Re: Oregon Exotic Animal Ban Proposed

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Herp Law Forum ]

Posted by wittsd on March 30, 2003 at 17:59:47:

In Reply to: Re: Oregon Exotic Animal Ban Proposed posted by herpluver on March 30, 2003 at 15:07:23:

> i have a few contacts in washington, and have put the word out
> about this bill. hoping to get a few e-mails back today and i
> will give them everything you have said. i'm also contacting
> petstores and herp societys here in oregon. tomarrow i will
> get ahold of all exotic vets locally(since this will effoect
> there livelyhood) trying to get out word to as many ppl as i
> can. i'm also going to contact a local am radio station, to
> see if he knows how to help out. i'm looking for a inside
> track, to see if there are any legislators that have exotic
> animals that will be affected by this bill,

The species list in OR is currently "finite" whereas WA, of
course, has the black-hole catch-all clause with the proviso
that API & co. are out to get everyone in the long run.
IMHO, we require NO species-specific bans.
Responsible private ownership is possible for all species...
Continued initiatives on education, promotion of responsible
ownership and networking of experiences (owners groups), plus
enforcement of existing welfare regs should suffice, by-and-
large.

It is most telling that API & co. have point-blank refused to
discuss ANY of these bills with recognised responsible owner
groups, prior to their introduction.

> they could be a lot of help.

YES!

> i will keep in contact with ya and have others get in contact
> with ya

Excellent networking. Thanks you, too, Samuel :)

(And if there's anyone else out there with further contacts,
or letter writing against these bills, PLEASE...).

I will be out later this evening: could you point anyone at the
other posts on this forum or ongoing on the Phoenix list, for
now.
(For example, I posted a *long*, yet still incomplete, list of
points against the original version of WA HB1151 at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Phoenix_Exotics/message/23568 )

- And if anyone could possibly make it to the hearing in Olympia
on Tuesday, or has further thoughts on how to approach the
legislature, please drop Jeanne Hall (jeanneh-atsign-tds.net) an
email to be added to the WA alerts/meeting co-ordination list.

All assistance to kill this bill is required, and is now
extremely time critical.

(As noted, the OR bill will follow the WA bill, and should the
latter pass, API &co. will use this as further leverage).

Looking forward to hearing back from you & anyone else who can
help out here. (And yes, we are fighting at least half-a-dozen
other battles at the same time which badly drains our capacity
to network & promote education, etc.).

Sincere thanks to all,
David.
http://www.phoenixexotics.org/

p.s. Remember to check out
http://www.paws.org/work/factsheet/advocacyfactsheets/waincidents.html
to see how few incidents are listed by PAWS & API (most of which
aren't even attacks) over an *eight* year period to hype fears
centring on wild cats, venomous snakes and primates...

IMO, this actually shows how *safe* private exotics ownership
is, compared with domestic dogs, guns, alcohol, drugs, traffic,
etc., to say nothing of the animal suffering caused by domestic
cats on native U.S. wildlife species.
API and PAWS clearly have a ZERO tolerance strategy- one incident
and the whole species is *out*.

Phoenix Exotics elist

Follow Ups:

eMail contacts? BGF 03/31/03 (8)
- - OR & WA email contacts - HERE wittsd 03/31/03 (7)
  - wash revised bill? herpluver 03/31/03 (6)
    - Re: wash revised bill? wittsd 04/01/03 (5)
      - UPDATE - report from WA HB1151 hearing (4/1/03) attendee wittsd 04/03/03 (4)
        
        sounds good....and news from oregon herpluver 04/03/03 (3)
        
        *** 1151 has passed out of committee 4/4/03 *** wittsd 04/04/03 (0)
        
        Re: sounds good....and news from oregon wittsd 04/04/03 (0)
        
        i got contact info for ya herpluver 04/03/03 (0)