As far as interstate commerce regulations...they are totally legal (explicitly--the Cons't grants the government that power), but I don't think they're usually done well and can be downright ineffective.

Case in point--the USDA licenses and regulates the breeding and interstate commerce of mammals but there's still crappy breeders, ignorant people with mammals, and there's still operations that go mostly in state and thus escape regulation. And the federal government doesn't have any legal right to regulate intrastate commerce, just interstate. Under some standing SCOTUS decisions regulations may be extended to a purely intrastate operation IF it may have a substantial impact on interstate commerce. I don't agree with those decisions but that's standing case law going back to some price control case arising from FDR's new deal legislation.

There may be state or city concerns that are totally legitimate; animal welfare laws to prevent mistreatment, liability laws concerning escaped snakes or damages caused by escaped snakes, regulations concerning commercial breeding (if a city's got zoning laws for instance)...but those are state or municipality issues, NOT federal ones. I'll oppose any and all federal laws about that simply because I don't feel that the federal judiciary is the appropriate venue. Appropriate legislation will vary from state to state and city to city. For instance, regulating any tropical species in Colorado under the guise of protecting the ecosystem is stupid. A Burmese python, or a Taiwanese Beauty, or a Nile monitor would die really quick in the Rockies. In Florida or LA or MS, maybe it's more legitimate to impose something like their ROC system.

As far as public safety goes...given the empirical data, I'm inclined to oppose any regulation banning reptiles for that reason. No one outside of a herper's household has been harmed by a reptile, and very few pets have been eaten by escaped reptiles.

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