Here is a sample letter written by Troy Hibbitts:

I am writing today to express my reservations in regards to HB 2414, “BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to hunting from public roads or rights-of-way”. Upon first reading, this bill seems perfectly reasonable – it is inappropriate and unsafe for persons to hunt WITH A FIREARM from a public roadway or right-of-way. However, a the committee hearings on 3/27/07 a motion was made to amend the phrase “game animal, wild fowl, or bird” to read “wildlife”. I understand that the "amended" version of this bill has been finalized in committee (exact language has not been reported). This bill, if written to read "wildlife" instead of game animal would make illegal the pursuit for live capture of a variety of native reptiles and amphibians, because Texas Parks & Wildlife Code current defines hunt very broadly to be simply “the pursuit with the intent to capture or kill”. Therefore, the simple act of driving down the roadway, stopping safely off the road, and picking up a snake would be illegal under the proposed legislation, if this bill passes the Senate.

Each year, hundreds of reptile enthusiasts visit the Trans-Pecos, bringing significant economic benefit to small towns such as Sanderson and Study Butte. I have personally spoken to hotel owners in some of these towns (for example, Roy Engeldorf of the Outback Hotel in Sanderson and Louise Hammer of Wildhorse Station in Study Butte) and they assure me that most of their summer (or "off season" business is composed of reptile enthusiasts such as myself. Were this bill to pass, many of these businesses would suffer financial hardship during an already stressful "off season", because most of these reptile enthusiasts would no longer come to West Texas.

“Road-cruising” in search of snakes (e.g. driving slowly down a back country road at night or in the morning or late afternoon hours in search of snakes basking on the roadway) is a time-honored method cited by many authors as the best way to make observations or captures of snakes and other reptiles. Both major Peterson’s series field guides suggest this method to search for reptiles and amphibians. Furthermore, the roadways of Texas are one of the few places that a reptile or amphibian enthusiast can view or capture these animals in Texas, owing to the fact that most of the state consists of inaccessible private land holdings. In addition, the legislation in question would also prohibit hiking along right-of-ways and searching under roadside rocks for reptiles or amphibians hiding underneath.

Furthermore, much of our understanding of the distribution of Texas reptiles & amphibians comes from road-collected and road-salvaged (found dead on road) specimens. The Texas Natural History Collection (at UT), the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection (at A&M), and the UTA Collection of Vertebrates (at UT Arlington) possess significant numbers of specimens salvaged from or collected from Texas roadways, and every year, our understanding of the distrubution of these species is enhanced by the collection of specimens from Texas Roadways. Were this law to pass, researchers in Texas would find it far more difficult to monitor changes in reptile and amphibian distribution and diversity in Texas. In fact, TPWD's "citizen science" program monitoring Texas Horned Lizards would be negatively impacted, as one method that TPWD encourages to be used to monitor horned lizards is to travel public roadways as a "transect" and to count these lizards.

Reptile and Amphibian enthusiast in Texas would support a sensible law prohibiting hunting with a firearm along public roadways and right of ways, however this law does not discriminate between dangerous "hunting with a gun or bow" from the harmless pursuit of reptiles & amphibians. If this bill is to be passed, please consider amending HB 2414 to include a subsection that would read “it shall be legal to pursue or capture reptiles and amphibians from public roadways or right-of-ways in Texas by hand or non-lethal device such as “snake hooks”, “tongs”, or “lizard noose”, with or without the aid of artificial lighting device.”

Sincerely,

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