Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do any fellow Singaporeans know why CITES permits are available but when I called the AVA they said all reptiles are banned in Singapore. There doesn't seem to be any point in having CITES permits available to the public then.

As far as I know, it is illegal to keep "exotic" pets in Singapore - go define it, I have read in the paper (Straits Times) some time back about a guy keeping rare tortoises for all his life and seems like it is OK to do that!(???) I think CITES permit has got nothing to do with keeping reptiles in Singapore, it is more for trading (importing and re-exporting) purposes. According to what I know, we are not even allow to keep any herp we found in our own property! I know why the Australian has such laws, but let me know if you have any idea why the Singpaore government is doing it.

As far as I know, these are the reasons:
* AVA is afraid of diseases being transmitted by imported reptiles

* They're afraid that when owners tire of them and release them into the wild, these introduced species may threaten Singapore's biodiversity.

* They view such creatures as being a public threat if they escape.

Ah yes, they have their good reasons and I am not saying that I completely disagree with them. But aren't these reasons also apply to other countries? Oh I see, the POSSIBILITY of introducing alien species to the wild (?) is probably worst then the reduction of mangrove swamp when it comes to distroying our biodiversity (how much left?). I guess it is just always easier to take away the rights of the minority, who cares about herper anyway.

there is actualy little chance of a reptile to transmit disease to human.mostly because they are cold blooded.we don't have the same metabolic rate.so any virus endemic to reptile will have a hard time to adjust to a human body.the only major treat from reptile is salmonela,which is avoidable if you keep them in hygenic condition.there is actualy bigger chance of disease transmition to human if you keep birds or mamal since they almost have the same metabolic rate.so if they do harbor any disease,it would be easyer to transmit to human.

what do you mean that they are afraid they may threaten singapore's biodiversity?a lose tortoise eating up of whats left of singapore greenery?a kingsnake eating singapore jumbo rats population?with what's left of singapore forest and natural undisturb places,there is little chance of them breeding.hell there is little chance of even what's left of singapore own wildlife to breed!

what public threat?scared of bitten by a cornsnake?there is those local cobra to do it for you.whip by a green iguana?there are those large local monitor lizard to whip you.bitten by a giant toad?those xxl local rats will make them run for their money.scared they will destroy of what's left of singapore greenery?there are those local contractor to have the job done!

well,there is actualy little to no threat if singapore let importing of captive breed of some species.like corns,kings,milks and most collubrid.and cb lizard like leopard gecko.or chelonian like map turtle,leopard and sulcata tortoise.
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1.3.2 indian star tortoise
0.0.2 radiated tortoise
0.1.0 burmese star tortoise
0.0.1 sulcata
0.0.1 elongated tortoise
0.0.1 leopard tortoise
0.1.0 red foot tortoise
0.1.0 pancake tortoise

0.1.0 snapping turtle
0.0.2 alligator snapping turtle
0.0.1 chitra-chitra
1.0.0 asian giant pond turtle

0.0.2 leopard gecko

0.0.1 amazon tree boa
0.0.1 green tree python
1.0.0 blood python
1.0.0 wagler's pit-viper

0.0.1 cuvier dwarf caiman

0.1.0 cobalt blue tarantula

0.0.2 arapaima gigas

5.2.0 cat's

Well, those were the reasons given. It doesn't make particular sense to me but thats what they did when the CITES came up. Decided to ban the whole lot of herptiles with very few exceptions.