Question: Something about who made the demand for a white and black list. The demand was made during the may commissioner's meeting. The minutes can be found on the TPWD site.

Answer: "The demand was made during testimony by three lawyers who claimed to represent the pet industry during the May TPWD commission meeting. The minutes of that commission meeting are available on the TPWD web site. Threats of lawsuits from lawyers will get TPWD’s attention."

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Question: Something to the effect of "What about the fact that most Thamnophis are commercialized with many morphs of T. sirtalis and T. radix being prevalent?"

Answer:
"TPWD has a problem meeting the expectations of those in the pet industry who wanted all herps, especially turtles, protected on one hand and now those who after we tried to protect them, have exceptions for certain species which might be kept in captivity already. We are currently working on a breeder’s permit for those who breed and raise various species in captivity. Perhaps that will solve the problem in the end. If we have a breeder’s permit, there will still be no collecting in the wild unless one has the proper permit to do so. That is another chapter in this problem."
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Dr. Schlitter was very patient, polite, and informative even after I got riled up about the issue. I recommend him highly for questions.

Soon I will also have confirmation on whether or not the non-native subspecies of T. sirtalis are regulated, as well. For sure, as stated by Dr. Schlitter, the native subspecies "Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis – Eastern Garter Snake; Thamnophis sirtalis annectens – Texas Garter Snake; Thamnophis sirtalis dorsalis – New Mexico Garter Snake ; and Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis – Red-sided Garter Snake" are regulated by the black list.

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