Katrina,



This law is being ammended to bump up the penalty, IF you fail to properly prevent the animal from injuring a member of the public. Penalties are already written into permit requirements for NY, however it currently only results in a misdemeanor. I agree that this is a knee jerk reaction to an escaped chimpanzee, which is far more difficult to contain than a rattlesnake.



If, for instance you moved to NY(you wouldn't want to with our high taxes) you COULD obtain a permit for the animal in NY under ECL 11-0512, which has provisions for reptile exhibitors. However, you must do programs (education, etc.) to obtain such a permit and provide written reports of such programs in which the animals were used. This was included in the 2005 version of the regulation....so the current proposed bill, is merely bumping up the penalties. It is not preventing anyone from possessing an animal. I have to say that I agree with the DEC regulation, that if you are keeping wild animals, you should be making an attempt to educate the public about them and not just keeping them because they're "Cool"---which many people do. We all find them fascinating, but it doesn't require that much effort to do some outreach programs.



While it may seem excessive, if you are keeping the animals securely and properly, permitted keepers should have no concern, as they will not have to be worried about the consequences of an escaped animal. Of course, we do know that even AZA zoos have had escapes. Were any of the keepers at the San Francisco zoo charged with felonies after the tiger killed the one visitor?



Everyone in NY could still legally maintain their venomous snakes, if they become "Reptile Exhibitors" and simply educate people that these animals don't deserve the bad repuation as ruthless, aggressive killers, when we know that snakes in general, are rather secretive inoffensive creatures.



Politicians, on the other hand........

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