Question for Florida vemomous permit holders

[Clay Davenport]

I was just reading in the news of a bill that was passed within the last week or two in FL raising the venomous permit fees from $5 to $100.
It's on numerous news reports form Florida, but I can't find any additional details.

License fees for keeping a venomous reptile or holding a wildlife exhibition would go from $5 to $100.

Link to news story (http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030502&Category=APN&ArtNo=305020945&Ref=AR&cachetime=5)


I was really just curious as to exactly how this worked. It doesn't affect me personally, but several states are considering permitting systems for hots, and some are using FL as an example, so this may well affect me later.

The fee in the past was $5, was this one fee to keep hots period, or was this a per snake fee?
From the information I could find the new bill only changed the cost, but it didn't change the other rules involved.
This is a sharp increase in the fee either way, but if it is per snake, it will be a prohibitave measure to potential keepers.
Any hot keepers in FL care to shed some light on the results of this bill?

[Clay Davenport]

Apparently the bill is not yet law. It awaits the approval of Governor Bush.

Florida vemomous keepers might want to email him and voice their opinion of this extreme increase in fees.
Unfortunatly if passed, I see this as causing more keepers in FL to do so unlicensed.
It's also suspiciously similar to anti gun laws passed in Canada. The first step was just asking all the nice sheeple to register their guns. Then after this they had a database of gun owners, so when the ban came down, they knew who could be keeping them illegally.
If current venomous permit holders refuse to renew at this unacceptable price, they stand a chance of being checked up on by the government to see if they are still keeping after the permit expires.

According to another post I have read on the subject, Gov. Bush's email address is fl_governor@eog.state.fl.us