After reading through the various signatures on the petition to stop the ban of sale and ownership of reptiles in NY, I was quite frankly disgusted.
As a collection of hobbiests, we cannot attack such legislation, accusing lawmakers of "having nothing better to do than harass us reptile owners" and that sort of thing. This is the sort of unorganized and spontaneous, not to mention childish, communications that give society the stereotype that reptile owners are social outcasts that own these animals for pure shock value.
The following is a letter I recently sent to the staff of the governer of NY regarding the reptile legislation currently pending his approval.
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I'm sure by now you've received a flood of emails pertaining to the exotic animal (mostly reptile) bill recently passed by the Assembly, which restricts the sale and purchase of exotic "dangerous" animals.
The bill is unfair to businesses and consumers alike. It combines harmless animals with tigers, monkeys and venomous species, all of which are already controlled by existing laws. Basically, all this bill is really doing is increasing the limits to contain boids, iguanas, monitors and turtles.
Boids, iguanas and turtles are NOT dangerous. They will not try to eat or kill a human being, either by hunger or defense. In all but a very few cases, they are not even capable of killing a typical sized adult.
A license to keep large exotics may be appropriate, specifically for those with small children living at home. Though one would expect someone keeping such animals to be intelligent enough to keep them away from their children, history has shown us otherwise. Such legislation already exists for crocodilians, venomous reptiles, tigers and other large "dangerous" mammals, etc. I think it would be easier to enforce if you were to extend existing legislation to cover large reptiles, than to ban their sale.
I write this not only as a concerned exotics owner, who has been safely keeping reptiles for over 18 years, but also as someone who has a vested interested in the exotics business. I also notice in reading the bill that it states there is no fiscal impact. This is not true. Exotic animal sales are the #2 revenue generating legal industry in the world, second only to sex/pornography. There are several exotics wholesalers in this state, and I have been to few retail outlets that didn't offer a large selection of reptiles. The ban of such animals would have to cause a large loss in sales tax revenue. Also, there would need to be additional employees hired to enforce such laws, where would the money for these people come from?
I feel this bill has been pushed through legislation on the "fear factor" surrounding exotic animals. To combine terms like boidae (a family of snakes ranging from 2 feet in length to 30 feet) and iguanas with elapidae (cobras, et al), viperidae (vipers, rattle snakes, et al), tigers, monkeys and the like seems like there was a personal reason to get some reptiles banned, and to do so these other, clearly dangerous and separately legislated, animals into the bill. These harmless reptiles are the only animals this bill covers that aren't already banned or restricted by other state and federal laws. The revenue generated by the requirement of a license to own such animals will not supersede the loss of income from sales tax in addition to the cost of employing people to enforce this law.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter. If there is any desire on your part to discuss this issue on a more personal basis, please let me know, and I will be glad to do so.
Sincerely,
Bryan Schaefer
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Don't simply copy this and send it to the same group, but please use it as a template of what areas to touch upon during the process to get this bill stopped. I'm not saying I said it perfectly, but it's alot better than saying something to the effect of "You law makers are all stupid," which isn't too far from many of the comments on that petition.
We need to communicate to the lawmakers of NY, and all states for that matter, that we are not a conglomerate of people who keep full grown retics and let our infants cuddle with them. Unfortunately, that sort of thing does happen, and although we cannot do much about it, it is the type of situation that gets legislation like this passed.
