What happened at the Murrieta City Council meeting tonight..

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Posted by BenR79 on February 05, 2003 at 02:02:21:

A friend (Brian Shapely) of mine from another online forum wrote this repsonce after he finished listening to the meeting live via interent. I thought he summed it up so well I would just post what he wrote as I couldn't do it any better my self and really need to get to bed.
Ben

I would like to take a minute to let you all know how this meeting went. I am currently listening to the discussion wrap-up.

First of all, Ben deserves a HUGE pat on the back. He spoke well, and much of the positive content of the discussion resulted from Ben's efforts. Ben, thank you, from the entire herping community for your work in this matter!

Not a single person had any reason to make derrogatory comments about the councilman bringing up this issue. He did that job VERY well on his own! The council itself noted that all of the background information, provided to them by Mr. Enochs, was prepared by him. The information he provided was inaccurate, at best. His "facts" included, "snakes are non-thinking creatures that know only three things: eat, fear, and food." and, "There is always a safety issue because these animals must be taken outside of the house daily to recieve their needed UV light." Several comments were made to the fact that he was creating an issue, not solving one. The records did not show a single snake related incident in the history of the area.

I was impressed that half of the community speakers were not even snake owners. One even stated that she was not a fan of snakes at all. They simply noted that snakes recieve a "bad rap" in many people's minds, and that any ordinance to remove any citizen's pets would be met with very strong resistance.

In the end, nothing came of this issue at all. Only one motion was even made. Of couse, it was made by Mr. Enochs. He moved that the council look into this matter longer and, in a future meeting, pass an ordinance that owners of snakes be required to have the "proper" expertise. This motion did not even receive a second! Meeting over. Issue closed.

- Brian

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." - Dr. Johnson

Follow Ups:

Glad to see that there are more reasonable people....... Ric Blair 02/06/03 (1)
- Very good news !!!!! KLorentz 02/14/03 (0)
CA Press of Above W von Papine�u 02/06/03 (0)
I find it somewhat amusing.... Mr. D 02/05/03 (0)
Excellent news. Sounds like it could not have gone better. ZackB 02/05/03 (0)
WAY TO GO!!!!!....Good Job!!!...........n/p ECO 02/05/03 (0)
Re: What happened at the Murrieta City Council meeting tonight.. Eimon 02/05/03 (0)
Excellent! Glad to hear it. Good work ;-) n/p BGF 02/05/03 (0)