In Washington, right now, anything that even remotely sounds good is possible. I have never heard of the President of the U.S. ever "firing" a CEO before. Strange days indeed. Everything seems to be in a state of hi-speed flux. With the media being played so well by the other side this is their best chance in decades to get something drastic like this passed.

Now on to specifics.

It is true they have left us an "out", if you want to call it one, but it's just D.C. doubletalk.

All species not on the approved list would have to be approved by a committee that would determine it's invasiveness.

But according to the document:

Report for Congress
Invasive Non-Native Species:
Background and Issues for Congress
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL30123.pdf

"No evidence to date has identified a suite of features in plants or animals that seems to be a truly reliable predictor of invasiveness"

So according to a report already prepared at the request of congress there is no way to prove an animals invasiveness/non-invasiveness, ergo the committee will have no yardstick to measure by and will have to develop one. Meanwhile importation and interstate transport have already been stopped and years will go by. No fish at the fish store, no hamsters, no bearded dragons, no parakeets etc etc. And the manufacturer support for all the foods and caging will disappear with the animals.

Then once a yardstick is in place, a company or someone will have to pay for each species/ssp. to be tested according to these mechanisms, pass or fail. So one day you might see a relatively small number of these animals return to the marketplace. One day. Might. Small number.

Meanwhile organizations such as the AZA will get a free pass to bring in anything they want. Hope they know how to do the USFWS import papers though, there won't be any exotic animal distributors left to buy them through channels.

Meanwhile this does nothing to address the non-invasive federally "approved" feral hogs that are overwhelming my families property in the Panhandle, but that is ok they are keeping the non-invasive federally "approved" feral cat population in check. Unfortunately they do nothing to keep the
"unapproved" fire ants or africanized bee's in check, but no one actually imported them on purpose and they invaded us on their own. I am hoping the C02 produced by the non-invasive federally "approved" cattle that we have cleared our forests to raise will get them.

[ Show Entire Thread ]