Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that a person sees a Texas rat snake hit by a car in the state of Texas. It's only a glancing blow and the snake darts into an adjacent business parking lot. Now let's say the person who saw this happen swings into the parking lot, parks, leaps out and catches the snake. Let's say the snake has minor injuries, but survives and is kept in captivity by the person who caught it.
Were any Texas laws broken in this scenario?

If the snake was taken from private property with owner's permission, the person had a valid Hunting license, and no commerce was involved, I believe that would be legal.

If commercial activity involving that snake took place, then that person would also need a Non-game Commercial Dealers Permit and comply with those rules, as well.

I suggest you contact The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to confirm what I have just stated is correct.

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

...transplanted Texan.
I grew up in South Texas. For the most part in an oil patch 40 miles west of Corpus Christi (oil field trash..and proud of it.). For as long as I can remember it has been illegal to catch and keep horned lizards for pets. We would often see them running around outside school and often times one of us would catch one and play with it for a bit or worse yet (gasp) keep it for a while until we got sick of taking it to an ant bed every day so it could eat. Anyway the rest of us would bust on the person who caught the horny toad and inform them that it is against the law.
The universal response to that was to tear a piece of paper out of a note book crumple it up and throw it on the ground and reply "so's littering"
Collared Peccaries (javelinas) are also illegal to keep as pets and once again have been for as long as I can remember. I cannot tell you how many people I know who kept javelinas for pets including my next door neighbor. It used to follow his wife around like a dog. I could go on and on and on about this subject but what I see here on this site is a lot of people who didn't grow up in Texas and don't really understand the culture. My advice would be to get the hell out of Austin, it ain't no damn good for anything it never has been and never will be (Sam Houston probably spins in his grave so fast these days he could be used to generate electricity.) and learn how to bribe your local game wardens so they will leave ya'll the hell alone.