Please watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FPfL212CB8
And then visit www.nohr669.com to do your part!
Here is a copy of the letter I sent to my representative. I gathered the components for it in various places. Please feel free to use all or any of this material, and please write to your representative.
Subject: Oppose HR669
(Del or Rep Name),
I oppose HR669. This Bill is not based in science, but in the ideology of powerful special interest groups. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that banning the import, sale and trade of any of these animals will have any positive effect on the economy, environment, or human or animal species health.
In fact, if passed it would destroy many families and businesses. It would have a decidedly negative impact on an already ailing economy by destroying a vital and growing industry at a time when our country is in need of jobs and growth. The USFWS has just made changes to the CITES export permit process which would allow quality captive bred animals to be more easily exported to international customers. Passing HR669 would negate all the work USFWS has done for over a year. This Bill is a disaster to American small business and families in a time of economic hardship.
This bill would prohibit the possession, importation, interstate transport, or breeding of all non-native animals, including reptiles, unless those animals were specifically allowed on a list maintained by the Department of the Interior. The animal-rights extremists advocating this bill have said that they want to eliminate the keeping of snakes as pets. The representatives who are sponsoring this bill are liberal Democrats, and the bill would give that power to an Interior Department now in the power of people appointed by Barak Obama.
Undoubtedly, the other side will try to make arguments about public safety and the environment. Neither of these arguments is valid. Very few imported snake species have the power to kill a person, and their instincts make attacks against people even more unlikely. Dogs, or chimps as recently seen, incorporate people into their social structures, and they may attack because their instincts lead them to see people a certain way. Snakes don't share these instincts, and their instinctual behavior is to crawl under something and wait for people to go away. Snakes do not reproduce as fast as most mammals, and they cannot expand the way that nutria or feral house cats do. Most non-native snakes in the pet trade cannot even survive and breed in the United States outside of Florida or Hawaii. The representative from Guam is trying to draw parallels with a brown snake introduced into Guam, but Guam is very similar to the native island of that snake. The same is not true for snakes in the pet trade in the continental United States.
Many states have already enacted their own regulations. Louisiana requires that keepers of large constrictors obtain permits showing that they understand safety and security. Florida has even stricter regulations because the only breeding feral populations of pythons are in Florida. These regulations further argue against the need for federal regulation.
The exotic pet industry is worth millions of dollars. Some Michigan residents make their entire living breeding and selling non-native snakes. Our pet stores make money selling supplies to reptile owners, and many reptile owners build their cages and equipment from supplies purchased at hardware stores. Attacking any industry is foolish at any time, and attacking when the economy is struggling is doubly foolish. Maybe improvements could be made in the pet trade, but those improvements depend on pet owners being able to trust in the good faith of the other side. We see no evidence of good faith in the proponents of this legislation, and now is not the time to impose difficulties on any industry.
This bill has no justification. I'm asking you to vote against this bill and to ask other members of the Michigan delegation to do the same.
Sincerely,
(your name here.)
Kristina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FPfL212CB8
And then visit www.nohr669.com to do your part!
Here is a copy of the letter I sent to my representative. I gathered the components for it in various places. Please feel free to use all or any of this material, and please write to your representative.
Subject: Oppose HR669
(Del or Rep Name),
I oppose HR669. This Bill is not based in science, but in the ideology of powerful special interest groups. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that banning the import, sale and trade of any of these animals will have any positive effect on the economy, environment, or human or animal species health.
In fact, if passed it would destroy many families and businesses. It would have a decidedly negative impact on an already ailing economy by destroying a vital and growing industry at a time when our country is in need of jobs and growth. The USFWS has just made changes to the CITES export permit process which would allow quality captive bred animals to be more easily exported to international customers. Passing HR669 would negate all the work USFWS has done for over a year. This Bill is a disaster to American small business and families in a time of economic hardship.
This bill would prohibit the possession, importation, interstate transport, or breeding of all non-native animals, including reptiles, unless those animals were specifically allowed on a list maintained by the Department of the Interior. The animal-rights extremists advocating this bill have said that they want to eliminate the keeping of snakes as pets. The representatives who are sponsoring this bill are liberal Democrats, and the bill would give that power to an Interior Department now in the power of people appointed by Barak Obama.
Undoubtedly, the other side will try to make arguments about public safety and the environment. Neither of these arguments is valid. Very few imported snake species have the power to kill a person, and their instincts make attacks against people even more unlikely. Dogs, or chimps as recently seen, incorporate people into their social structures, and they may attack because their instincts lead them to see people a certain way. Snakes don't share these instincts, and their instinctual behavior is to crawl under something and wait for people to go away. Snakes do not reproduce as fast as most mammals, and they cannot expand the way that nutria or feral house cats do. Most non-native snakes in the pet trade cannot even survive and breed in the United States outside of Florida or Hawaii. The representative from Guam is trying to draw parallels with a brown snake introduced into Guam, but Guam is very similar to the native island of that snake. The same is not true for snakes in the pet trade in the continental United States.
Many states have already enacted their own regulations. Louisiana requires that keepers of large constrictors obtain permits showing that they understand safety and security. Florida has even stricter regulations because the only breeding feral populations of pythons are in Florida. These regulations further argue against the need for federal regulation.
The exotic pet industry is worth millions of dollars. Some Michigan residents make their entire living breeding and selling non-native snakes. Our pet stores make money selling supplies to reptile owners, and many reptile owners build their cages and equipment from supplies purchased at hardware stores. Attacking any industry is foolish at any time, and attacking when the economy is struggling is doubly foolish. Maybe improvements could be made in the pet trade, but those improvements depend on pet owners being able to trust in the good faith of the other side. We see no evidence of good faith in the proponents of this legislation, and now is not the time to impose difficulties on any industry.
This bill has no justification. I'm asking you to vote against this bill and to ask other members of the Michigan delegation to do the same.
Sincerely,
(your name here.)
Kristina
