Reptile & Amphibian Forums

as of January 1, 2007-Eastern Hognose can't be collected at all
and they may not be imported from other states.

The law does not mention captive bred or WC from before the new laws are enacted?

any takes on this?

I am in favor of regulations that prohibit, or at least inhibit, the collection of most wild herps. Eastern hognoses in particular have an interesting situation where multiple sources have noted a decline, at least anecdotally. I say as long as hognoses are becoming more popular in the pet trade, their habitat is being continually destroyed or degraded, and until their population status is more thoroughly investigated, prohibitions on collecting wild specimens are warranted.

A similar situation happened here in Virginia. The state prohibited the possession of spotted and diamondback turtles. Keep in mind that the species do not have a threatened or endangered status, and are otherwise provided with no protection. I also raised concerns about the lack of exemptions for those already in captivity and importing individuals from out-of-state. I was informed that they would make reasonable exemptions on a case-by-case basis. I doubt you will see a situation where swat teams are crashing into every house looking for turtles. Of course this situation was much more restrictive than just collecting wild animals, here you cannot be in possession of the animals.

I find that most people have unreasonable expectations of how regulatory agencies can effectively enforce the regulations. Every bit of it comes down to funding. Pretty much every question that is asked by the public about their concerns with prohibitions can be answered with "who is going to pay for that??".

In this case,
Question
Why can't I collect a single individual from my backyard?

Answer
Who is going to fund the recordkeeping necessary to keep track of individuals and how many hognoses they collect? Who is going to fund the massive population studies to determine whether or not the removal of that single individual is sustainable for that population? Who is going to pay for the expert to determine how many hognoses can be collected in a given area? Who is going to fund training for regulatory personnel on how to properly identify a hognoses? Who is going to pay for the enforcement and oversight of the collections by individuals?

Question
Why cannot I import a captive bred hognose from out-of-state?

Answer
Who is going to pay for the verification process involved with determining whether or not the person actually bought a captive bred hognose, or merely collected the hognoses en masse and SAYS they were captive bred?

So as you can see, it becomes much easier for the government to do a broad sweep total prohibition on collecting.
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Virginia Herping
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VaHS
Virginia Herpetological Society online store
http://www.cafepress.com/vaherpsociety

"The irrational fear of snakes is the only excuse a grown man has... to act like a complete sissy" - Colchicine

Oh, I have no problem with the fact that they have prohibited collecting-actually that's a good idea. ^_^ Most of the species mentioned have become rare-although-I must live in an area where species like Hognose and Copperheads are very commonly seen not just in the state parks but in urban and suburban areas.

But when they make a sweeping statement like that it fails to cover every base and leaves the public in the dark and it's too much at the discretion of a single field officer-who may be right or wrong. The law should be specific. That's what we pay those big taxes for.

Still-what does happen to animals already in captivity? Well, I've gone right to the source for that answer and am waiting for a reply. I'll let you know what they say.

In the past-if you keep a herp in captivity for a certain period of time it could not be released-and I see the science in that but the alternative was to kill the animal. That policy is wrong in so many ways.

This issue should be handled like other similar situations in our state have been in the past-if a law is passed about not keeping an animal-people were allowed to keep that animal-then when it died-they could not replace it. It's fair for the owner and the animal. Did the state keep track of these people-you bet they did!

Pardon my typing etc.