Contact your Congress: Easy mode

[wolfy-hound]

Upset about the LaceyAct nonsense? Mad that a couple morons could alter FEDERAL law and make thousands of pet owners into felons for no benefit?

Then you should have already called or written your Congress representatives! Did you?

Did you sign a online petition? Congress doesn't care. That's akin to posting to your Facebook wall that you're terribly peeved. Congress does not read "change.org" or whatever petition site out there.

But there's hope! The country is set up so WE each have representatives in Congress. These reps are supposed to represent OUR views. They ARE OURS. You can talk to them, or their offices. They are YOUR Congresspeople, so call them, write them, tell them repeatedly and loudly when you've got an opinion on goverment matters!

I bet you're thinking.. "Wolfy, geez, I have kids and work and school, I don't have TIME to look up all that information! It's too much work and confusing!!"

Hey I gots the solution.
Write to your Congressperson! You can look up by your zip code and type right into a form!
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

But I bet you'd rather CALL them! I sure would! I hear those thoughts again... "Wolfy!! If ONLY there were a site that gave us the phone numbers!!!"

Taa-daaa!!!
http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/

Again, you look up your personal Congressperson using your zip code. Sometimes you need your 9 digit zip code, not just the 5 digit zip code. Oh wait, I hear the wails of confusion!!

"But WOLFY!!! I don't KNOW my 9-digit zip code!!" Hey, neither did I! But here's a site that looks it up for you by your regular address!
https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action

Today, I called and talked to people at THREE Congressional offices! TALKED TO LIVE PEOPLE!!! I told them I was upset that NO ONE representing me was angered that this agency just changed Federal Law and made thousands of pet owners into felons if they dare to take their pet with them, and WORSE, that they added a clause that says "We can add other species when we want". I asked them WHEN MY Congressperson would be speaking out against a agency and one man bypassing Congress after FOUR YEARS of them being turned down for the same type of legislation. I reminded them that the rule would benefit not one person. It would not make the Everglades safer, it would not help stop invasive species in Florida, and that it was unfair to make a person living in Minnisota KILL his pet, in order to satisfy some Animal Rights group who had convinced folks that keeping any pet is wrong.

I was polite but VERY firm that they would listen to my concerns.

One office was very concerned about the rule change and agreed with my concerns and repeated that they would be talking to the Congressman about it specifically BECAUSE THEY HAD RECIEVED SEVERAL PHONE CALLS FROM CITIZENS!

Call your reps. It's their job to listen to you. Even if you think they'll ignore you. Even if you're busy. Even if the latest video game is waiting on the tv for you to play. It takes only a few minutes. IF no one is calling, then there's no objections and we may as well euthanize our own ball pythons, since they won't stop with just 4 species. Call them. Call them all. Call them repeatedly. Talk to the aides and make certain they know you want to SEE your Congressperson speaking against this unneeded rule change and that it worries you for all your pets, even dogs and cats.

[wolfy-hound]

Has anyone been calling? Tomorrow is Friday and another week will be gone, along with the time that can be used for talking to the Congress representatives about our concerns!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I'm not sure what you think Congress is supposed to do about it. They can tell you that they agree with your concerns, but you must understand, this never went to a vote. They weren't asked for their opinion.
FWS did this on their own, and Congress didn't realistically have the power to prevent it. What's more, it's done. There's nothing for them to stop, it's finished.

Only a lawsuit can reverse it, now.

At the moment, the productive thing to do is raise money for USARK to bring that lawsuit, and keep a hawk's eye on your own State laws, because there's a whole lot more to do with those right now.

[TheWinWizard]

Called an voiced my opinion.

[wolfy-hound]

Actually, Congress is looking at overturning that new rule, as some Congress feel it's "overreaching" and taking the Lacey Act into places it was never intended to go. That's directly from one of the aides. If we get ENOUGH Congress angry that they were bypassed after THEY said no four years running, it's way better than hoping that a federal lawsuit will be able to do diddly in enough time to save any of the businesses that will be going belly up.

I'm not saying "Don't donate to USARK". By all means, donate as much as you can spare. But calling your Congress costs next to nothing and it could alert the Congress members that jobs are lost, that the one or two people completely bbypassed them after not getting their way and that there are indeed people who give a flip about this whole issue.

Call and tell them about your state's issues in proposed legislation if you have upcoming laws or bans. Call and tell them about OTHER states' proposed legislation too, since it will affect the hobby as a whole if half the states are outlawing owning pythons for no reason.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Interesting. Well, if they think they CAN do something, it's definitely worth giving them a call about it, then.

[dereklondon24]

So question I was talking to a breeder that works At animal jungle which is a very good pet store in my area and a man some of you know named joe Ellis. He was telling me the ban on Burmese pythons only keeps u from transporting over state lines, and bringing them in from other countries. He was saying that you can still own them and breed them as well as selling them. I thought that they were not going to be aloud to be bred and sold anymore. If that is true then this ban doesn't seem as serious as it first did. Well he did say that he had heard they might be making it so u had to have a rediculous insurance policy on them, but I guess they are still rewriting the ban either way it was different than what I thought, what have y'all heard.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.861241,-76.204586
1.0 normal bp- Blitz
1.0 Nicaraguan boa- Gavin
0.1 Red Tail Boa- Tara

[WingedWolfPsion]

If you read all of the threads on this topic, you will see that he's correct, and also see why it does destroy the businesses of Burmese breeders.
Think about this--what would you do if you owned a Burm, and had to move to another State? If you were in the military, and got reassigned?
Do you see the problem?
Violating the Lacey Act is a felony.

[wolfy-hound]

How many burmese can be sold inside the state lines only? Which states have enough breeders with the morphs that you would want, since you can't get one from outside that state. How many breeders are needed inside state lines before you worry about inbreeding?

If you move, an you've owned Fluffy for 25 years, since she was a tny hatchling... tough luck. You get to euthanize your pet. Get reassigned by the military or your job? Too bad.

The biggest issue to me is that the rule was changed for no reason beneficial to anyone except for the Animal Rights extremists, and it was done without any authorization other than the section F&G after similiar bans/legislation failed to pass. The rule change that includes the phrasing that means "and we can add whatever we want later" is another huge concern of mine.

If they want to ban animals that can establish in Florida, ban them in Florida(which they've pretty much done). Putting these animals on the Lacey Act does no good to anyone, destroys jobs and makes good honest pet owners into felons.

[dereklondon24]

That's a good point wolf and one that I had t thought about and would def affect me where as I am in the military and it's so rediculous how this ban was written and worded, for instance it says that u can not carry a burm across state lines so if I put him in a box and kick the box across state lines i can't get in trouble lol this thing is written so stupidly and has so many loopholes it's not even funny. Honestly if I had a burm I wouldn't care, it would be going with me and I would be a felon, so screw the system and screw the Lacey act.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.863144,-76.206278
1.0 normal bp- Blitz
1.0 Nicaraguan boa- Gavin
0.1 Red Tail Boa- Tara