Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have notice that the Posting below in regards to banning the Burms, is only posted in Ball Python Forum but no others not even the Burms.

I just wonder why this is? That posting should be the Burm section considering they are trying to save the Burm Trade right now the Ball Python Trade...

Good Q! I think they do it here cause of high traffic! I think Kathy Love just recently post some corn snake thing on here cause of high traffic!

If the burms are banned, what's next? Next will be the retics, afrocks, condas, and then what? Then it's the ball pythons, the boas, every reptile you've ever had the joy of caring for. It's not about saving the burm trade, it's about saving the WHOLE ENTIRE REPTILE COMMUNITY. It just so happens that ball pythons are the most popular boid species, and so this forum has the highest amount of traffic. That's why USARK posts here.

BUT - my understanding is that the language of the bill has not been changed, and still says Python genus. MAYBE it will be changed later, maybe not. So it is not just a Burmese problem at this point.

This IS one of the most active forums here. And laws in general are often most likely to affect boas and pythons first, although ALL of us can be on the chopping block at any time. I think there might be larger numbers of BP breeders with more at stake than many other species. So I think this forum is a great place to try to garner support for US ARK, PIJAC, and anyone else who can help us, whether we do it through corn snake dinners or in any way we can.

When I asked permission to post, KS told me I could choose up to 4 forums. So it seemed natural to post here, the python forum, corn snakes, and the laws forum. And, of those 4, I have to say that this forum was the main one to produce discussion AND offers of donations. So you are right when you say that this is the place to be for active discussion and helping out US ARK. (And thanks to those who have offered donations - we will thank everyone individually after the Expo).

Because USARK seems willing to sacrifice Burms to ensure that all other pythons are excluded. Their position, as I read and interpret it is basically..."we dont want to lose anything, but we'll quietly go away if you take the burms only". No Burm keeper is going to get on board with that approach....

THAT IS EXACTLY WRONG! USARK is working to preserve the trade in captive bred Burms. There are very few Burms being imported these days and the Senate is very sympathetic to Senator Nelson's bill in the aftermath of the tragedy in FL and last week's Senate EPW Hearing. How many Burms are you importing? Probably none. Would you rather have NO TRADE IN ANY PYTHONS?... or the end of ONLY the importation of Burms with the captive bred commerce in Burms EXEMPTED out?
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Andrew Wyatt
President USARK

I'm on your side...but reading some of the things you folks have put out, it looks like your first (and probably most attainable) goal is to get the wording changed to include ONLY the Burmese python, with a secondary goal to change the wording to ONLY restrict the importation wild specimens and not affect captive specimens. Obviously, burm people are going to be unhappy with either of those positions...

I hope I didn't sound snappy... sometimes forums don't convey meaning accurately because you miss facial expression and voice inflection. We are working hard for the package deal. We are dedicated to the preservation of the ENTIRE community.

As a side bar... I myself am a Burm and Retic Breeder... and I have imported animals in the past... even though my last deal was 3 years ago.

We are ALL on the same team!
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Andrew Wyatt
President USARK

Actually, their position, as it's written, is to allow the continued captive breeding and commerce of burms, just not importation. And really, with as common as they are CB compared to the number of people who can properly house them, do we need to import them? The CB babies are cheap enough as it is.

breeders if they are able to convince the government to stop the cheap imports, and still allow the c.b. trade, with basically the same regulations we already deal with here in Florida. Seems like the higher dollar morphs wouldn't be affected much, but hets and normals would lose the cheap competition from imports.

The only problem would be no new morphs of burms coming in, which in my opinion, is really hurting the burm market. However, in the long run, the end of burm importation would be good for the whole reptile community. As it is, the big boid hatchlings are too cheap considering their massive size potential. How many people got in over their heads because they could get a cute baby burm for $50?

I suppose there are international trade protectionism issues to consider and in general I don't like taxes in principle but what if they had a $100/head python import tariff? Then anything truly new comes along it could still be brought in. Probably wouldn't be many takers but any small revenue that was actually raised could go to an invasive species fund (which of course would do no good at all, especially if run by the government, but it's the perception of doing something about the perceived problem that's important anyway, right?).