Hello all. Well, it doesn't look good for the show happening again any time soon. A lot of vendors were sited, many wrongly, and I doubt many out of state vendors will be rerurning. Apparently, no reptiles can be brought into Ohio to sell without veterninary paperwork on each animal. If the animals are protected in neighboring states and aren't native to Ohio, you have to have paper work proving they are captive bred and they have to be microchiped. Any species that is native to Ohio is basically the same thing, they have to have paperwork and must be microchiped. Many vendors were sited for having animals that were misidentified by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. I know of vendors sited for Maxican Black Kings, identified as Black Racers, corn snakes, Id'd as eastern Milks, and Texas rats, not sure what they were calling them! A few vendors were sited for having albino black rats and leucistic hognose. As far as I know, mutations are not covered under Ohio's laws, so they were also wrongly sited.
Supposedly the intent was to bust a ring that was collecting in the wild and not documenting these animals. In 2000, a law was passed in Ohio that outlawed the taking of species from the wild. You can take up to 4 native herps, but you have to register them within 10 days of capture, at ten bucks each animal. If they are in your possesion more than 30 days, they can not be released back to the wild and you must have them microchipped by the state. You have to renew the registration every year, at ten bucks each, and any offspring have to be microchipped and the info sent to ODNR. Most of the states surrounding Ohio have pretty similar laws. Some people were getting around the laws by taking animals across state lines to sell or to keep. The only problem there is that the Lacy Act was being broken, so federal charges could be brought, and have been. From the way the ODNR and feds handeled the raid, it was pretty obvious that the real intent was to close this show down, possibly for ever.
The thing that really sucks is that since 2000, they had been staking out the show, and actually had undercover guys posing as vendors at the show for a pretty long time. They had pictures, phone taps, and emails.
I know that a lot of you are thinking, "So what, that's Ohio, I'm in(insert state here), how is that going to affect me?" What you should be thinking is, "When will it happen here?" Every year we lose more and more of our freedoms to keep and collect herps. I know we always say, "This is too far, we need to stand up and be heard!" Well, the time is now. Any one who lives in Ohio, or any other state with ridiculous laws applied to herps, we need to write as many people as we need, we need to get the media to look at our side of things and publicize that. Call your local news stations, write the appropriate people, do anything, just make a difference for the good! Have the media point out all of the errors that were made by supposed "experts" that can't even properly identify native species in the state they work for! The major amount of money, I honestly wouldn't at all doubt if they spent more than $1,000,000 all told, to bust a handful of people and to confiscate $50,000 in animals. Is this really a victory over evil poachers, or a HUGE waste of tax money, my money, your money?
Any way, please don't take this lying down, the time is now. If we don't fight for our rights no one will!
Thanks,
Rick S.
