Michigan state law issues
 

One of the people that were busted in the 'sting' into the 'ring' of people in the 'illegal' pet trade had a western hognose confiscated in his house along with some blandings turtles and some woods. This is James that works at a pet store here in Ypsilanti.
To make a long storey short he was allowed to get back his hognose , he goes to the station to get back his snake and the 'officials' there were going to give him back his blandings because they could not care for all of the turtles, he refused and told them he wanted nothing to do with the turtles,[hmmm ,this was because they raided his house by breaking down his door ,waking him with a gun to his face, and then cuffing him naked in front of his daughter while they ransacked the house including his daughters room]
does anyone else here see these animals suffering in the 'care' these 'officials' put them in.
I think many of these animals will die for the sake of an organization trying to justify their jobs.Or be tossed in a freezer as evidence
really helping the species here aren't they???
man stupid....stupid.

snake of MI
 

http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Reserve/7416/mi.html

In case anyone wants to know who doesn't already know, here is a link to the snakes of Michigan.

MI Legislature, MI DNR, and MI Dept of Ag
 

Here is the link to the Michigan Legislature word searches work well unless you know the specific law your looking for.

http://www.michiganlegislature.org/


This for the DNR and the link for list of laws pertaining to the DNR both compiled and pending.

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7...861---,00.html


You need to have a license to take or possess any reptile native to the state of MI. The following are illegal to take or possess: black rat snake, eastern fox snake, copperbelly watersnake, kirtlands snake and massasauga rattlesnake.

Exotics (species not native to MI) are handle through the Dept of Agriculture

http://www.michigan.gov/mda

In a phone conversation there are laws that pertain to owning of exotics, but seem to be for lions, tigers,(nothing to do with the sports teams LOL) non native bears. Breeding may need a license depending on the distribution channels of the clutch(sales to pet shops versus sale to direct consumer) but nothing set in stone to reference.

I will post more as I can gather some information.

John, its disgusting isnt it? We personally know a few people that got raided also. We had the joy of finding out what was going on when one of our friends came up to us at our wedding on the 28th to tell us why some long time friends of ours weren't going to be there. I think they were looking at us for a while also. We had some guy that kept calling trying to sell us native animals, claimed he could get "whatever we wanted". Every time he called we'd spout off the Michigan laws about natives. I wonder now if he was one of the agents. The whole thing just makes me angry.


Kara Polhamus
Boasnsuch.com

calls
 

A lot of people I know had those same 'calls' from trappers and people saying they could 'get anything you wanted'.....does that spell entrapment????....yeah ..all in the name of species protection...how well are those animals now??, what is the care like??are they being re-introduced??? are they getting sufficient full spectrum light???good diet???...I would bet not
I for one would like to see some proof...alas that is something that will not happen

p.s. congrats on the 28th

From what I have heard:

Sting - an undercover agent offers you something, tells you it is illegal, and you buy it anyway.

Entrapment - an undercover agent offers you something, tells you it is legal, and you buy it under that misleading advice.

This is, of course, not legal advice. Lawyers could argue about these definitions until our ears would bleed.

I would also think that not making any alegations as to the legality or illegality of any particular animal would be allowable. If they offer you something and don't tell you one way or the other if it is legal, then you shouldn't be upset at them when they turn out to be illegal and you are busted.

On the other hand, like Rich said, if they tell you they are legal and you buy based on that advice, I would think that would be entrapment and not allowable.

Simply telling you that they can get you anything you want is not entrapment.

I think this is where phone conversations are tricky. Someone calls you and offers you some protected animals. They tell you they are all legal and they have documentation. You agree based on this info, they send you the animals without the documentation (regardless if they had it or not) then they bust you for receiving illegal/undocumented animals. If you didn't record the conversation you are SOL because even if they did, you can be sure that the part about them being legal will be edited out.

Steve Schindler

John,
Last I heard, a lot of those animals were being carted to Rochester Hills Humane Society. Little birdy told me. :)
Anyway, I can imagine with all the different kinds of animals that were confiscated from GOOD homes are being taken care of now.
And just where are they going to intoduce these animals back into the wild when some of the animals were not even from this country. Just a shame!!!

Hmmmm
 

Was that the same Humane Society that adopted all the animals out withen 48 hours....some really high end stuff. and was this MCI's stuff, and were all his animals taken because of a city ordinance???

I don't know about the adopting out part, but high end stuff and city ordinances sound really familiar.
I still find it incredible what they did to these people.