Being a transplanted Texan and dang proud of it I feel it is definately time to respond to this comment. And I hope the folks at kingsnake keep your post up long enough for this transplanted Texan's response to be seen in it's proper context. TEXAS DOES NOT SUCK IT IS THE BEST STATE IN THE WHOLE DANG U.S.. The only reason I live in Fla now is that the weather is a little better here for playing with tropical things than in Texas other than that Fla's just a bit better than average and if the wildlife laws get a little more restrictive here I will be doing the opposite of what you are proclaiming. You see it really doesn't matter what laws they pass up in Austin nobody outside of Austin is going to obey them anyway everyone is just going to go underground with what they do. I have a bit of history to back me up on this too. As long as I can remember Texas indigos have been protected in Texas. As kid I kept so many that I can't even tell you how many I kept and I was not unique in that among my friends. The same goes for Texas horned lizards. In fact the typical response among kids I went to school with when one of us caught a Horned lizard was to tease the individual who caught the lizard about it being "against the law". The standard response from that individual would almost always be to rip a sheet of paper out of a notebook,crumple it up and throw it on the ground and respond "so's littering". Then there are javelinas(collared peccaries for those who aren't Texans ) which are classified as a game animal and considered illegal to keep as pets. I never kept any but I knew of MANY people who did Including several of my dad's drivers at the time and one of my neighbors who had one for quite a while. It was quite funny to watch it follow his wife around like a little puppy dog. This individual btw was the son of the high school principal for on of the local high schools which for such a rural area was a bit of a prominent position. In a past post about roasting marshmallows with TPWD I responded about them bbq'ing javelinas named "bubba". this was a reference to an incident that involved them confiscating a pet javelina named "bubba" from a family in Flour Bluff back in about 1985. The public outcry AGAINST tpwd agents (who were doing their job and following the law) was enormous. One of the radio stations held a "bring back Bubba" rally (C101 I think) there were "bring back Bubba" t-shirts, the whole thing was crazy. Like I said this protest was AGAINST tpwd agents following the law and doing their job. (So much for their game laws huh?) The tpwd "claimed" they turned javelina loose on a wildlife preserve(an enviromentally irresponsible move on many levels) but everyone thinks they bbq'd it(myself included) which apperently was a common practice for tpwd agents to do with confiscated fish and game animals. One of the Corpus Christi news channels did an expose piece on this very subject (late 70's early 80's) This brings me to the respect for game laws there is some but not much and usually only when the game wardens are around. I cannot tell you how many times I have personally seen people hunt from vehicles on back roads, hunt at night for game other than feral pigs and coyotes with artificial light, hunt out of season,with a crossbow etc....like I said when the game wardens aren't around. A good example of this was the last time I went to Texas. It was about 12 years ago. I went to a friends house whom I had not seen in several yrs. While I was there another friend of his ran into the house and yelled John!!! (not my friend's real name) there is a dove in the tree out front!!! he proceeded to get a small crossbow and went after the dove. This was in the middle of a small city in the springtime when doves were definitely not in season and I wouldn't have bet money on this individual even having a license either. As I said before this is not an unusual scenario and I can think of at least 3 violations that occurred in the scenario that I personally witnessed. What I am pointing out here is that while legistors may pass laws the culture in Texas is quite different than that of the California-style liberal freaks that have invaded Austin and these laws are not going to be any more effective than the laws already there that they can;t enforce now. trillions more in money is spent on the "war on drugs" than will ever be spent on wildlife law enforcement and yet you can still go out and buy any kind of drug you want anytime,anywere in this country. In spite of any crappy laws they pass Texas is still the greatest state there is just keep your pets and keep your mouth shut about what you are keeping. I'll leave you with this little bit once when I was a kid I entered a turtle race at the Fiesta Bandana in Alice Tx. While I can't be 100% percent sure about the status of Texas tortoises at the time I am pretty sure they were protected. Out of the 30 or so contestants in the race I was one of only 2 who DIDN'T have a Texas tortoise I had a red-eared slider as did the one other person.

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