Hr2811 Read!

[SnakeBytesTV]

Today is the day when the committee hr2811 hearing on adding Pythons to the Lacey act is happening. The hearing is at 10:00am. From what I gather about this hearing is that it is going to give USark a chance to testify about amending the Lacey act to include interstate commerce for Burmese and African Rock Pythons. At this time there has been no such amendment and if passed as is there will be no way to sell or move these animals across state lines, rendering them pretty much worthless. I’ve also heard that HSUS has been trying to testify to try to add more animals to the list I.E. Retics, Anacondas, and even Boa Constrictors. I have no idea if they are on the schedule for today or not, but don’t be too surprised if that gets on the agenda. This is my honest feeling about this whole thing. I think USark has done a great job fighting this, although I was against their initial compromise for adding Burms and Rocks to the Lacey act. I do understand where they were coming from trying to save all the other species of Pythons. I wish we could have come up with some other solution such as a permit system, but I was not in the room, so I have to give them a pass and complement them on their effort. Since that original hearing I think USark has really gotten it together and I’ve been very impressed with their organization on this battle. They have hired an attorney that specializes in the lacey act to show the congress how Lacey can be ammended to include Burmese and Rocks, but still allow interstate commerce. Bravo for giving them the option so they have an understanding how this can be implemented. The bad news is I really don’t believe they will amend it and I personally think in the end we’ll lose this battle. I hope I’m wrong and I will say it is not from a lack of trying on the communities part or UAark’s part. We are facing a mighty opponent. Both HSUS which has huge money and would like nothing more then to shut the entire reptile trade down and the congress that only See’s this as an easy decision to ban these animals. The good news is this is just one step. If it comes out of committee (which it will) it then has to be voted on in the house, I think we all agree that it will pass with this insane congress that is in office at the moment. But then it has to go through the same process over in the senate with s373. The senate side has yet to agree to amend it to only the Burmese and Rocks, but it will be a lot harder to pass over on the senate side because it’s a more balanced group. Does this mean we should not be worried, NO! We should be very worried! We have to hope that USark and PIJAC keep doing the best job they can and we as a community need to follow their lead. As this gets closer to a reality we will have to step up our game a bit. I’m not sure that the call in days made an huge effect this time around. Most people I talked with didn’t really seem to understand what is happening, so why would they want to call in?? There needs to be a little better clarification on what the process we are going through is. I’ll be sure to try to be as involved as I can to clarify what is going on and if either UAark or PIJAC want me to get involved in the promotion of a campaign I promise I will do whatever they want. We have a battle on our hands, I think we’ll probably lose the first part of it, but there’s a long way to go and I for one will fight until the very end.

[BigRedDog]

Brian,

You are very educated on the subject, a recognizable figure in the herp community, and good public speaker. Are you in a position to become an activist and fight this situation? Would you travel to these meetings and speak for the herp community?

[Bill Meyers]

Conrad,
Canada is in the midst of trying to ban all large constrictors outright, after the accidental death of the child by a python, and because of the ever increasing bad publicity emitting from the U.S. media, they have decided they need their own hr2811 type bill. Do what you can to rally the reptile community up there, you guys just had your first awesome Expo and I'd hate to see that go down the drain because of stuff like this.

[Ryun]

Haha I will be at that expo.. let us see what will happen. These people are very persistent we just need to push harder than them so we can stop all of these bans and keep doing what we do.

[Bill Meyers]

Hmm, Fox News is always willing to push any story about how the liberals are trying to take away jobs, maybe a good report on the jobs lost this bill will make, will make them take it and blow it up, I can see the headlines already. "Liberal Animal Groups Making Americans Lose Jobs" or something along those lines.

[SnakeBytesTV]

Of course I'd contribute and I know that Bruce has been great about giving free tables to PIJAC, USARK and Adam from NATPET. Still a small amount of people and we need a bigger push. Like national media! That's what we need to make the difference. Wish I had those connections?? Hopefully I will soon, but I don't have them yet?? Thanks, Brian(SBtv)

[Bill Meyers]

Usark/Pijac has done to good of a job in the past with minimal effort on our part as owners keeping these bills at bay. We need to get the word out this time Usark/Pijac really can't do it solo this time. Well theres going to be a few big shows this coming 30 days on the east coast, I wonder if I can talk the White Plains expo hoster to have a talk about the bill, if I can get an okay for it, think you'd want to contribute to it Brian?

[SnakeBytesTV]

Bill, I agree with you but that will be a very hard thing to achieve. All in all reptile people are not willing to stand up and be heard. If they were we would not be in the position that we are in now. We have let them steam roll us and only now that we are faced with losing so much do we start to speak up. But even now only a very small percentage of our hobby will ever get involved. I wish there was a way to change it, but I'm not sure there will be??? Thanks, Brian(Sbtv)

[Bill Meyers]

We need speakers for reptile shows and expos to get more breeders, and owners aware of this, not to mention we need to keep as much pressure on these people as Hsus is, we need to put up a bigger stink than them, remember politicians are in a popularity contest, we need to show them that reptile hobbyists far outnumber wildlife extremists in the US.

[Alex]

how much you want to bet another version is gonna pop up before the end of the year? or even just after...its gonna keep popping up for a looooooooooong time.