I have come up with an idea on how we can possibly influence local legislation in our favor. Most states (including Wisconsin) have what are called "Leagues of Municipalities", or some variant of that title or name. These websites serve as resources or libraries for municipalities, and can in some ways be thought somewhat as the state "trade associations" for local municipalities. Therefore I believe they carry significant influence to municipalities. They also often consist of many different sample, boilerplate ordinances that municipalities can adopt or utilize as examples.

Over the years of having seen many of the local ordinances we have in WI, I have noticed that almost all of them contain the exact same, (or nearly so) language and lists of prohibited animals, with reptiles being all crocodilians over 30", "poisonous" insects and arachnids", all "poisonous" animals including rear fang snakes, and all constrictor snakes over 6 feet (or just constrictor snakes). This of course leads me to believe that many of these ordinances must have been copied verbatim from somewhere. Sure enough, after having to do a little detective work, I found a sample ordinances section on the League of WI Municipalities website and listed there was the sample ordinance on "wild, and exotic animals" for Portage, Wisconsin. There was also one for snakes in Eau Claire WI:

www.lwm-info.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FA23692B-353D-4760-9CAB-9F5791149185}

Now, most of us should be no strangers to the fact that most local municipalities tend to be rather lazy in their crafting and implementation of their ordinances. Many simply copy and paste. It therefore seems to me that many of the municipalities with these restrictive ordinances in place and which I have seen are probably reliant on the League of WI Municipalities to at least some degree.

What I am wondering is if this can be used to our advantage in some way? For example, relatively reasonable or otherwise "herp friendly" ordinances that we may know of in our area or even assisted in crafting can, and perhaps should be submitted to our "Leagues of Municipalities" as "sample ordinances" for other cities to adopt. Likewise, or alternatively, If there is a local, regional, or even state herp society or "State Association of Reptile Keepers" in any given area, they could use their resources to serve as advisory sources for their state "Leagues of Municipalities" or similar groups.

Thoughts?

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