Loophole in the Burm Ban?

[Dragoon]

loopholes only exist in tax code, but if a billionaire asked they might put one in the lacey act.

[WingedWolfPsion]

It all depends on how many clutches per year will find homes in a State. Those who specialize in Burms cannot make a living at it, unless they're exporting almost everything. Those who have a small Burm project in addition to other projects can still work on their project...just more slowly, and with lower volume.

Very few people in each State will be able to do this, but there will still be a market for Burms in each State, just as there was before the ban--it's just going to be smaller. There will be some mistakes, and some markets will crash--others will have spikes in the price of the animals, as there prove to be fewer producers than there are folks looking for the animals.

I think the rescues are going to have a lot of trouble, too, and many are going to be maxxed out in no time.

[SpartaDog]

I know one loophole. If it is legal to breed them within the state, people could still breed them, and since they are so prolific, only incubate a few eggs. Then they would be able to sell them easier than trying to sell a whole clutch in the state.
Also, a few people would illegally transport the newest morphs over state borders, spreading the morphs to new states. Once they have a single animal (like albino), to breed from, they could make more in the next state. After a while it would be too hard to track back inheritance to the single illegally-transported animal.

Incubating select eggs probably isn't the best solution. First of all, making less product doesn't help the business owners relying on out-of-state sales at all. It's limiting your product on top of limiting the market. I think the key to solving that would just be to breed less often so you don't end up with too much surplus. Plus, if you're working with some higher-end recessive morphs, especially paired with hets, you don't want to risk discarding the the morphs and ending up with all hets.

I like to think the people working on new morphs will be responsible enough to abide by the law and keep their snakes within state. Granted, where they go after sale is out of their control, but.

Here is a copy of how the final ruling is worded.

http://www.mnherpsoc.com/sites/defau...s-Wildlife.pdf

SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (Service) is amending its
regulations under the Lacey Act to add
Python molurus (which includes
Burmese python Python molurus
bivittatus and Indian python Python
molurus molurus), Northern African
python (Python sebae), Southern
African python (Python natalensis), and
yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus) to
the list of injurious reptiles.

Okay, so the Ceylonese is still fair game. I may just have to go that route if the ban isn't lifted in a few years.

[MarkS]

Okay, so the Ceylonese is still fair game. I may just have to go that route if the ban isn't lifted in a few years.

No it's not. Ceylonese are a subspecies so they are still Python molurus, I think the wording is pretty plain to mean ALL subspecies of Python molurus, including P.m.molurus and P.m.bivittatus (but not exclusive to those two subspecies)

[Genetics Breeder]

I was saying that they could incubate less eggs if they just wanted them for pets. I don't know how long Burmese pythons live, but 20 years from now, someone might want to continue the line/species and just incubate the few eggs that they would need, to be able to have them for future generations.

[SpartaDog]

No it's not. Ceylonese are a subspecies so they are still Python molurus, I think the wording is pretty plain to mean ALL subspecies of Python molurus, including P.m.molurus and P.m.bivittatus (but not exclusive to those two subspecies)

Oh, I misread it. I thought it specified P. bivittatus and P. molurus molurus.


Well crap, nevermind.

[Denial]

Or we could not worry about loopholes and just continue to fight it.... There is still a fight going on over this and I still have faith that we will "eventually" win. It will come in effect the 23rd but I dont think it will stay in effect

[Giftbearer]

Or we could not worry about loopholes and just continue to fight it.... There is still a fight going on over this and I still have faith that we will "eventually" win. It will come in effect the 23rd but I dont think it will stay in effect

I agree. I don't believe it will stay this way permanently. It may take some time to make all the points that need to be made to the right people who can reverse this, but I do think it will happen, whether in some high court, through counter-legislation, or through changing how the Lacey Act can and can't be used.