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GarterGuy · 12-15-2006, 09:01 AM

Well I can do the best I can. We had represenetives from the Herp club attend meetings of the Fish and Boat Commission (the gov. agency that "controls" herps here in PA) to listen to what new regs. were being brought up and exactly how they would impact herp keeping. The pres. of the club and two others (a zoo keeper and a guy who runs a reptile rescue) would then bring back the info. they got there and we'd all discuss it at the meetings and talk about what needed to be done. We then circulated online and offline petitions, stating that the rights of legitimate reptile hobbyist needed to be taken into account with the new laws. Also we did some letter writing to the head of Fish and Boat Commission, just to make sure that they got the message, that this was real issue with a good many people. When the new regs. and such were drawn up, the head of the Fish and Boat Comm. has said that he was really surprised of the number of people in the herp keeping communitiy.....who before this, they had really never considered before.
What finally came out of it are regs. that allow for the protection of the native species here in PA, but also making sure that those regs. aren't abused against hobbyist. One such change was that it was illegal to keep more than one of any species or subspecies of a native reptile. This ment that if you kept a Cali. Redsided garter...a subspecies of T.sirtalis, a native species....you were in vilation of the regs. We got this changed to state that only those species and subspecies that occure within the state. This was probably the biggest of the changes for hobbyist in the state, the others were more towards protection of native species from outside sources....like snake hunts and such. Probably the best thing to do is get involved. Find out if there are any local Herp clubs in the area and join and participate in them. Also make sure that you are familiar with the laws and regs. that are in your state and how they will affect you as a hobbyist. Lastly just be heard.....get your ideas and thoughts out there so people know that you exist.

12-15-2006, 09:01 AM	#32 (permalink)
GarterGuy Brother Snake Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Lancaster,PA Posts: 1,356 Country:	Re: Pics of my Puget Sound blues Well I can do the best I can. We had represenetives from the Herp club attend meetings of the Fish and Boat Commission (the gov. agency that "controls" herps here in PA) to listen to what new regs. were being brought up and exactly how they would impact herp keeping. The pres. of the club and two others (a zoo keeper and a guy who runs a reptile rescue) would then bring back the info. they got there and we'd all discuss it at the meetings and talk about what needed to be done. We then circulated online and offline petitions, stating that the rights of legitimate reptile hobbyist needed to be taken into account with the new laws. Also we did some letter writing to the head of Fish and Boat Commission, just to make sure that they got the message, that this was real issue with a good many people. When the new regs. and such were drawn up, the head of the Fish and Boat Comm. has said that he was really surprised of the number of people in the herp keeping communitiy.....who before this, they had really never considered before. What finally came out of it are regs. that allow for the protection of the native species here in PA, but also making sure that those regs. aren't abused against hobbyist. One such change was that it was illegal to keep more than one of any species or subspecies of a native reptile. This ment that if you kept a Cali. Redsided garter...a subspecies of T.sirtalis, a native species....you were in vilation of the regs. We got this changed to state that only those species and subspecies that occure within the state. This was probably the biggest of the changes for hobbyist in the state, the others were more towards protection of native species from outside sources....like snake hunts and such. Probably the best thing to do is get involved. Find out if there are any local Herp clubs in the area and join and participate in them. Also make sure that you are familiar with the laws and regs. that are in your state and how they will affect you as a hobbyist. Lastly just be heard.....get your ideas and thoughts out there so people know that you exist.