Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Illinois Reptile Ban Introduced/ Ohio Hearing Scheduled

On Wednesday February 1, 2012 Senator Heather Steans introduced SB3264, Dangerous Animals Act of 2012, into the Illinois General Assembly. SB3264 if passed could outlaw ALL boas and pythons; including Ball Pythons and Boa Constrictors. It would also include all venomous reptiles, all crocodilians, monitor lizards and some amphibians. It has been assigned to the Senate Assignments Committee. There has been no hearing scheduled as of yet. SB3264 was obviously written by members of the radical Animal Rights Industry. It is extremely broad in it's scope, and woefully ignorant in regards to the natural history and captive husbandry of reptiles and amphibians. There seems to be very little understanding of climate effects on most herps throughout the year in Illinois, and no understanding of occupational hazard vs public safety risk related to captive husbandry and animal management. It will be the challenge of USARK and the Reptile Nation to properly educate the Illinois General Assembly as to the facts and science as related to herps.

USARK will continue in their leadership role of fighting ant-herp legislation/regulation at both the federal and state level. It is the position of USARK that all herps be removed from Illinois Dangerous Animal Legislation (DAL) SB3264. There can be no logical fact based argument made to support that any herps can be designated as 'dangerous' in the broader context when traditional livestock and pets are considered. Herps are responsible for less than one death per year nationwide while dogs and horses are responsible for dozens of deaths every year. The much greater risk posed by more traditional animals is commonly considered by society as acceptable. Herpetofauna pose virtually ZERO PUBLIC SAFETY RISK!

***Please attend the Tinley Park Reptile Summit on March on Friday March 16, 2012 at 7PM CST***

Click here to read SB3264: www.usark.org/uploads/IL%20SB3264.pdf

OHIO UPATE and Scheduled Hearing:

Senator Troy Balderson of Zanesville has announced that he will introduce his long expected Dangerous Animal Legislation possibly as early as the afternoon of Monday, February 6, 2012. USARK has not as of yet seen the bill text, and it has not received a bill number, but that is expected prior to a Hearing scheduled before the Senate Agriculture, Environment & Natural Resources Committee for 1:30PM EST Wednesday, February 8, 2012. This will be a proponents Hearing; meaning that it will limit speakers to those that favor the bill. An Opponents Hearing is expected to be scheduled sometime in the next couple of weeks. USARK expects that this bill, once introduced, will be on the 'fast track' due to enormous pressure from Governor Kasich's Office. USARK will make an announcement once the Balderson Bill is introduced and an Opponents Hearing is scheduled. USARK OPPOSES THE INCLUSION OF REPTILES IN DAL PROPOSAL!

Click here to read Senator Balderson's Request for Sponsors Letter: www.usark.org/uploads/Ohio-Dangerous%20and%20Wild%20Animals.pdf

Click here to read Senate Agriculture Committee Agenda: www.usark.org/uploads/Ohio%20DAL%20Ag%20Comm%20Agenda.pdf

No on SB3264/ Illinois Reptile Ban

As posted in the last USARK alert, Illinois has introduced SB3264 Dangerous Animal Legislation which erroneously lists dozens of reptiles. It lists harmless ball pythons and Boas as dangerous; calling for a defacto ban on all of Boa, Python and Eunectes. Ironically, this is continued fallout from the incident in Zanesville Ohio that didn't even have any reptiles involved. The Humane Society of the United States is continuing their propaganda campaign and scare tactics state to state in order to stop as much animal ownership as possible. They have a long standing policy position against reptiles in captivity. It is common knowledge that captive reptiles are responsible for less than one death per year nationwide; while dogs account for 25-35 deaths every year. By no objective measure can reptiles be view as dangerous in the context of traditional pets and livestock that result in dozens of deaths per year.

Please help USARK educate the Illinois Senate Assignments Committee as to some of the facts about reptiles and the people it would hurt in this state. Take action now! Send a letter to the Illinois Senate!!

Click here to send a letter to Senator Steans and the Senate Assignments Committee: usark.org/​campaign.php?id=33

usark.org/campaign.php?id=33

Illinois Reptile Letter Campaign and SPAM Filters

Some peoples letters to Illinois Senate Assignment Committee are being filtered out as spam. You can try to send the letters to email addresses individually. Cut and paste sample letter and emailaddresses below.

Senate Assignments Committee:

hsteans@senatedem.ila.gov
dharmon@senatedem.ila.gov
jclayborne@senatedem.ila.gov
klightford@senatedem.ila.gov
kdillard@senaterep.ila.gov
drighter@senaterep.ila.gov

Sample Letter:

Senator Steans and Committee Members,

As a resident/stakeholder in the Illinois reptile community I appreciate your concern for public safety. However, your proposed bill is far too over reaching in regards to reptiles. Illinois isalready highly regulated. Over-regulating harmless pets lacks common sense. Who ever assisted in the construction of the bill obviously doesn't understand the natural history or economics of reptilesin IL; nor their relatively simple captive husbandry requirements.Further, there seems to be no understanding of the difference between occupational hazard and public safetyrisk.

The reptile industry represents $30 million annually in commerce in Illinois. Thousands make their living in this State because of this business. To cavalierly destroy this non-traditionalagricultural interest because of a fundamental lack of understanding is unacceptable. As written, this bill will hurt me and my family. It is bad idea to kill jobs in this kind of economy.

Working with certain reptiles entails a moderate occupational risk, but historically and statistically, reptiles represent virtually zero public safetyrisk. Dogs account for 35 deaths a year in this country. Captive reptiles less than one per year. Traditional livestock and pets have proven much more of a public safety risk than reptiles.According to US Fish & Wildlife and US Geological Services studies, the rare event of a death as the result of a captive reptile falls into the category of occupational hazard. Thereis no record whatsoever of a captive reptile creating any measurable risk to the public... NEVER!

Please remove ALL reptiles from SB3264. Thank you.

That NEVER should be EVER???

These are the people that think you are not competent to own reptiles:
Illinois