Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm trying to understand the whole CITES thing....please correct me if I'm wrong. Any animals undert the CITES 1 list cannot be sold/traded/exported/imported. They are only to be seen in the wild and never caught. And the CITES 2 list is animals that can only be sold/traded within the states, but they can't be exported. If this is right please tell me. If not, please correct me. And if there's a website that I can go to see an explanation of CITES laws, I would appreciate it. Also, where would I find the CITES I and CITES II lists? Thanks
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2.0 Physignathus cocincinus (Chinese Water Dragons)
0.1 Physignathus Lesueurii lesueurii (Australian Water Dragon)
1.1 Pogona vitticeps (Inland Bearded Dragon)
1.0 Hemitheconyx caudincinctus (African Fat-Tail Gecko)
0.5 Eublepharis macularius (Leopard Gecko {2 normals, 1 albino, 1 blizzard, and 1 jungle})

Cites are international regulations that are enforced between different countries and have no bearing on what goes on inside the country or between countries who don't participate in cites or don't care. appendix one animals are considered endangered and trade is severely restricted and requires huge amounts of paper work from importing and exporting countries as well as(I assume from the people who manage cites. If you were in the U.S. or the E.U. and wanted to buy an elephant from south africa you would not be able to unless you were a zoo or involved in legitemate scientific research and then only after lots of red tape (If you were in China or Japan and needed an aphrodesiac that would be ok because china and japan don't care but thats a different story.) Appendix II animals are animals that are considered threatened unless trade is limited and therefore limited trade is generally ok with proper permits. If you want a bunch of Iguanas from Costa Rica All you need is the proper paper work. Here in the U.S. you have to deal with the U.S. endangered species act and the Lacey act. Indian pythons are listed under the U. S. endangered species act as endangered this means that interstate trade is restricted. If I am selling Indian pythons to a Fla resident here in Fla where I live there is no problem but if that person lives in georgia I cannot sell it to them (sound stupid, it is and it probably has destroyed captive populations of Indian Pythons and helped doom them to extinction but then the Govt. is good at things like that.) The Lacey act also protects native animals from interstate sales. If you caught gila monsters in Az. where they are protected and sold them in Tx. where they are not you would be in violation of the lacey act. If you had western diamondbacks in Tx. and sold them to someone in Mass. where they are illegal (I think, just an example.) you would also be in violation. I hope this sheds some light obviously there is more to this mess but this should shed some light on it.

The U.S. fish and wildlife service can give you all this info and the Cites lists. I'm sure they have a web-site. They usually have a table at the Daytona show if you go to that. I once inquired about shipping Day geckoes to japan, and they were actually quite helpful with the info they gave me. Even though I am not a fan of big-govt or excessive regulations I do have to give credit where credit is due, the officers I talk to were quite nice.