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Just thought I would pass this along...it doesn't seem to apply to uros, but where does it end? I think responsible herp owners should not be denied the right to own reptiles. Granted when we talk about dog bites or deaths from dog bites there are a lot more dogs, but...what will the government ban next, dogs, cats, kids???

DO YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR RIGHTS TO OWN REPTILES? READ THIS!!!

Posted by: dumerils.com at Mon Jul 21 23:43:06 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

Chicago is currently pushing a city wide ordinance to ban reptiles, birds, bats certain cats, wolves, hybrids and the list goes on. But don’t stop reading now because you think this doesn’t affect you because you don’t live in Chicago. What they are pushing is the exact same ordinance passed a while back in NYC verbatim. They only thing they have changed is the references made to NYC, they simply cut out NYC and added Chicago. I spoke to the women today who rewrote the ordinance and asked her why they were pushing this. Now this lady is a lawyer supposedly educated, her response to me was “because my boss thinks it’s a good idea”. From there I asked her why it’s a good idea “well for one I think reptiles can make people sick……..oh and they can be dangerous as well”. I asked her what reptiles can make people sick with? “I don’t know people get sick from handling them” Those were her responses verbatim, she “thinks” reptiles can make people sick? Come on these people don’t have a clue! WE HAVE TO STOP THIS NOW!!!!!! We all cant allow this to go on any further. I don’t care if you own one or 1000 reptiles it will effect you. This is the PERFECT example of how laws get passed in one place plagiarized and passed in another. Anyone who breeds reptiles, sells supplies, feeders anything at all reptile related this will affect you. Chicago is a giant market, between the city and the suburbs that this is sure to spill over into theres 7-11million people that can and will be affected locally every single person who ships reptile/critters or supplies into the area that will lose that market. Chicago is simply one of the largest cities in the US and if they can push this there its going to be a breeze anywhere else. I know someone is going to come along and say something about how they passed it in NYC but its unenforceable because the way it was written. Well I tell you this the hard part is getting it passed from there revising it and making it enforceable isnt that difficult. Its easier to stop it now then it is to get something reasonable added once its passed. I have someone tonight who is scanning the ordinance for me and tomorrow I will post the whole thing as it stands once I find a place to put it. How ever for tonight I will type the section concerning reptiles word for word and also post the contact info for the lady who written it and the Alderman sponsoring it. So please contact these people and tell them this ordinance sucks!!!! Call and write them letters, they will put more priority on then emails but I will post them to. At the very least if you live in Deerfield PA or some other place, please email them and let them know this isn’t right. If ya can call and write them letters and get everyone you can to as well. Also as soon as I have it I will post the address and info for the hearing concerning this and I beg everyone that can to show up, Ill be there and I am driving 5hrs. They are trying to push this through the “Police and Fire” committee. What do the Police and fire committee have to do with reptiles you ask? NOTHING! Sending it through a committee such as that us a sneaky way of getting it passed. The people there will know little to nothing about this issue and probably wont care so they’ll all vote one way so they can get on with business to something they care about. Anyway heres the contact info and section about reptiles as they stand. PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!!!!

Contact
This Ordinance is being sponsored by
Alderman Edward Burke
2650 W 51st st
Chicago Il 60632
773-471-1414
312-744-3380
cburke@cityofchicago.org

Co-Sponsor
Shirley Coleman
1249 W. 63rd st
Chicago Il, 60636
773-918-1670
sacoleman@cityofchicago.org

This was written by
Michelle Murphy 312-744-3380

Please contact them immediately!!! Tomorrow I will post a list of 20 other Aldermans you can contact as well who will be voting on this.

(10) Reptile(reptilia) All Helodermatidae(gila monster and mexican beaded lizards) all front-fanged venomous snakes, even if its devenomized, including but not limited to, all viperidea(viper, pit viper), all elapiidae(cobra, momba, krait, coral snake), All Atractaspididae(african burrowing asp), all hydrophidae(sea snake), all Latieaudidae(sea Krait) all venomous, mid or rear fanged, duernoy-glanded members of the family Colubridae, even if devenomized; any member, or hybrid offspring of the family boidae, including but not limited to, the common or green or anaconda and yellow anaconda;any member of the family pythonidae, including but not limited to African rock python, indian or burmese python, amethystine or scrub python; any member of the family Varanidae, including the white throated monitor, Bose’s or African savannah monitor, komodo monitor or dragon, nile monitor, crocodile monitor, water monitor, bornean ealess monitor, any member of the family iguanidae, including the common or green iguana, any member of the family teidae including but not limited to the golden, common or balck and white tegu; all members of the family Chelydridae, including snapping turtle and alligator snapping turtle; and all members of the family crocodylia including, but not limited to alligator, caiman and crocodile.

Thats how it reads verbatim. So you can forget your pastel, spider, pied ball pythons, dwarf species of boas of coarse not limited to and including albinos, sunglows, snows, motleys. If the ordinance passes you will never have the chance to own any of the above and if you do you better prey no one ever turns you in(POed Ex-girlfriend, competitor) because if they do your $10,000 Pied will become city property! We need to take action NOW!!!!!! So please write and call these people. Also I still need volunteers to work as liaisons to pass this sort of info along in other states. Also if you know of anything of this sort going on in your state please let me know. Send me links or info to get a copy of the bill, I will do everything I can to pass the info on to as many people as I can. And if you know of a herp society in your area please email there contact info(phone number, web site address, mailing addy, email addy, just anything). I want to comply list of all herp societies but don’t have the time to do searches and in a lot of cases they arent even listed on the net. I will get it all listed on my web site or start another on or something. But please email any helpful info you can as I will be posting this anywhere and everywhere I can and wont have time to go back and read all the replies. So please get active!!!!!!!!
Jason Sweigart
Classic@dumerils.com
www.dumerils.com
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Jason

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first of all.... i have a BA in law and i'm pursuing a BS in biology, and these people will definatly get an earfull from my community. secondly, i will be consulting a few professors of mine, one who is a herpetologist has written numerous publications on lizards and reptiles.... another who is an attorney. when i get some more information, I'll let you know what they say.... I'm in a rush, so i didn't have a chance to read the entire message, but I am definately printing it, and passing the word around later on this evening. Thanks for the heads up!

tara
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They probably didn't include the "uromastyx" species because they are not yet aware of its existance. Everyone that I've known (friends and relatives) have never even heard of a uromastyx before. Maybe it's good that they've been "flying below the radar". I sure hope this ordinance doesn't get passed. Good breeders like Doug Dix and Lindsey Pike would be out of a job and it would be a tremendous loss, considering all the hard work they've put in to provide us with quality animals.

they will definitely notice them since petsmart carries them. They will probably say that the tails can be used as weopons if they are trained by terrorists. I will tell my local herp society.
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even if it does get passed nothing will hapen to pet owners like us. I live in Chicago where fire works are illegal. Everyone even my 80 year old neighbors do fire works on the forth of july and all of the kids do fire works throughout the year and nothing has ever happened. I am not tell you you to blow your hands off but even if it does get passed you wont find !"S.W.A.T."! breaking down your front door and searching your house for lizards. Other than pet stores and uromastyx breeders nothing will happen to you. I think most of the animals they are trying to stop people from haveing are venomous and endangered reptiles so they can start to revive in the wild again. But for some of them i have no clue why they are making them illegal.

This kind of outright banning is usually caused by a lack of knowledge about the animals in question. I would hardly consider a uromastyx as a dangerous species (what would it do, tail-whip you in your sleep until you're dead? ) I don't think so! The reptiles they are worried about are large ones that pose a threat to humans, like crocodiles or venemous snakes. But since the government knows little about them and wants to avoid any such dangerous reptiles getting through a loophole in the law, it is just easier to ban all reptiles. I don't agree with this ban at all. A responsible pet owner should not have problems keeping a relatively dangerous reptile if he/she knows what they're doing. Pet owners who do not care for their animals properly run the risk of their pets biting them or attacking other people. Several people keep pitbulls and rottweilers, but if they're properly kept they should pose little to no threat. Those who are irresponsible are the major cause of young children getting attacked by their pets and the animal is then destroyed. As long as reptile owners are careful with their more dangerous animals, it is highly doubtful that the police will come to your door to investigate your home for now-illegal reptiles.

Is that the list of all the reptiles that are going to be banned as of now? Well, I guess if this 'law' comes into play I can kiss my ball python, savanna monitor, iguana, and two snapping turtles gone. Now.. where do we stand for the smaller reptiles, such as geckos, and agamas (including bearded dragons), skinks do we know that yet?

This is all a bunch of.. well, you know. I have a few people I can spread it to in different states. When it does come to action.. how the hell are they going to enforce it? There's so many people who have reptiles in the United States. I own about 20 without my neighbors even knowing so until I let them after me living there for 8 months. Reptiles are dangerous, yeah.. is that why people just drop dead in Florida? Because we have anoles running around all over the place? What are they gonna do about those lizards, hah. This is probably the most pointless thing I have ever heard of.