Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For those of you keeping or planning to keep Mexican beaded lizards in Ca, you can relax. The Department of Fish and Game and the Fish and Game Commission decided NOT to change the the restricted species list to include all members of the genus Heloderma. Mexican beaded lizards remain legal to possess, transport and import in California.

This did not happen by magic and thanks are due to several sources.

USARK provided money for a lobbist in Sacramento and meetings between DFG, the lobbist and USARK were probably most instrumental in preventing this change.

Our lawyer, Patrick Ciocca, who didn't receive enough time to present to the Commission or money to do the work, did an outstanding job - above and beyond the call.

And most importantly, everyone who wrote the Commission and presented at Commission meetings.

Excellent job for an excellent outcome.

They did address all three.

The frog-turtle import for food liscense issue was approved. They will not be issuing any permits allowing import of frogs and turtles for food purposes for one year. So this is still hovering. There were approximately 7 speakers on this issue, all but 2 (myself and USARK) were in favor.

The 671 permit changes were all adopted but the requirement to provide the names of customers. (for a few breath taking minutes, it looked like they might drop the all the changes to the breeder permit section, but they kept them after all). I don't know that there are that many 671 permit holders out there who weren't present, but for those might not know, you now have a stricter set of guideline to follow.

The beaded issue was tied to the 671 changes. The decision to drop beadeds from the list was DFG's (and I think strongly based on USARK meetings and our letters). I believe the beaded issue is pretty much dead in the water as far as DFG is concerned. It initiates too many problems for them.