continue to embarrass our community. There is literally no benefit to showing any carnivores behavior, we know all about it but bragging and making dumb comments only provides ammo to our enemies. When you goto McDonald's do you see lots of pictures of chickens and cows? Do you ever hear anything about Fast Food and what their product is made of? Clearly not, this is for a reason and we better smarten up FAST! Anyone that displays an interest in the suffering or torturing of rodents needs to either stop or become an outcast. This is an incredibly sensitive subject and we are not in a position to challenge this fact. I am writing all of this in a simple fashion but I am not laying it all out in print as I do not want to provide bits to be further used against us (wink wink, NUDGE, NUDGE!!!!) Bite pictures, yes, a snake may sometimes bite as it mistakes us for a snack or just gets confused, its not an opportunity to get fame and attention. What is up with people getting nipped and feeling the need to post it all over social media, are we that lusting for attention? People that keep these snakes so they can get attention are not people that will do anything positive for any of us. Attention seekers will create negative attention and create problems. Yes, we love to keep big snakes and show them around but if you do it, do it with your brain turned up to 10! All it takes is one idiot parading their large constrictor out in public and scaring people to change and ruin things.

If you keep large snakes you need to seize the educational aspect of your animals and what you do. Remember, these animals are the representatives of tropical and remote lands, use your opportunities to enlighten people, get over their fear and more importantly, create value! Reptiles and such are vanishing from the landscape, each and every day there is less of the natural world and more of us! I can not push the educational aspect enough, this creates value, meaning and understanding in what we do and why these animals are suitable pets. Every responsible reptile keeper that teachers others is doing a wonderful job helping all of us, every half *** keeper only hurts us. It only take one idiot on social media to embarrass our entire community of keepers, just like one lie can be more powerful than a thousand truths.

Our present legal battle against USFWS Injurious regulations with our battering ram USARK is working well. We have argued effectively against the massive list of mistruths and fiction provided by USFWS, HSUS (National Humane Society) and Center for Biological Diversity. An effective argument in no short feat, we are literally having to choose what we regard as the most significant arguable points and creating a digestible counter for the judge. As we read documents sometimes 330 + pages plus of reasons why many pythons and boas should be banned as pets and interstate transport it is easy to get lost in the non-sense. As I read these pages my natural response is to write 330+ pages of why its not factual, scientific or reasonable. Clearly, attorneys can not make sense of each and every point, we need to pick solid points and keep it intelligible for the Judge. Remember, the Judge knows nothing about snakes and see their massive documentation why they should be banned and sees our smaller version why the information is flawed. We are naturally on the short end of the stick and we do not have the enormous benefit of being a government agency. The Judge is an intelligent and reasonable man, he views the arguments and tries to make sense of the "facts", regardless of over 300 pages of non-sense provided by our opposition. We are presently waiting for the judge to hear USFWS appeal and I feel our position is presently solid.

"Presently Solid", what does that mean. Well, that means as long as we continue to act in a reasonable fashion and watch what we are doing. We have argued the facts and have educated the court, we need to remain in a positive light. Essentially, we need to regulate ourselves even better and not provide the ammunition that our opponents are desperate to have. We are no longer just fighting a Government agency, we are fighting private groups that literally hate us and use FICTION as a serious tool! They have a near endless amount of money and they have the ear of the public, we have none of that! The amount of energy they use to create hysteria, misconceptions, fear, loathing and action against us is incredible. You see the sad animals suffering on TV, donate money to save them right? Wrong, they take the money, hire more lobbyist to help USFWS create LAWS against pet keepers and create endless nightmares for us. We are the Enemy, we are small, poor and disorganized, we have only one weapon, reality! In this fight, lies are far more effective than truth and we need to smarten up and remember the world is watching each and every one of us! Social media may be fun but it is an effective way to accumulate information, pictures and videos that can and will be used against us!

I am stating that there needs to be an immediate end to feeding videos, pictures and anything to do with this aspect. Don't post something clever, just don't post any of it! 2. No more bite pictures unless insignificant and with purpose. DO not ever post a bite picture where the injury looks significant, scary or rather bloody. Adult and sub adult bites should not be posted, superficial bites are ok. The internet is watching and loves to make our pets look SCARY! 3. Posting things to get attention that makes us look bad needs to end. Posting snakes and sounding like a gangster is not going to help us and does a wonderful job to pigeon hole us as idiots. 4. Anything that can be viewed as animal cruelty don't post it! 5. Posting snakes in a filthy cage or something that is clearly not admirable without purpose, don't do it! 6. Stop posting dumb things that make you or other snake keepers look bad. Show off your snakes, show off people playing with snakes but don't show the world you have a third grade education and your an idiot. 7. EDUCATION, why is this the LAST THING that people want to show? What has happened to us? Show off pictures of people interacting with snakes in a positive light! Show snakes in a way people wonder and rethink their fear. 8. Do not post a snake in a small enclosure or filthy that another person could take out of contact as cruel or unsuitable. The world is watching. 9. Watch what you say.. Do not talk about them as DANGEROUS in any way, but making them out to look scary or dangerous/harmful you are DAMAGING our hobby!!! ( Wink, Wink, Nudge, NUDGE). 10. If you are doing anything illegal, or illegally keeping them in a state or community where you should not, DON'T post it!!!!!

Last point to consider....... State agencies are hopping on the: You will need PROOF of INSURANCE, a Million Dollar policy to keep that animals in this state.... no one will be allowed to touch it but the permitted, you will need to create an emergency plan, a plan of who will take it if you die. You will not be allowed to take it outside your home. You are endangering the public, community, environment ..... all sorts of nightmarish stuff just to keep the animals you now have!!!!!!! Don't provide the fuel that hurts us all. I can not fight for all of you if you don't stop and think about what you are doing and how it may make all of us look. We can not endure further mistakes at this time, our fight is difficult and we need to watch ourselves and put a good face on what we do. We do not need an added permit system, they can create such restrictions that having the permit and snake offers little enjoyment!
PS : Sharing videos of AWFUL videos involving cute little things(being eaten) that we keep as pets is DUMB!!! Lots of people enjoy all sorts of critters and they FREAK OUT when they see this stuff. Why would we want to aggravate these people? (Example the asian video of puppy and snake, it is AWFUL and WEAPONRY, Get rid of it, delete it and DO NOT SHARE!!!!) Stop doing that, delete it and make it go the hell away, it is going to KILL US!!!! Other breeders or keepers that are mouthing off and condemning us on social media are only going to HURT us, do not help them in any way! Breeders and well known keepers, time to smarten up and think about what you are posting! Do not be an idiot and the anti snake poster child, I don't care if you need attention, use your brain and WAKE UP!

Double PS: To all of you that thinks this is BULL****. Ok, you are clearly the ones that do not lift a finger to help our fight. You are not involved behind the scenes, you are likely not part of USARK and you are not the ones going to represent US! You are not the ONE pouring over USFWS arguments on why all of these species are DANGEROUS and INVASIVE... you are not the one that can argue against them even though you want to scream with the amount of lies you have to read. You are not the one providing endless information to the legal fight. You are not the one that spends hours and house on the phone with the attorneys. You are not the one creating a strong relationship with one particular attorney that has been a literal god send to all of us (Rich Stanley). You are not the one that helps Phil Goss (Wonderful job he has done for all of us!!) generate interest and fuel in the fight. You are not the one that continues forward when most everyone else has given up. I don't want to hear about we must have a spine and "I will do what the **** I want" ....... In reality, you are self serving and do little to benefit any of us here. You make us look bad, you fuel the fire and only help speed us along to not being "allowed" to keep these snakes. Maybe, possibly, at some point you will win with your tired egomaniac ways and create a gang of anti establishment buck the system keepers.... and then I will just get tired enough of you and your gang and STOP doing anything to fight the laws and give up. I can tell you one thing, if I am not doing a bunch of the heavy lifting and using my expertise we are ****ED! Most people have no idea what has been going on behind the scenes, they have no idea how this whole thing works. They think it must be ****ing magic, right? WRONG, there is a small group of people that are doing the real stuff that matters. You continue to act like fools, disregard them and fuel the fire against our industry and they will give up! Without THEM we will fall like a pathetic gang of ****ES! If you are not one of the people I am talking to then just ignore my little rant...but if you are, I have no use for you, our industry has no use for you and you can either use your brain or piss off. Remember one thing, we can easily get rid of you on these groups, we do not need you and a bit of house cleaning is always in order...... if you suck then you are the first to go! I am tired of looking at people online making us look stupid, the sooner we realize that your stupid the sooner you can go away!

Triple PS : If you think all of this is bull**** because the arguments against our snakes is bull****...... Wake up, seriously, wake the **** up! We are arguing against pure and utter non-sense in many aspects, essentially, we are arguing as if we keep the literal boogie man in our homes! None of this matters, I got over that long ago, we are arguing against people that are very willing to lie and misguide the powers that be. As much as this sucks this is all we have, we need to take a deep breathe and hope that we can articulate our realities into a format that makes sense. These people will do and say whatever they want to achieve their end game, BAN and END our pet keeping abilities or make it so difficult we can not possibly meet all of their requirements! People hate snakes, USFWS does not want us to have them, they are looking for any possible way to stop us and they have a huge amount of help. The Center for Biological Diversity is the new kid on the block, funded by a BILLIONAIRE - Andy Saban. I spoke to him twice, there is no way to discount this man and what he thinks. He has an attorney that is a reptile "expert" and he believes her more than he believes me!!! I tried arguing my points, he listened for awhile but believes all the "hype" and "facts"!!! These people literally think our snakes are going to get loose and take over, there is no way to convince them otherwise! The fact that we have accomplished so much with the pathetic organization we have is amazing, take away a key player or two and it's OVER! So, does this make sense?"

[PhoenixGate]

Is there anyone with the time to create a positive campaign for keeping reptiles, especially larger snakes? It would be great if there were something positive we could share on social media that helps dispel some of the misruths and lies used to hurt our community. I already share lots of stuff from national geographic and similar pages on Facebook. Propaganda and fear mongering can be countered.

[bcr229]

Is there anyone with the time to create a positive campaign for keeping reptiles, especially larger snakes? It would be great if there were something positive we could share on social media that helps dispel some of the misruths and lies used to hurt our community. I already share lots of stuff from national geographic and similar pages on Facebook. Propaganda and fear mongering can be countered.

I think this is important enough to warrant its own discussion:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...akes&p=2429854

[bcr229]

Lawsuit Update: Hearing on Appeal of USARK’s Preliminary Injunction

Being the party that appealed USARK’s preliminary injunction, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) carries the burden of proof at the United States Court of Appeals. Accordingly, FWS was required to present its case first during the oral argument on April 1, 2016 before a three judge panel. FWS is required to prove that the US District Court Judge made an error in his written decision granting USARK a preliminary injunction.

Within approximately 30 seconds, Judge Tatel interrupted the oral presentation of counsel for FWS. The judge reminded counsel that the primary rule of statutory interpretation is to read the actual words in the statute. If the meaning of those words is not ambiguous, then no further legal analysis is necessary.

The focus of the judge’s questions was clearly on the words of the Lacey Act injurious species provision. At least two of the judges seemed unconvinced that you can read the statute to prohibit interstate transportation. If that’s their conclusion, then the following arguments of FWS become irrelevant: legislative history, ratification by implication and deference to a government agency interpretation pursuant to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Chevron case. It is important to note that the US District Court judge considered all three of these arguments and rejected them.

Here’s the actual language of the statute: ”any shipment between the continental United States, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any possession of the United States, of [an injurious species] is hereby prohibited.”

In the 1970s, FWS interpreted “continental United States” as the geographic area containing the 49 states on the mainland of the North American continent. USARK agrees with this interpretation. Thus, for example, FWS can prohibit transportation from Hawaii to Colorado, or from Texas to Puerto Rico. Washington, DC was explicitly mentioned as being prohibited for transportation by Congress because at that time, DC could not make its own laws. Hawaii was specifically mentioned because Congress was specifically trying to stop the transportation of the mongooses then in Hawaii to the other 49 states. Hopefully, this background information will help you follow the oral arguments regarding the language of the statute. [Note that the judges suggested that if Congress wanted to prohibit transportation between the 49 continental states, they might have at least included the following capitalized words in the statute: any shipment between ANY OF the continental United States.]

The arguments regarding the legislative history, etc. can become even more difficult to follow for several reasons. First, the Lacey Act was enacted in 1900, so it has a long legislative history. Second, the language of the Lacey Act was substantially revised in 1960 to essentially what you see in the quote above. Suffice it to say that we do not believe that the additional arguments, even if considered by the Court of Appeals, will help FWS any more than those arguments helped FWS when they made them before the District Court judge. The fact that the judges focused so much time on the plain language of the statute suggests that their written decision may rest on such language.

An audio recording of the hearing can be found at http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/recordings/recordings.nsf (the actual audio file will eventually scroll off of the page but you can find it in the future by searching on case 15-5199).

What’s next: There is no timeline for the Court of Appeals to make a ruling. It may be months before we receive an answer so now it’s a waiting game again. We could get an answer any time from next week to several months from now. Then, we pick up with the continuation of the lawsuit. However, while the Court of Appeals is deciding, the current status for shipping reticulated pythons and green anacondas remains in effect. Get those details at http://www.usark.org/2015-blog/7182/.

Currently, the Court is only going to decide if we get to keep our awarded injunctive relief and can continue shipping reticulated pythons and green anacondas until the court makes a final ruling on the lawsuit. This is kind of like a halftime show while the football game is stopped. After we get a decision on the appeal (halftime), the third quarter starts (lawsuit).

A final ruling on the lawsuit, not the injunction, decides the fate on shipment of the other constrictor snake species listed as injurious. Due to the crafting of the injunction, there is no valid reason to overturn it. If a ruling is made upon facts and sound reasoning, the injunctive relief rightfully awarded to the Reptile Nation will continue. Thank you for your continued support while fighting this government overreach.

Learn the history: For more information and FAQs regarding the “Constrictor Rule,” click this link: http://www.usark.org/2015-blog/7081/.