If you have any more to add, or comments on the ones already please send them to me.
SOME FACTS
* This legislation will allow Texas Parks and Wildlife agents free and unannounced entry into the homes of thousands of responsible taxpaying voters.
* We DO NOT support commercial collection of Turtles for the Asian Food Market
* We DO support bag limits and possession limits on certain species to limit impact of commercial collection
* We DO support the TP&WD white list to determine which animals can and can not be sold commercially
* Herpetologists do not use Firearms in pursuit of Reptiles and Amphibians
* It is already illegal to discharge a firearm on a public road or right of way
* This legislation denies Farmers and Ranchers the ability to deal with nuisance animals on public roads or right of ways
* This legislation makes it illegal for a child to chase a Lizard at a rest stop, ditch, or even the street in front of your home
* Traffic safety is a non issue as DPS has no record of a Herpetologist causing an accident on our public roads or right of ways
* The most common activity is to park and walk safely on the right of way
* TP&WD denies Herpetologists access to Wildlife Management Areas. Without public roads and right of ways there is no public land available for our Hobby.
* This legislation would make it illegal to restrain an animal even for the purpose of removing it from a roadway to save its life
* This legislation will cripple the Herpetology Departments at every Texas College and University. Without access to specimens collected from public roads and right of ways the number of specimens available for study will be reduced by over 90% since most of these specimens are donated by hobbyist Herpetologists. Ironically this will have a long-term negative effect not only on the Science of Herpetology but also on the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. How will the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department recruit qualified Herpetologists for their staff if the students do not have adequate specimens available as study materials?
* This legislation would be the first such legislation in any state which outlaws collection of non-protected non-game species on public roads and right of ways. In New Mexico collection from road surfaces is written into the law as legal means of take for non-protected non-game species, i.e. Reptiles and Amphibians.
* This legislation would represent a financial burden on already struggling rural communities that depend on tourist dollars from Reptile Hobbyists. The towns of Langtry, Comstock, Marathon, Del Rio, Freer, Sweetwater, Terlingua, Sanderson and Alpine among many others stand to lose a significant revenue stream should the act of searching for non-protected non-game species be prohibited on our public roads and right of ways.
* We have on file at your request opposition statements from the Biology Departments at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, and the University of Texas at Arlington. New preserved and live specimens are required for study because the majority of the preserved collections at these Universities are in formalin, which renders DNA useless. Advances in DNA research warrant the non-commercial collection of non-protected non-game Reptiles and Amphibians by hobbyists from our public roads and right of ways.
