Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any info on where to start to get a county/state statute banning ALL pythons and boas changed?

Where can I get relevant information on this? I'll need information from professionals stating that certian species are not harmful or are very low risk, etc. Does anyone have this infomration or know where I can get it?

Under the current ban even a Children's Python is illegal!
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

>>Does anyone have any info on where to start to get a county/state statute banning ALL pythons and boas changed?

I'd be interested in this too--maybe collectively a template can be drafted which could be tailored to individual state/municipality statutes.

One area to start may be to consult with the applicable agencies regarding actual cases which precipitated the enactment of the statutes in the first place. Compare the cases reported in the state in question with overall cases reported (nationwide).

An important thing to remember is that many of these statutes are enacted due to emotion (primarily fear), not facts--reference the recent news article (linked elswhere on kingsnake.com) about a python escaping in an apartment complex and the resultant knee-jerk petition to enact a law banning such snakes. The common refrain when confronted with facts such as "nobody in (city X) has EVER been attacked, much less killed, by one of these snakes, even though X number have been sold in our town's pet stores," is that "we want to be proactive, and we'll never know how many lives we've saved," even if the number is ZERO.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet