Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
Was talking to a coworker the other day about my reptile collection. We got into a discussion about rear-fanged species being illegal to keep in alabama... venomous is illegal-and rear fangs technically have venom so they are considered illegal to.

I would like to know if anyone has any information on this, a website I could go to, or anything at all... just wanted to research this a bit because it was news to me.

>>Hey,
>>Was talking to a coworker the other day about my reptile collection. We got into a discussion about rear-fanged species being illegal to keep in alabama... venomous is illegal-and rear fangs technically have venom so they are considered illegal to.
>>
>>I would like to know if anyone has any information on this, a website I could go to, or anything at all... just wanted to research this a bit because it was news to me.

Welllll... that's a bit of a messy piece of legislation if all it does is to ban "venomous" without specifying what species or what exactly is meant. For a start, defining the term "rear-fang" is a bit of a challenge, and so is "venomous". There is every conceivable itnermediate stage between very clear-cut rear-fangs with large, deeply grooved posterior maxillary teeth through to those with totally undifferentiated maxillary teeth. As to venomous, this technically includes practically all colubrids except N. American rat snakes, king snakes, Pituophis and relatives (although most of the others are of course harmless to humans, to all intents and purposes). If you wanted to take this to the extreme, a ban on "venomous" would mean banning garter snakes, ring necks, Tantilla, etc.

The first thign to do would be ot get hold of the actual text of the legislation to determine exactly what has been explicitly made illegal.

See also a discussion on this on the Venomous, Rearfang and Indigo forums here.

Cheers,

WW
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WW Home

All rear fang snakes are not illegal in AL just as all venomous are not illegal in AL. You can own most rear fangs, just not certain ones. You are also allowed to own native venomous, just no exotic venomous.