Reptile & Amphibian Forums

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Charlie Crist has signed bills banning the ownership of Burmese pythons and other reptiles and requiring tracking of over-the-counter ephedrine sales.

The reptile bill (SB 318) signed Thursday prohibits importation and personal ownership of seven nonnative species.

They've become a problem in the wild when they escape or are released and one killed a child last year in Sumter County.

The ephedrine law (SB 1050) is designed to help catch those who use of the substance for making illegal methamphetamine.

Crist also signed bills loosening Florida seaport regulations so they'll be more competitive with ports in other states (HB 963) and lift restrictions on siting homes for developmentally disabled people (SB 1166).

www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/03/1662386/crist-signs-fla-python-ban-ephedrine.html

...Im a ROC license holder and was under the impression that there were only 6 ROCs (Retics,Burms,Afrocks,Green Annies,Scrubs,and Nile Monitors...whats the seventh?...

1. Burmese or Indian python (Python molurus).
2. Reticulated python (Python reticulatus).
3. African rock python (Python sebae).
4. Amethystine or scrub python (Morelia amethystinus).
5. Anaconda (Eunectes).
6. Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus).
7. Any other reptile designated as a reptile of concern by
the commission.

Originally 9, or is that just on the federal ban? 4 kinds of Anacondas were there.

This is FL law that just passed I copied the list off of USARK.

1.Burmese or Indian python (Python molurus).
2.Reticulated python (Python reticulatus).
3.Northern African python (Python sebae).
4.Southern African python (Python natalensis).
5.Amethystine or scrub python (Morelia amethystinus).
6.Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus).
7.Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus).
8.Any other reptile designated as a conditional or
prohibited species by the commission.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

I feel number 8 is left open in a way to make a door for them to add on anything else they want. They want to add on all much more I am sure since they want to shut it all down.
I think laws that can be amended drastically, or loosely interpreted or else just leaves a big hole of a door open like this is wrong. A law should get passed only by itself and should not leave such a wide margin of lead way for adding on or interpretation once in place.
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Noah was the first snake collector. ~Eric~

Having a hard time figuring out EXACTLY what the 7 ROC's are.

Here are 6..."Reptiles of concern are the Indian or Burmese python, African rock python, amethystine python, reticulated python, green anaconda and Nile monitor lizard."
Would #7 be the South African Rock?

I'm glad to see Governor Crist is a man of conviction -- to dash his future political aspirations and to ruin his political career for a cause he must truly believe in.

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

I do believe you are correct in that the African rocks are listed as 2 different species.
I never worked with either myself so I am a bit unsure. Other than a Nile monitor I kept for 15yrs that passed a few years back. The only African stuff I worked with were Chameleons (mostly Rhampholeon ssp.) a few cordylid lizards and african house snakes which I am still working with.

I think those of us in Fl. should start a new campaign in Nov. and put up little campaign signs that say "F*** YOU CHUCK" sans the asterisks.

There's the regular African and the southern (lesser) variety. But just greens? How about yellows and the other two 'condas?

n/p

What a great governor you guys in florida have. Tar balls are starting to wash up on the beach, and he's signing a bill about snakes. Yep.....he's sure got his priorities correct.

With a stroke of the pen,he just screwed all Millatary family's out of their collections when transfred and many more loyal to their jobs and family's that are tranfered by company's they work for. And most of all he started "the new underground herpetaculture" Now they will have no controll. Anyone know how Rubio,the guy running against him voted. The new Post America, forced complience through phony Science, fear,and lies. VM

apparently Rubio retired from the house to focus on his campaign. Doesn't matter to me either way if there is an r or a d after their name I won't be voting for them ever again. To me both parties are the same. One is the socialist party the other is "the not-as-socialist ...but still socialist" party.

Thanks,and I agree,as it seems now that the republicans inable the liberals by their apathy. VM

I think with the Republicans it's more of a calculated business decision. Not cost effective. Compared to what they are sacrificing, the alternatives look better. No different than business shedding an unprofitable/under performing asset.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

We do not have the money to support this ban they have proposed. Our state is in the hole now There have been huge cuts to education which seems to be everybodv's "golden calf" for government spending. There have been spending cuts for REAL law enforcemant, You know the type of law enforcement that deals with REAL crimes like murder, rape, armed robbery, car jackings, home invasions etc. As a taxpaying property owner here in Fl. this is what money NEEDS to be spent on, not on game wardens so they can arrest people for having pet snakes (my status as a reptile keeper aside.).
All they have done is make it harder for serious hobbiests to keep animals they want and in the meantime deprive themselves of very much needed tax money.
They did the exact same thing with bong sales as well. They have banned head shops from selling bongs. Like or dislike potheads (for the record I haven't touched the stuff in almost 20yrs. and was never all that excited about it anyway.) these headshops rent or own a shop on which they pay property taxes they pay for business licenses, they charge sales tax on there products and most importantly in this crappy florida economy they hire people. Now these places are going to be shut down, more people will be out of work the state will get less money and to add insult to injury the people who want bongs will still buy them on E-bay and Florida will not get ONE dime of sales tax money from the purchases.
The same thing will happen with rocs., with the permit system if someone wanted one here in fl. they could just get the permit and get their snake with a bit of oversight from the state and some income on it as well.
Now it will go underground, if someone still wants one and the demand will go up due to the forbidden fruit factor (I guess the so called "christian" republican forgot to read Genesis from the bible.) instead of possibly going through the state hoops and most likely buying one here they will buy it online or go out of state themselves. So much for those microchips to track them. I wonder how much money we wasted on that 2yr experiment. As a Florida resident I have to wonder if that money would have been better spent on education or REAL law enforcement or even using it to keep some of the repeat offenders of violent crimes behind bars? Actually I don't have to wonder I know the answer. This was a bad business decision and I will be sure to help let them know that come this November.

Seriously -- The bong thing brought an even worse behavior to mind. If they wanted to get rid of something, how about crack pipes? They should at least put a big sin tax on them.
I don't like crack-heads and I feel the habit supports Narco Terrorists right on our border.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

While walking home from donating plasma a few weeks ago, a truck crossed a lane of traffic and ran off of the road and almost hit me from behind. I heard the tires hit the gravel behind me and I knew he was coming at me so I spun around and jumped at the same time. I was ready to throw myself on the hood if I had to but was able to jump enough to the side to be missed by about two feet. He hit a ditch and instead of stopping gunned it and spun his tires until he got out and tried to get away. I chased him down on foot and when he saw he would get stuck at the light and there was no where to go he stopped and talked to me.
He said a truck ran out in front of him. But I still don't know why he ran across the opposite lane of traffic and still was going so fast he almost hit me from behind when I was walking on the opposite side against oncoming traffic.
Anyway The thing is I called 911 and all the operator said when I told her what happened was "Well do you want us to send a police car out?". I said well isn't that the kind of thing the police are for? She said well if no one was hurt there isn't really anything we can do anyway. OK, so they did not want to bother to see if the guy was high or drunk or both and if he had anything in his car that would be illegal? What if the next guy is not as fast of foot and thinking as I am? I guess if the next guy dies they maybe just maybe will send a police car out to the dead body.
The reason why I am posting this is that it makes me mad they can't help when this kind of thing happens.
I understand there have been cuts, but come on! They would have sent the swat team had I been picking a snake up off of the road. This smacks of the very core reason I am against bad government and stupid reptile laws.
Yes, we need some good restrictions on reptiles, but I emphasize good restrictions as in based on real science and not hockey hear say BS backed by AR groups. The time and money wasted is needed to help not only people but the animals too. And any of this time and money getting wasted for an AR wacky religious agenda is just that a pure waist for all even the animals.
We have to keep in mind most of this all stems from the fact that these groups feel that any animal in captivity is sad and abused just because they feel no animal should ever be kept in captivity.
This is the core of there reasoning and there reason for going after the pet keepers and the pet trade.
I don't know how they figure they know how any of the animals feel since the reptiles will not reproduce in captivity if they are not cared for correctly and happy. If they are not happy they would be stressed and this would lead to loss of appetite and a failure to reproduce. If they think they are the angel for these animals it must be the angel of death.
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Noah was the first snake collector. ~Eric~

Unfortunately, their priorities and their loyalties go where the money is. The money comes from the HSUS war chest and other like-minded organizations.

The only way to do away with such wrong-headed legislation is to stop the flow at the tough. The most effective way to do that is to mainstream our issues (as just one more example) with the rest of the public, to end once and for all, all of the lobbying that goes on with government through special interest groups like HSUS.

There must be a Nation-wide ground swell, grass roots effort to end the lobbying in Washington and in the States, as well as campaign finance reform, and possibly term limitations if we ever hope to end the war on herpers by those that seem to know what's best for us. You've got to cut the head of the snake off to effectively kill it in this case. No pun intended.

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

the laws anyhow. As far as I know, there are about 250 ROC permit holders in the entire state of Florida? I have to believe there are FAR more people than 250 that have burms or retics or amethystines. I would think it would be in the thousands. I know kids I have played soccer with that have retics they have no idea about permits. These are the kind of people that these laws hurt. Law abiding citizens that have no clue. I thought the ROC permit system was great! They should have just stuck with it. But you know how media spins, in about 2 years from now they will be saying look, no more burms in the Everglades due to tough laws signed by Crist! Not remembering the freeze off. You watch!

On a side note.. I moved to Florida 7 years ago to escape reptile laws in other states. I thought this would be the last place that would ban reptiles, because I figured it was coming nationwide! I figured Florida had too much revenue from exotics to ban anything boy was I wrong!
Pythons.net

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Pythons.Net

This is a great post. Every proposed law is like a job application to the people. It is going to cost money. If you would not pay money for the service they want to sell you then you should be against it being a law. In the case of the national ban on the big 9 people are getting "sold" this law while they are in a state of paranioa due to misinformation, not really thinking about what it is going to cost them down the line and how much of a drain it will be on other things. This is just the economic side of it and doesn't even touch on the right or wrong of laws that take away freedoms.