Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As forewarned by USARK, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has published a proposed Rule Change in the Federal Register to add 9 Large Constricting Snakes to the Injurious Wildlife list of the Lacey Act.

Click here to read USFWS Press Release:
www.fws.gov/verobeach/images/pdflibrary/Giant%20Snakes%20Injurious%20Species%20Listing%20News%20Release.pdf

Click here to read proposed Rule Change:
www.fws.gov/verobeach/images/pdflibrary/Federal%20Register%20Notice%20(Public%20View%20Doc).pdf

USARK is analyzing the proposed Rule Change and will apprise the Reptile Nation of a course of action in short order. We are conducting a conference call with a coalition of industry interests to address this important issue. Immediately following that call we will be engaged in a call with the Small Business Administration, a government agency tasked with looking out for the interests of small business in the US.

The animals being targeted by proposed Rule Change are as follows:

(1) Python molurus (Indian [including Burmese] python).
(2) Broghammerus reticulatus or Python reticulatus (reticulated python).
(3) Python sebae (Northern African python).
(4) Python natalensis (Southern African python).
(5) Boa constrictor (boa constrictor).
(6) Eunectes notaeus (yellow anaconda).
(7) Eunectes deschauenseei (DeSchauensee's anaconda).
(8) Eunectes murinus (green anaconda).
(9) Eunectes beniensis (Beni anaconda)

This is NOT a time to panic or take rash action. We have expected this move for some time. Please await further instructions on how to proceed. When USARK does call for action please take it seriously and put forth your best professional effort to address this important issue. We have done the ground work and have put the Reptile Nation in a good place to successfully meet this challenge. It is imperative that all of our members conduct themselves in a calm professional manner. We have our work cut out for us but we are prepared address Rule Change.

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There Is Strength in Numbers... Protect Your Rights! We can win this fight!!

For questions or help contact:
Andrew Wyatt
president@usark.org

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USARK

This is a paragraph from the proposed rule change that, I think, says it all...

The draft economic analysis for the nine constrictor snakes (USFWS January
2010), provides the following information about the expenditures for research
and eradication in Florida, primarily for Indian pythons, which provides some
indication of the efforts to date. The Service spent about $600,000 over a 3year
period (2007 to 2009) on python trap design, deployment, and education in the
Florida Keys to prevent the potential extinction of the endangered Key Largo
woodrat at Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The South Florida Water
Management District spent $334,000 between 2005 and 2009 and anticipates
spending an additional $156,600 on research, salaries, and vehicles in the next
several years. An additional $300,000 will go for the assistance of USDA,
Wildlife Services (part of USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service). The
USDA Wildlife Research Center (Gainesville FL Field Station) has spent $15,800
from 2008 to 2009 on salaries, travel, and supplies. The USGS, in conjunction
with the University of Florida, has spent over $1.5 million on research, radio
telemetry, and the development, testing, and implementation of constrictor snake
traps. All these expenditures total $2.9 million from 2005 to approximately
2012, or roughly an average of $363,000 per year. However, all of these efforts
have failed to provide a method for eradicating large constrictor snakes in
Florida.

The "study" of this problem certainly pays alot of government salaries. CASH COW comes to mind.

On an unrelated note, I heard on a news report earlier today that while the national unemployment rate hovers around 10%, the unemployment rate for government employees is around 3%...hmmm.

Brian

That is exactly what it's all about, the Governmentalization of the private sector economy.

Every Tin-horn Totalitarian State requires regime support through economic incentive to survive.

In other words, the more regulation enforcers and bureaucrats on the "govment" payroll, all the better for regime survival.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer