Chris,
Most people wouldn't think of me as being particularly radical, but I find few people who believe in licensing less than I do. Personally, I believe that most licensing in this country (and probably almost any other country) is just another effort by government bureaucrats to keep their jobs intact, to collect more money from the citizens, and to help some people keep others out of business.
One of my favorite examples is from here in Louisiana. In Louisiana, one must have a professional florist's license in order to sell arranged flowers. Selling flower arrangements without a license is punishable by stiff fines for every arrangement sold and by confiscation of any arrangements found in the place of business. The licenses are granted by a board, and the board members teach classes in flower arranging. If you want to be a florist here, you have to take the class and make the teacher like you enough to persuade the other board members to vote for you. You can pass the class on flower arranging and bring to the board an arrangement just like the ones that you made while passing the class. If the board member who taught your class didn't like you enough to persuade the others to vote for you, you don't get the license. If you live in an area where the board members have friends and they don't want their friends to have competition, you don't get the license. The whole thing is a scam that was passed into law by a corrupt state government for the benefit of some cronies.
Sadly, the people of this country have come to believe in bureaucracy. They believe that if the right pieces of paper have the right words in the right blanks and are filed in the right office, then everything must work out just fine. They delude themselves into believing that if they just create the right set of controls, they can eliminate human tragedy. Present any problem to the average member of "we the sheeple," and that problem will suggest a solution that involves making people get licenses.
With reptiles as with anything else, licenses really aren't going to solve anything. Most big problems come from people being irresponsible, and most irresponsible people are not stupid. If we force them to learn certain material and take a test, they will pass. They will then go back to being irresponsible. If we force them to endure inspections or some other form of intrusion, they will do the minimum to pass, and then they will go back to being irresponsible. Licensing reptile owners won't stop the irresponsible owners from being irresponsible. Licensing will only harass and inconvenience the responsible owners who try to comply with these stupid laws.
Louisiana has some reptile licensing, but so far, I haven't been impacted. To own snakes over 12 feet long, one must have a license and mostly prove that the snakes are in escape-proof cages. I don't remember whether the license is needed at the moment that the snake reaches that length or whether the license is needed just to keep species that can reach that length. Owning venomous snakes has similar requirements maybe with the addition of a requirement to keep anti-venom. Owning or even catching native species requires a basic fishing license.
Louisiana has another license to be a dealer. The owner of the pet store nearest my home made a point of showing me his license. He's pretty proud of it, but the snakes in his shop aren't kept in good conditions. The manager is willing to listen to my suggestions, and he usually does things when I ask. However, those snakes live pretty rough lives. Both of their ball pythons have died. In August and September of last year, they lost several young milk and corn snakes. Again, the license is just a piece of paper. How people behave depends on what is inside them and not on the pieces of paper that the government issues them.
You haven't given any details, but those details would determine my thoughts about this woman. Even good herpers will sometimes make a mistake. Tragedy is a part of life, and maybe this woman did the right things 99.99% of the time. Maybe she made that 1 in 10,000 mistake and was unlucky enough to be struck when she did. In that case, all of the licensing in the world wouldn't have saved her. These things happen, but too many politicians in both parties lack the moral courage or wisdom to understand that they can't legislate tragedy from the human condition and are fools to make the attempt. On the other hand, maybe she was completely irresponsible and was simply an accident waiting to happen. Again, her death is a tragedy, but licensing again wouldn't have been likely to save her. If she really wanted these snakes, she would have taken the tests and said whatever was necessary to get her license. Then she would have done all of the wrong things and died the same way. Licensing wouldn't have saved her.
If your area has more herpers than most areas have, you have a better chance of fighting this proposal. The average family keeping a little turtle or frog is not going to want to spend an extra $35 per animal for another government piece of paper. They're also not going to want to go through the headache of dealing with renewing a license every year. You'll need to publicize the proposal and ask people to write to their council representatives asking that the proposal be defeated. You may need to speak at a council meeting and try to speak on local talk radio.
I wish you well in trying to resist this bad idea. I'd certainly be encouraged to hear of another licensing proposal being defeated. As you can tell, I'm passionate about these kinds of issues.
Good luck,
Bill
PS. I'm pretty happy with two snakes, but I still like thayeri. Maybe someday I'll be ready to add to my collection.
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
