USARK Alert: Arlington County, VA

[bcr229]

ACTION ALERT: Arlington County, Virginia

By USARK on February 26, 2017
This is a broadly sweeping and far overreaching proposal! It will outright ban the future ownership of many very commonly kept species and includes vague language which could be interpreted to include all species except dogs, cats, fish and birds.
The quick details:

1. Current owners will have only 60 days from the effective date to either register or "dispose of" each animal, and would thereafter be required to obtain annual permit for each animal kept. The addition of future animals would be banned (meaning you could not get a pet hedgehog or corn snake next year).
2. BANNED: Snakes exceeding four (4) feet in length;
3. BANNED: the following list of “wild or exotic animals” would be banned: hedgehog, sugar glider, all non-human primates, raccoon, skunk, wolf and wolf hybrids, coyote, squirrel, fox, leopard, panther, tiger, lion, bear, small wild cats including hybrids (meaning all but domestic cat, Felis catus), all crocodilians
4. BANNED: any other warm-blooded animal, poisonous snake or reptile or tarantula that can normally be found in the wild state (This is the vague language mentioned.)
5. BANNED: breeding of all above species.
6. All movement of registered animals (within and out of County) must be reported to the Animal Control Agency;
7. Deaths/euthanizations of animals must be reported
8. Failure to register may result in "seizure or disposal of the animal at cost to the owner;"
9. First-time penalty is Class 4 misdemeanor and fine up to $250 (per day). Second penalty is Class 3 misdemeanor and fine up to $500 (per day).

Full info and contact info for the Arlington Board at:http://usark.org/2017-action-alerts/...unty-virginia/

[distaff]

Control freaks.

[JodanOrNoDan]

This is disgusting. Has Arlington, Virginia forgotten it is part of the US or what? People can't stand for this BS. Would be interesting to hear what premise they are using to justify this.

[Albert Clark]

Really rather harsh language to the responsible exotic keepers. Thank goodness for U.S.A.R.K.
Maybe the executive branch of government will step into this seeing as The Vice President of the U.S. and his family are part of the Reptile Nation and keep reptiles.

[zina10]

That is extreme !

That would rule out Ball Pythons even, as they would go by the "estimated size range". Not to mention most Boas, and even colubrids that are slender and long.

I hope they fight that with all they have, because I have heard of people in other areas of this country being given 10 days to get rid of their animals, and their pet ordinance was insane.
Interestingly enough, that pet ordinance was also quite fuzzy and unclear in part. Almost as if they want to leave themselves the option to fit a situation to their needs.

Scary, can you imagine. I would have to move. Some breeders spent decades to create, maintain and breed magnificent collections, have built the perfect setups. Only for something like this to come along.
Terrible.

The other case made me look up my cities pet and animal ordinance. Absolutely not a word about reptiles OR exotics. Just a lot about not having livestock in city limits.

[bcr229]

Has Arlington, Virginia forgotten it is part of the US or what? People can't stand for this BS. Would be interesting to hear what premise they are using to justify this.

I lived in northern VA over a decade ago. My friends and I referred to the city as "Arlingraad".

The impetus probably came from the anaconda-found-in-toilet news story from earlier this year.

[Streller]

This is awful news, and I hope it gets repealed or fought against. Makes me feel incredibly lucky that here in the United Kingdom our environmental agency are incredibly reasonable with regards to what you can and cannot keep. Although, I do wonder if we have an organisation such as U.S.A.R.K in the UK.

[Ba11er]

Someone probably did something stupid and freaked people out. Be good keepers and educate people about your reptiles.

[montymiow]

That's absolutely insane! What snake can you guarantee won't exceed 4ft?

[JodanOrNoDan]

That's absolutely insane! What snake can you guarantee won't exceed 4ft?

I think that is the exact goal. I don't know what the average is but there are a lot of of what I would consider small snakes over four feet.