Reptile & Amphibian Forums

"House Bill 12 Implementation — Controlled Exotic Snake Permits

The on-line public comment period is 12:00 a.m. December 21, 2007, through 09:00 a.m. January 24, 2008."

Lance
House Bill 12 Implementation — Controlled Exotic Snake Permits

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Herp Conservation Unlimited

Well Lance, the law has been passed and now the regulations for enforcement begin. I have sent Major Sinclair my thoughts on this but I believe we all know how that is going to be answered. What I don't like about the law is I think commerce and transportation of non endangered or threatened, native to the US venomous should be allowed with permit, but dislike the way they went about getting the figures to run the operation they are going to. I think a quarter of a million dollars is a heckuvalot of dough for 4 wardens at 58,000 a year and some bookkeeping. I and many other city residents already cannot keep constrictors over 6' and many other states and cities are going the way Florida has. Now that Texas is bowing to the Snakes on a Plane mentality, whatcha gonna do? I believe we are best served getting new and better laws in place, and will hold my energy and resources for that. If we could only get the state herpetologist and academians to voice up without fear for their jobs, we might make some sense out of all of this. I do not like my priveleges taken from me, especially when they are not the wrench in the spokes they are made out to be.
Todd M.Hughes
Corpus Christi, Texas
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Todd Hughes

I see that a person purchasing a controlled species has 21 days from the date shown on their reciept, in which to obtain a permit. My only problems are there is no similar provision for someone getting something as a gift or in a trade, without any reciept. Also what if I, as an out of stater, want to bring one of my friends a controlled species? I make 1 to 2 trips per year to TX and, in the past have gifted snakes to a few of the many friends I have made there. There was no provision I could find that would allow me to simply transport the animal to them. I did send TPWD a comment staing my concerns.

I have to agree the planning and execution was poor at best, they seem to have no idea what they are doing or how they should do it. But the fact is we have to find a way to work with it for now, none of the issues can be truely addressed until the next session, but we need to know how these vast grey areas they left behind will be addressed...
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

Here are my comments as submitted so far...
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There is at least one serious flaw in these recommendations.

"Proposed new §55.652, concerning Permit Required, would: ; require a person who sells a controlled exotic snake to possess a commercial controlled exotic snake permit;"

There appears to be no proviso in these rules for a recreational controlled exotic snake permit holder to sell their animal at a later date without obtaining a commercial permit. This will create issues in regards to disposal of unwanted animals. Additionally along those lines if one recreational user sold his snake to another recreational user there would be no receipt nor
be default a provisional license.

Most of the people that keep these animals are hobbyists, they are not businesses, and may only have 2 or 3 animals but may sell them amongst friends at some point in their life. Your rules make all transactions commercial and require a commercial permit.

You can't make it illegal for a recreational pet owner to sell their pet without a commercial license. You will end up seeing more animals dumped, which is what this exercise is in part trying to prevent. As it is this law when enacted will cause a number of animals to be dumped, regardless of the fact that it's illegal.
You must give recreational permit holders a way to legally dispose of unwanted animals.

Also, I don't understand why a commercial permit holder must be required to hold a recreational permit as well.

"Proposed new §55.652, concerning Permit Required, would: require a person who possesses a controlled exotic snake to possess a recreational controlled exotic snake permit;"

The controlled permit holder already pays more for his permit and his increased overhead due to your bookkeeping requirements, is it fair to penalize him yet a third time?

What business is it of Texas to know the identity of out of state buyers who purchase animals from Texas permit holders? This smacks of interfering with interstate commerce, especially in states that have no reporting requirements or
regulations.

Finally, any daily record data collected from commercial permit holders must be unaccessible as public data, RE; FOIRL requests, as this data will contain sensitive competitive business data as well as information on individuals that may be covered by federal privacy laws.

Those are some very good points I did not think of. I'm glad you brought it to their attention.