Quote:
Originally Posted by hhmoore
You're painting a slightly different (more alarmist?) picture than the piece you linked. Notice the title: Injurious Wildlife Species; Review of
Information Concerning a Petition To List All Live Amphibians in Trade as
Injurious Unless Free of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. At least at face value, the proposal is to limit importation to live specimens (and/or their eggs) which have been certified as being free from Chytrid fungus.
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I am very aware of what this petition is all about.It is cause for alarm.Are you aware of what is involved to test amphibians for Chytrid fungus?Do you realize that this would kill the amphibian hobby? Seriously think hard. Do you know how many amphibians are imported into the united states every year?Who is set up to test all of those animals?Where would they sit while their tests are performed?Can you imagine testing hundreds of thousands of individual amphibians for chytrid fungus?At an estimated cost of $10-$30 per test. I sold over 20,000 axolotls last year and many thousands of other amphibian species.Lets just be very conservative and get me a discount on the test(not including shipping cost for the samples).Lets say I can get the test done for $5.That would mean I would have to spend $100,000.00 last year to test all my axolotls.It would actually cost me closer to $300,000.00 to have tested everything.Not happening.It would kill the amphibian trade.There is no lab or facility in the U.S. even all of them combined that has the capacity to test every amphibian that would come into the U.S. or cross state lines.Not for any amount of money. So read between the lines. $2.50 dwarf clawed frog at petco needs a $10-$30 test to come into the US or cross state lines.Do you know how many thousands of Hymenochirus are transported in the US every year?what about fire bellied toads?Water dogs?Pacmans?Darts,treefrogs,toads other frogs?Newts?Do you see my point yet?Every single individual amphibian would have to have a $10-$30 test and be cleared before it could be imported or cross state lines.This would absolutely kill the amphibian trade in the U.S. and the trickle down to feeders and supplies would be devestating. The logistics of testing are impossible. I am not saying it will ever pass but there are groups out there who are pushing for it. They came very close last year to banning all non native amphibians in california. I don't underestimate the power of any of these groups.And as you have all recently discovered the new angle is listing things as injurous wildlife for the potential enviromental damage they can "potentially" cause. Don't be fooled it says all amphibians are ok that have been tested and cleared for chytrid but the defenders of wildlife now very well it would destroy the amphibian trade because there is no way to test all those amphibians.besides the fact that the permit once the animal is cleared would take months to approve.