Hope some of you living in the states where anti exotic legislation was proposed will find this useful.
Zuzana Kukol
www.rexano.org
REXANO Brings a Voice of Reason to the Exotic Animal Debate, Launches New Resource on the Web
As long as animal welfare and public safety laws are being followed, the private (non governmental) ownership of exotic and wild animals should be legal and protected in the USA. Current focus of REXANO is to reverse the trend in over regulation, with the desire that in the near future to work on repealing excessive regulations and bans on private ownership of exotics.
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) February 4, 2007 --Private owners of wild and exotic animals in the USA have been coming under ever increasing attack from the animal rights (AR) activists groups. Under the guise of pretending to care for public safety and using well meaning, but uninformed grieving relatives of the exotic animal attack victims as their pawns, they hide their real agenda: to end the captive keeping of all animals.
"According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) website and various news sources, 17 people were fatally mauled by big cats between 1990 and 2007, which is one death per year. Your lifetime Odds of Dying by a captive big cats are 1-in-4,000,000," says Zuzana Kukol, a Nevada tiger trainer and co-founder of "Responsible Exotic Animal Ownership", www.REXANO.org, a new free web resource designed to give much needed tools and statistics based research material to private owners of exotic and wild animals to fight unfair legislation. "For captive reptiles, the fatality rate is one and a half death per year."
(PETA is an animal rights group opposed to captive keeping of all animals.)
"Nobody has ever been killed in the USA since 1990 as a result of a captive big cat or reptile at large" adds Scott Shoemaker of REXANO.
Yet despite the facts disproving the claims of exotic animals being a public safety issue, there are still enough uninformed government officials introducing and passing these ridiculous taxpayer's money wasting bills.
Ohio's Representative George Distel is about to introduce another unnecessary piece of legislation severely restricting private possession and ownership of wild and exotic animals in his state.
The Ohio Association of Animal Owners (www.OAAO.us) President Victoria Galle' states: "All incidents/accidents involving any animal need to be addressed through the existing laws of that area."
"Animals are personal property; and we oppose legislation that restricts the private ownership or use of animals, or that inhibits free trade of any animal provided it meets Ohio Department of Agriculture testing and import requirements" adds Polly Britton, OAAO secretary.
Indiana State Senator Connie Sipes already introduced a bill restricting private ownership of exotic and wild animals. The bill is written by two animal rights (AR) groups, HSUS and API. Sipes is quoted in HSUS press release: "Wild animals belong in the wild, not in our backyards."
"While Senator Sipes is entitled to her opinion, it is not very feasible in the real world as most of the wild habitat is disappearing and the only chance to save many animals such as tigers from extinction is captive breeding with the private sector having the majority of available habitat" says Scott Shoemaker of REXANO.
"Wild animals kept in untrained hands in our communities pose a serious threat to Indiana residents," said Senator Sipes.
"Making such blanket uninformed and factless statements like these is a clear red flag to question the real motives behind these bills, since the majority of fatalities are handlers/owners themselves, or people voluntarily on the property where the animals are being kept, not uninvolved public" says Kukol.
"The best method to avoid being killed by a captive exotic animal is to simply avoid the properties where they are being kept "says Shoemaker.
Indiana and Ohio are not the only state under the attack. North Carolina is expected to have their anti exotic animal ownership bill introduced soon, and West Virginia and Washington states are already having hearings on theirs.
"As a former Washington state resident, I know first hand exotic animals are not a major problem there", says Zuzana Kukol. "If I was still living there, I would hope the government officials were more worried about the potential of Mount St. Helen's erupting again instead of what animal WA residents keep as personal pets."
REXANO is committed to protect the rights of animal owners and supports responsible private ownership of exotic animals in any form, be it non commercial pet or sanctuary, as well as commercial breeder or exhibitor.
As long as animal welfare and public safety laws are being followed, the private (non governmental) ownership of exotic and wild animals should be legal and protected in the USA.
Current focus of REXANO is to reverse the trend in over regulation, with the desire that in the near future to work on repealing excessive regulations and bans on private ownership of exotics.
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