Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A small group of us have been looking into changing the laws of owning potentially native species of non-venomous snakes. This is a potentially beneficial move on the part of sellers and buyers as Georgia has the 8th largest population in this country, thats alot of potential customers.Not only can we not collect, touch, handle, native species in the wild "not really my personal agenda" We cant own any morphs cb or not of any potential native species. A petition has been organized and all of your help is needed. thanks please go sign this-damien
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?reptile

Petitions like this are useless, but I'm going to email that link to a few people anyway. People should be aware that snakes are probably the most misunderstood animal on earth and they should stop misunderstanding them.

Linzoy,
I don't think its a case of misunderstanding that produced the law in Georgia. Its actually an attempt to protect their native herps. Though habitat loss is number one with a bullet for causing the decline of snakes and other wildlife in our world, over collecting is a big problem. For those who live in Georgia (I do not) you should be thrilled that they are trying to protect your snakes. Bite the bullet and do not keep your potential natives. There are an absolute mind boggling number of captive breed non-natives you can keep. So you can't keep an Eastern king (awesome reptile, and I can sympathise) but, hey, YOU guys and gals can head on out there and check em out in the wild where they belong (and yes, handle them, take pictures, enjoy them out there, just not in front of a game warden).
Stop collecting. If your under the misguided belief your snakes are an infinite resource, you are wrong.
Just my 2 cents,
Paul

paul,
Do you own snakes? Or are you just trolling the threads? These animals that we are interested in are human bred animals, there is no doubt that we need to protect our native snakes, but you need to look at georgias laws before you continue with your comments as I can clearly see that you dont know exactly what you are talking about. Two days ago hundreds if not thousands of rattle snakes were killed in Claxton , Georgia for the rattle snake round up, Theres a no bag limit on venomous snakes as they are considered pests, we are actually trying to change this, I have no personal interest in collecting at all, but I most certainly think its the crassest thing evr to not be able to own a 5th generation snow corn bred in California,. How in the world can one say that thats a common species in Georgia I dont know,. this smells awfully PETA to me-damien

Damain,
I do own snakes and have done so for over 20 years. No, I'm not trolling. I did miss the part about just non-venomous; thats a shame, they should be protecting the venomous also. Really what spurred me to respond was the collecting thing. Its my opinion that we should be leaving our wild snakes in the wild. One of my absolute favorite things is to go out and find and photograph wild herps. Your petition cites the code in question and touches on certain things but does not have the code to peruse (at least I did not see it). If your going to petition for my signature in this venue then give me the information, not just the parts that rile you. It is rediculous that you can't keep a cb cornsnake reared in California.
PETA is inane, I hope you were'nt associating me with them.

Paul
Do you own snakes? Or are you just trolling the threads? These animals that we are interested in are human bred animals, there is no doubt that we need to protect our native snakes, but you need to look at georgias laws before you continue with your comments as I can clearly see that you dont know exactly what you are talking about. Two days ago hundreds if not thousands of rattle snakes were killed in Claxton , Georgia for the rattle snake round up, Theres a no bag limit on venomous snakes as they are considered pests, we are actually trying to change this, I have no personal interest in collecting at all, but I most certainly think its the crassest thing evr to not be able to own a 5th generation snow corn bred in California,. How in the world can one say that thats a common species in Georgia I dont know,. this smells awfully PETA to me-damien

I dont disagree with the fact that wild animals be wild, the reason I asked about your owning snakes answers all my riddles, where do you think they came from?Seriously, we all know where they came from, Again I will say I have no interest in capturing anything.Oh yea - its not my petition, I am just supporting it-damien

Generally I would agree, but in this case we have some people in the DNR interested, and they actually agree,and have even been trying on their own, its rather trife to not try at all. If a group of people band together against said government policy we the people have the right to have laws questioned ad changed, having a defeatest attitude will accomplish nothing and we all moght as well give up and sell out to China - meakness did not win our freedoms, damien

I'll do whatever I can to help, and I know that you can get enough snake lovers to band together and protest, but I don't see how the part about defeating the government is going to work. It's not likey that the authoritys will read through that internet petition and go through the trouble of changing their mind, but I signed it anyway with the comment "snakes aren't monsters." If that helps non venemous snakes become avalible in georgia, great, I just don't think it's likley.

Another problem I have is with the idea that people from other states are participating in the petition. This is going to be headed to your state government, not the national government as this is a state by state decision. Therefore, any of the signatures from out of state, unless the people are offering testimonials or sighting evidence, will, IMO, be probably cast aside. Afterall, why would someone in the GA government care what some citizen of California says about the fact that people in GA can not keep corns and kings and what not? Just my opinion. Might not matter because, like other posters said, it is an online petition which will carry VERY little weight. Anyone can sign, and you can sign more than once under more than one name (and a name that might not even be real). Good luck though. It sounds good in theory, but you aren't missing much. I find corns dull lol.
-----
Andy Maddox
AIM: SurfAndSkimTx04
MSN: Poloboy32486@hotmail.com
Yahoo:surfandskimtx04
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry