Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why not post an add/info in the exotic pets / reptiles section of the major local papers. It should not be expensive, it will hit a large audience, and would not be hard to manage... We just have to make sure only one add is running at a time per paper.

I accompanied Dave Barker, Don Soderburg, and about 30 others to the legislative hearing on this bill in Austin yesterday. Evidently the committee was impressed by the number of emails, calls, and letters (as well as our personal turnout), for Dave was called up before the meeting to consult with the committee chair in private.

The result was that Dave, based on his decades-long reputation with both the professional and amateur Texas herpetological community, was invited to work with the legislators to work up a version of the bill which is less objectionable to the herp community. He will do so, based on his own ideas and input from the herp community at large. He is scheduled to return to The Statehouse this Friday.

The committee chair seems to be absolutely determined to pass some version of this bill through his committee. His primary concern is that the state know where exotic venomous snakes are held in the state. He does not seem much concerned with constrictors. By the way, native venomous snakes are not addressed in this bill at all.

I'm sure Dave Barker will welcome any input any of you may have.

Brad Chambers

Guys, my internet savvy wife has done research regarding bills that have passed in other states regaridng reptiles. She has informed me that the proposed bill HB 1309 is almost identical to the the ones that HAVE been passed in other states such as Colorado, for one. It is also a proven fact that "our friends" at the Humane Society are behind this. I guess what they are doing is finding a representative or representatives from every state in the union, and getting them to sponser a similar bill for their hard core agenda which is to abolish "ownership" of any animal as a pet. I guess they are attacking the Herp community because it is relatively small in comparison to other "groups". This is the force we as herpers are dealing with. The different representatives are not coming up with this stuff themselves. They are being pushed and pushed HARD to propose these bills in hopes of shutting the hobby down. I personally feel we do not need any bill regarding the restriction of Herps (venomous or otherwise) at this time or any other time in the foreseeable future. Just do research on your own and look at what they have done in Colorado and how it started. We do not want this in the Great state of TEXAS!!! Feel free to post your viewpoint on this. I would like to know what you all think. Good luck to Dave Barker in Austin on Friday. I hope he stands tough on this issue. There is alot at stake here in my opinion.

Wayne H.

PS. DO NOT LET THE GORILLA GET ITS FINGER IN THE DOOR! IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE!

That was our thought at first, also, Wayne. But so far we haven't found any connection between this law and any animal rights group. Moreover, the sponsor, Sen. Hildebrandt, is a conservative republican, and a past president of the Texas Exotic Wildlife Association! definitely no friend of PETA and HSUS.

At any rate, Dave says that this bill in some form will pass through his committee, and I for one am glad we're going to have some influence.

Take care,
Brad Chambers

In Texas, bills have to have 100% approval in the Senate, and at least one senator has said he will never support such a stricture.
This will probably get shot down its first try, but you can bet it'll crop up again before long.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

More fuel for the fire.

http://www.corn-utopia.com/Corn Utopia on the Web/- LURKING ENEMY Cornutopia corn snakes cornsnakes.htm

I hope people can paste this in the browswer and it can be read.

np
HIDDEN ENEMY

My link works when you type it in the browser. Yours does not. What's the point here Lance?

Wayne

The URL was too long for the KS.com link to support.... it was truncated and I did not notice

Sorry

That's a good article. I knew the HSUS didn't like reptile keepers but I didn't know that they no longer give financhial support local animal shelters.