Reptile & Amphibian Forums

HB 1151 has been granted a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 1:30pm in House Hearing Room B in the John L. O’Brien Building. Please try to attend the hearing.

If you do not know yet who represents you, go to www.leg.wa.gov. Click on Find Out Who Represents You/District Finder. Enter your address and you will be given the names of your Legislators. You can click directly onto your Representatives name and then at the next screen, you will find their email address and phone number in Olympia. Or you can call the Toll-Free Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and give the operator your address — he or she will tell you who your Senator and two Representatives are.

If you can also contact the members of the House Judiciary Committee, that would be great. Please write, call, or email them today and ask them to please support HB 1151. Don’t forget to tell them that you are a Washington State resident.

IMPORTANT: If the following legislators on House Judiciary Committee represent you, it is even more critical that you contact them today and urge them to support HB 1151. Don’t forget to tell them that you are a constituent if they represent you! Remember: Please be polite, many of our legislators do support HB 1151!

House Judiciary Committee members:

Representative Pat Lantz, Chair
360-786-7964
lantz_pa@leg.wa.gov

Representative Tom Campbell
360-786-7912
campbell_to@leg.wa.gov

Representative Dennis Flannigan
360-786-7930
Flanniga_de@leg.wa.gov

Representative Steve Kirby
360-786-7996
Kirby_st@leg.wa.gov

Representative Skip Priest
360-786-7830
Priest_sk@leg.wa.gov

Representative John Serben
360-786-7922
Serben_jo@leg.wa.gov

Representative Larry Springer
360-786-7822
Springer_la@leg.wa.gov

Representative Brendon Williams
360-786-7940
Williams_br@leg.wa.gov

Representative Alex Wood
360-786-7888
Wood_al@leg.wa.gov

http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/billinfo1/dspBillSummary.cfm?billnumber=1151&year=2005

The Senate bill has been granted a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, January 27, 2005 at 10:00am in Senate Hearing Room 1 in the J. A. Cherberg Building. Please try to attend the hearing.

Eric,

Was your post just a cut and paste from another website? This will ban caimens, beaded lizards, and water monitors, as well as all venomous snakes.

Katrina

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER (Washington) 26 January 05 Proposed bill would prohibit owning dangerous wild animals (Kelly Kearsley)
Olympia, Washington (AP): Douglas Taylor knew he loved snakes from the first time he saw one at the tender age of 8. Now 40, the Snohomish County firefighter has turned his passion for the creatures into a lucrative hobby.
A proposed bill may put the brakes on his snake-breeding business.
The legislation would prohibit Washington residents from owning dangerous wild animals such as certain snakes, large cats, wolves, bears, monkeys, primates and crocodiles.
Taylor testified Wednesday against the bill at a public hearing hosted by the House Judiciary Committee, saying he'd lose as much as $15,000 a year because some of the snakes he owns and sells would be banned.
"There's been no epidemic of death or destruction by reptiles," he said.
Under the proposed law, local animal control authorities would be able to confiscate dangerous wild animals from people owning them illegally and relocate the creatures to zoos or wildlife sanctuaries.
The animals might be euthanized as a last resort.
Current owners could keep their animals until 2010. At that point, they would need permission from animal control officials to own the pets.
The intent of the bill is to protect the public from dangerous animals and protect the animals from possibly inadequate care from private owners, said Nicole Paquette, a lawyer for the Animal Protection Institute.
The California-based organization, which has championed similar legislation in other states, has been trying to pass the law in Washington for the past five years.
"Wild animals are inherently dangerous," she said. "And the private sector can't provide the care and treatment that they need."
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn't track the number of people injured or killed by privately owned wild animals.
Mike Wyche, the general curator of Cat Tales, a zoological park outside of Spokane, told committee members that Cat Tales receives hundreds of calls from people who own exotic animals or want them.
Past inquiries have included "Where can I buy a tiger?" and "My cougar needs a home. I'm getting married and it doesn't like my girlfriend," according to a log of phone calls Wyche presented the lawmakers.
"It's an ego trip to own these animals, and it's sheer greed that drives people to breed them," he said.
But for Jeanne Hall, president of the Phoenix Exotics Wildlife Association, owning the animals is more of a rescue mission than an ego boost.
"The drive for most private owners is to simply care for animals that need to be rescued," said Hall, who owns exotic cats.
Private owners, she said, many times take in injured or older animals that may not be eligible for spaces in zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. Owners would also lose the money they've invested in housing the animals, she said.
And then there's just the pure joy of owning a gigantic snake.
H. Phil Rodenberg reminded the lawmakers of this with a photograph of him and some school children playing with his albino Burmese python name Weezer.
"Really, you've never met a sweeter snake," he told the committee.
A public hearing on a companion bill was scheduled Thursday before a Senate committee.
Proposed bill would prohibit owning dangerous wild animals