Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got in an opened an email from Matt Creel. According to Matt the much anticipated amendment will read as follows:

"Strike lines 15-16 and substitute the following:
(b) This section does not apply to:
(1) the trapping of a raptor for sporting or educational purposes as provided by Chapter 49, or;
(2) the capture, trapping, or hunting of a reptile, amphibian, or insect."

BTW, no updates are posted online yet. Someone screwed up and posted the 4/27 journal for today. Hopefully, they will correct it soon and post today's journal (likely not until tomorrow).

Good to hear. Low and behold I received a letter from my representative here in Houston (district 138) today in the mail. I sent him an E-mail expressing how I felt, as well as everyone else on this forum, about the situation at hand. He replied with a 100% in support of us and said he would be talking to Hilderbran and Isett. I hope he has done this already. I will scan it and put it as an attachment for tomorrow. First trip out West will be this weekend. I am sure I will see you alterna nuts out there. With all the rain, I feel it will be more than EXCELLLENT!!!

Wayne

That's great news.... Good to hear that. Another reason to keep my house in Texas, lol (currently living and a resident in NC).
I will be out west sometime in June... Hope to meet some of you folks
Also hoping to find some more of these:

Zee

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"I am an expert on everything, but I know so little and have so much to learn!" -Carsten "Zee" Zoldy-

It might be better to replace "insect" with "invertebrate", since insect does not include spiders, scorpions, vinegaroons, centepedes and millepedes. Why not include rats and mice in the exemption as well?

I vote we just threaten them with an alternative lifestyle like drugs , alcohol or some other addictive activity they already have funding for!
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

the second line is still not good. Why not "non game animals" instead? or why not "invertebrate animals" instead of "insects"
as it is, can't pick up mice, can't pick up spiders.

Been told the bill will probably die on the floor, due to
bills ahead it and time that is left in this session.

Guys....chill.

I don't think anyone's going to organize any sting operations aimed at harvest mouse or tarantula poachers. Lets be happy we seem to have squeaked out of this.

Brad Chambers

Brad.I'm never happy when a bill such as this is proposed. Regardless of what rep. Isely says it smacks of TPWD wanting to shut down herpers. Never mind that they have done nothing to protect certain species from commercial exploitation, and that this bill would NOT offer any such protection. Remember when they set up the non-game department? they asked for everything, tossed the herpers a few bones that they didn't want anyway to make us feel good, then did pretty much what they wanted.
Texas needs some sensible laws but isn't likely to get them.

I agree-so let's get some. Obviously someone at TPWD has problems with us. Troy Hibbits(among others) has suggested that we use the time between now and the next legislative session to get organized (maybe via the THS?) and work with TPWD to address those concerns in a way acceptable to the herping community. Other hunters and fishermen have been intimately involved in the legislative process for decades, so why not do the same ourselves?

Brad Chambers

John,

I agree with you. I think that most of this originates from a handful of people in TP&W L/E who have for years have had a bad taste for herpers originating with some of the commerical collecting issues out in the Trans-Pecos back during the 70s. How we change the attitudes of those folks...I don't know. As some of those folks retire and new people come on-board that attitude still seems to get passed on and instilled into them, probably during training.

This legistative session is in its final days and if HB 2414 doesn't make it out of the House soon, with or without the promised amendment, it is probably going to die on the vine, as it still has to work its way through the Senate before the session ends.
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Gerald Keown
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
www.southwesternherp.com

I quit picking up mice with the advent of Hanta. I don' think spiders are in any of the game wardens cross hairs. I've been told that the bill is likely dead as well, so it probably doesn't matter anyway. Either way, I think the defeat of this bill requires a celebratory cookout in Del Rio...anyone?
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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

This law would only apply vertebrates under TP&W definition of "Wild Animal" anyway. So with insects being exempt, it is like the sound of one hand clapping..

And with each day that passes it up it is a lot less likely to make it on the books anyway. This session is very close to its end and I can not see this law as a priority on the floor compared to anything related to funding etc...

What we need to do is get all the Herp Societies involved in forming a dialog to work with out Legislators to put together some legislation that addresses conservation issues while protecting the individual sportsman. I am not sure what that would be yet, but with enough good thinkers working together it could happen.

No matter what we need something to put on the books next session, by golly if we don't do it somebody else will.

Lance