*Middleton Update*- The committee meeting in Middleton to ban "wild, undomesticated" animals was held at 5:30 p.m. The item was originally much further down on the agenda, but it was moved up to the third item at the beginning of the meeting. There were many people in attendence for the various agenda items, but for the wild animal ordinance, we had a group of five individuals from the Madison herp society in attendence. There was also a lady who came to speak on behalf of sugar gliders, and she even bought one to the committee meeting.
The Police rep. mentioned that the ordinance was bought about when a resident from Madison wanted to move to Middleton with an alligator and that there were a few other requests for the ordinance. They bought up the concern about venomous being kept in the city and what my thoughts were on this. I was able to hand out letters, facts, statistics and USARK's model regs (all in a packet). The committee even mentioned the "Reptile Association". MAHS president Ryan McVeigh did a great job explaining to the committee how insignificant the public safety threat is concerning reptiles, and bought up the environmental aspect as well; none of these animals could survive long outside in Wisconsin. The most important thing we that any Wisconsin folks in this area need to continue to do is to raise awareness to this committee that there is a visible reptile community with expertise on this issue.
As a result, the "ayes" were in favor of deferring/delaying the ordinance until next month's meeting. Until then, what I need anyone in WI to do is continue to spread the word, post flyers at any herp society meetings, area pet stores, and shows. To anyone interested, I can send you the handouts I gave to the committee including letters, statistics, flyers, and USARK model regs and anything else you might need. Just let me know what you would like.
All and all, keep up the great work everyone! Although this is not over yet, this is what can happen when the local reptile community bands together to fight an ordinance.
