The US Fish and Wildlife Service is looking into passing regulations banning the importation and interstate transport of all snakes belonging to the genera Python, Boa and Eunectes. This will be a severe blow to the hobby and all efforts to stop such a move should be made. The proposed legislation would make it illegal to move one of these snakes from one state to another in effect destroying all trade in these animals. This should be a concern for all reptiles keepers as a ban of this sort would only be a precursor or precedent for future regulations on other reptiles.

Attached is the USFW proposal in full. Please read it carefully


As the Federal Register outlines, only comments submitted in the format that they have specified will be reviewed. Comments on message boards, BLOGs, and petitions will not be accepted or reviewed. We recommend that everyone focus their efforts on submitting comments using the required procedure rather than methods that will not produce tangible results. Individuals and businesses may submit their comments at http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/comp...9000064803a565f


Please take time to review the proposal in full, and only submit comments relevant to the specific requests. General comments and abusive comments are liable to be discarded, unread. Please spell check your comments before submitting them.

Pretty much what this means is that all importing of these species will stopped. Also shipping of all pythons and boas here in the US will be banned unless you have a permit. This will cripple alot of businesses. You will also not be allowed to move across state lines with your python or boa unless you have a permit. This could also open the door for future bans. If the government things ball pythons are threatening what is to stop them from thinking the same for bearded dragons? This is a big deal. I urge all to go to the link and follow the directions on submitting a comment. all comments submitted any other way will be ignored. Also besure and try to include the impact this could make on the economy and how this will effect businesses. This will hurt reptile dealers and mice/feeder breeders and lots of other reptile related stuff. This is important for all reptile keepers not just python and boa keepers. They wont stop at these, I would bet on it.

yeah ive heard that it wont stop at pythons and boas (which is SOOOOOO retarded in the first place) from a lot of people

umm... thats illegal and a violation of an unalienable right

Well they will be accepted but not reviewed. You have to do it by thier standards for it to be reviewed.

thats total bull. why would they do that? mt boyfriend and i were going to get a python in the next few years too. i dont want to have to get one from a petstore

I would just like to add how important it is that everyone affected by this reads the document and takes the time to come up with constructive comment. A few years ago we had public consultation in the UK for the new Animal Welfare acts and very few people got off their backsides to comment. As a result we have the beginnings of the end of our hobby over the next decade - democratic participation SHOULD NEVER be limited to one day every 4 years. There will always be people higher up who want to take something that is important to you - every individual has a part to play; 1 person can't change the legislation but 1 person, joined by another and another etc can... esp when you do it by their rules

<--- political science student

I wrote them a 3 paragraph long comment. And I made sure to not to be mean about it, but put in the fact that this is suppose to be a free country, and they are getting closer and closer to taking all our freedom away. I also pointed out that instead of taking all the rights away from breeders to just perhaps prohibit them from being put in pet stores like Pet Smart and Petco, because half the people who buy them that are serious don't buy from them anyways. The people that buy from there are just impulse buyers that don't know what they're getting themselves into. I stated that if we could get rid of the impulse buying then perhaps this wouldn't be a problem.

Anyways I hope it helped.

I agree w/ unrealjill, we need to take action. Just one well written letter by each of us would show how we as responsible owners of pythons, boas and every other reptile would show them that we can clean up after ourselves. A big part of this act is because of the people who release their snakes into the wild. There are burms and other breeding in the everglades. That is one of the main reasons this is coming to pass. We know how that once something bad happens their reaction is to ban everything. This years its pythons and boas, next year they will find a reason to ban leopard geckos and bearded dragons. I feel that this is a post that should be made an anouncment because it affects everyone here from the US keeping reptiles and amphibs. This is an election year for all you who are old enough to vote. Write or email your state rep and tell them how you feel (nicely) and that you enjoy this hobby and you are a responsible owner. This is going to be a heavy blow to a multi billion dollar industry in the middle of an economic recession.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndMl5ZiwPeI

This video is by a well respected and great individual in the venomous field. He doesnt keep nonvenomous but he is still up in arms over this as we all need to be. This video gives you some good ideas on what we can do. Thanks
Please help in this. This is a serious matter to we here in the US.
Curtis

This is ridiculous. Because of the actions of an irresponsible few down in Florida setting their Burms loose the entire reptile industry will suffer? Not acceptable. Also please note that when you do comment on the site they have a list of questions that they want answered. I don't think they will review general comments, only the ones that are submitted with the answers to their questions.

Everyone needs to get on top of this, not just boa and python owners. The is but the first step to an outright ban on ownership altogether. Although you may not have the animals you have right now taken away, it will be very difficult to obtain new animals, other than the ones that breeders in your state are breeding. Do you know if there are any breeders in your state producing those piebald ball pythons you've been eying? What about albino Red Tails? Green Trees? I know that I for one still have quite a few snakes on my wish list that I haven't had the room or money to get yet, and if this goes through it may mean that I never will.

And as I said earlier, what happens when this turns into a ban on ownership altogether? They will takes my babies over my dead body...or at least I'd like to say that. The reality is that with the outrageous fines they would slam you with, most of us would have no choice but to give our animals up. And then what would happen to them? Zoos and wildlife facilities would be quickly overwhelmed, so the sad end for most of our pets would be euthanasia.

Don't let this happen! Fight it! Take some time out of your day, get over to that site, and let them know how silly and uneducated this thing is.

PETA would have them euthanized because they don't want animals who have been pets running around. Plus they don't actually like animals as they spend more money killing them a year than they do helping them but thats a different issue. My guess is they probably have some lobbying involved in this. There are people out there trying to solve the wild burm problem. The problem with stuff like this is we are lazy and not enough of us show support for eachother. The people against us are willing to ban together and attack. We need to do the same.

Hey mods, is this worth a sticky? I think everyone needs to hear about this and stay on top of it.

I will make it an announcement for a few days, just as so people see it.

I know this was posted nearly a year ago but is there any information on what happened with this?

If so, I'd really like to know if they dropped the issue or kept up on it and are in the possible process of executing it?