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Old 02-16-2004, 11:35 PM   #11
NEWReptiles
Darnit all, I was overjoyed for credit on something I didn't do.
 
Old 03-09-2004, 04:34 PM   #12
E2MacPets
ATTENTION, Public hearing on proposed wild and exotic animal ordinance 6 p.m. Tuesday

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/artic...news/1news.txt
 
Old 03-11-2004, 01:29 AM   #13
Clay Davenport
La Crosse WI - County board puts exotic animal ban on hold

Looks like you guys made it through the first hurdle, good job. It's not over, but hopefully there will be an equal or greater turnout in April and you can end up with some sensible legislation if any at all.
Don't let the uninformed dictate your freedom.

Here's a news story on the issue:
---------------------------------------------

Exotic animal lovers flocked to La Crosse County's Health and Human Services Board on Tuesday to plead with officials not to ban their pets.

"Permits and licenses are wonderful, but stop there," said Joyce Schneider of Holmen, Wis.

She was among the 21 people who testified against a proposed wild and exotic animal ordinance, sharing stories about their beloved boa constrictors, sugar gliders and zebras.

Three people, including two associated with the Coulee Region Humane Society, testified in favor of the ordinance.

About 100 people attended the hearing, and the public outpouring clearly made an impact on the board, which voted later to delay action until its April meeting.

Before the April meeting, Health Department staff will re-examine the possibility of permits and removing some animals from the banned list.

"They have some very compelling arguments," said Supervisor Sharon Hampson, one of the ordinance's authors.

She said staff initially rejected the idea of permits because they are too hard to enforce. "We'll certainly take a look at it again," Hampson said.

Other board members said they are concerned about taking animals — and rights — away from people.

One common theme from the testimony was that a few irresponsible people who don't take care of exotic pets are ruining things for the vast majority, who are responsible owners.

Another theme was that domestic animals like vicious dogs and agricultural livestock like bulls do more damage to humans than exotic animals.

And finally, people said they couldn't bear to give up the companions they've come to love.

Dawn and Dan Leitzke of Holmen testified that they own three Grant's zebras on their acreage in Long Coulee, and have been granted county zoning permits to build a housing facility for them.

"I obtained them as bottle babies and have loved and pampered them every day of their lives," Dawn Leitzke said. "They are regularly hand fed, watered, vaccinated, de-wormed, exercised, groomed, massaged and clothed in horse blankets and scarves when the weather dictates."

"My horses are disguised in a referee suit," said Dan Leitzke, adding that zebras are closely related to horses.

The majority of comments came from snake and reptile lovers.

"I've never had the urge to own a tiger," said Ellen Severson of La Crosse. "My family has pet snakes and each lives alone in a locked cage."

Severson said her daughter just got a five-foot boa named Jupiter, who might grow beyond the six-foot limit in the proposed ordinance.

"He's a mellow, gentle fellow," Severson said. "I hope you'll exempt nonvenomous snakes."

"I love snakes and lizards," proclaimed Todd Hunter, a morning radio host. "There are so many responsible owners you never hear about. ... There's a story about an irresponsible owner with a giant snake that lets it hang around a 3-year-old, which is stupid.

"It doesn't sound as though we have an epidemic of rabid snakes running the streets of La Crosse, zebras trampling down people's doorways, exotic cats leaping onto the heads of little children," Hunter said. "But what does sound like an epidemic is 800,000 dog bites per year in the United States."

Mary Vinson, executive director of the Humane Society, said the society can't afford to rescue and keep all the exotic animals that people abandon in the county. Few people can afford to care for these animals well, she said.

http://www.lacrossetribune.com/artic.../01animals.txt
 
Old 04-26-2004, 02:08 AM   #14
Clay Davenport
Slinger, WI - Proposed Exotics ban

Slinger considers ban on keeping exotic pets
Ordinance patterned after Thiensville's
By PETER MALLER
pmaller@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 21, 2004
Slinger - Yet another community in southeastern Wisconsin is preparing to prohibit ownership of alligators, monkeys and venomous snakes and most other exotic pets.

The Slinger Village Board is considering an ordinance that would ban residents from keeping wild animals and wolf-dog hybrids in their homes.

No undesirable pets appear to be living in the community, but village officials want residents to know that crocodiles, prairie dogs and Gambian rats are among the species considered unwelcome, Village Administrator Patrick DeGrave said.

"We wanted to have the ordinance before we have a kid walking down the street with an 8-foot boa constrictor wrapped around his neck," DeGrave said. "It's just time to be proactive rather than reactive."

Slinger's ordinance, patterned after one adopted by Thiensville in February, would also ban caimans, lizards longer than 5 feet, non-venomous snakes longer than 6 feet and venomous amphibians and invertebrates.

Such a ban is needed, DeGrave said, because exotic pets can pose a danger as the village continues to become more densely populated.

The ordinance was introduced at a meeting this week. Trustees will review it at meetings May 3 and 17 before voting on it, DeGrave said.

Slinger's proposed ordinance was drafted after DeGrave examined samples of similar rules adopted by 15 municipalities. Residents have recently been banned from keeping various types of exotic pets in Germantown, Waukesha, Muskego and other communities.

Germantown's ordinance, approved in summer, is among the most detailed. It makes the village off limits to hippopotamuses, hyenas, jaguars, leopards, lions, lynx, pumas, cougars, mountain lions, panthers, ocelots, tigers and "other wild felines."

Slinger's proposed ordinance says that the ban "includes, but is not limited to," the animals listed.

"I remember when I was (the town administrator) in Mount Pleasant in the late '70s, there was an individual there who had a lion, and he was asked politely to get it out," DeGrave said.

"If I remember correctly, he took it up north, and it mauled a child. We want to prevent something like that from happening here."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/apr04/223980.asp
 
Old 05-15-2004, 02:34 AM   #15
brianskibinski
Do we know if those who already own these animals (specifically the snakes and large reptiles) are forced to "get rid of" their animals, or are they grandfathered in?

Brian Skibinski
 
Old 06-25-2004, 01:19 AM   #16
Clay Davenport
La Crosse tables exotic pet law

Jennifer Dahl of La Crosse will be able to have other exotic animals to accompany her Columbian boa constrictor and Savannah monitor (a lizard) now that the La Crosse County Board on Thursday tabled a proposed wild and exotic animal ordinance.

"I am overly thrilled. I could not be happier," Dahl said after the vote and Board Chairman Steve Doyle's explanation that a tabling at the county board effectively kills a proposal. Tabled items can be brought off the table and considered at a later meeting, but Doyle said that usually is not done by the board.

"I would not have been able to buy any more exotic animals, or if my female produces, I would not have been able to keep her young," Dahl said of the proposed ordinance that would have banned exotic animals. It had been amended to include a grandfather clause that would have allowed people who currently own animals restricted by the ordinance to keep them, as long as they registered them with the county Health Department.

County board committees have been considering since March the proposed wild and exotic animal ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Sharon Hampson of La Crosse. Opponents, including members of the newly formed Coulee Region Herpetological Society, argued that no danger has been reported to warrant the ban.

"I appreciate what the health and services committee is trying to do," said Eric Severson of La Crosse, society member who owns six snakes. "But it needs to be more focused, not so broad-brushed. This was overly restrictive, unenforceable and unnecessary."

The ordinance would address public health and safety concerns, Hampson said. Several diseases are transferred from animals to humans, and the United States only loosely regulates the exotic animals trade, she said. Some states ban large cats and large snakes, she said. In addition, Hampson said many exotic animals end up in poor condition and have a high mortality rate, and some end up dumped on roadsides because there are not enough sanctuaries for them.

Dave Geske, county vector control and humane services manager, suggested amendments including permitting exotic animals including ostriches, which are used in agriculture. A effort to refer the proposal back to committee to consider those amendments failed.

"They do not have enough votes," said board member Charles Spiker of Holmen, predicting the proposal would be so watered down by amendments in order to pass that it would be meaningless.

The proposal is unenforceable and unfair, said board member Jim Berns of Onalaska. Most of the problems are with wild-caught animals, and the ordinance does not differentiate between them and captive-bred animals, he said.

The vote to table was 23-12.


http://www.lacrossetribune.com/artic...ws/z02pets.txt
 
Old 06-27-2004, 01:02 AM   #17
jenn
Thanks for beating to the punch Clay! I was editing out my statements because the lady screwed it up. But then again she is a reporter it's in her blood. lol
To think my headach started because one board member hates snakes! And believe it or not that is the truth. It came out of her own mouth. But we won!! For now anyways, i'm sure we will be dealing with this crap again real soon.
 
Old 11-20-2004, 04:21 PM   #18
areptileguy
Stupid Baraboo Law

I am planning to enter the UW Baraboo/Sauk County in the fall 2005. The problem is that the city has ridiculous anti-reptile laws. The law is listed under orderly conduct (how is owning snakes considered disorderly conduct?) and it states that snakes over three feet and are not native to Wisconsin cannot be kept, yet they allow ball pythons up to 5 feet and boa constrictors up 8 feet both of which are obviously not native? What is the justification for this?

I am not ridding myself of my snakes (cali. king, western hog, pueblan milk, and bullsnake), so I will live outside city limits!
 
Old 12-18-2004, 03:29 PM   #19
areptileguy
Good News

Local snake fancier wages ongoing battle to educate public, Onalaska officials about reptiles

By PAUL SLOTH/Staff writer
Mike Bechtel has a thing about snakes. He loves them. In fact, he's so interested in snakes that besides keeping them as pets, he also raises them.

Bechtel, who lives with his wife and two daughters in Onalaska, is also trying to raise awareness about keeping snakes and other reptiles as pets, in an attempt to educate the public about these animals.

Last week, Bechtel asked the city's Administrative and Judiciary Committee to consider relaxing the city's ordinance regulating animals, specifically reptiles.

"I have no problem with the ordinance, I just want to make sure we know what we're talking about when we get into this," Bechtel said.

The ordinance prohibits owning any constrictor snake longer than 6 feet, along with 25 other types of animals, including bears, monkeys and hippopotami.

The ordinance is similar to those drafted by many communities throughout the state, Bechtel said. In fact, for the most part it is a boiler plate ordinance borrowed from the state statutes.

But that's not why he asked the city to reconsider the ordinance.

A little known fact

Boa constrictors often get lumped into the list of snakes that can be problematic - anacondas, rock pythons and reticulated pythons - mainly because of their size, he said.

The most common snakes kept by reptile owners are the many and varied constrictor species; boas, pythons, rat and milk snakes; and the racer, gopher and garter species.
Mike Bechtel helps his 3-year-old daughter, Abby, as she holds a Hogg Island Boa. Both of Bechtel’s daughters are learning, like he did, to care for animals from an early age.
Photo by Paul Sloth
The care and dietary requirements for these types of snakes vary considerably. Furthermore, some of the same species, notably the boa constrictors and pythons, can reach very large sizes in captivity.

"A lot of people don't realize that snakes grow depending on how well they're fed," Bechtel said.

Bechtel has been involved with exotic animals since he was a young man. Growing up on a farm in Waukon, Iowa, Bechtel used to supply exotic animals and farm animals to Myrick Park in La Crosse.

He wants to make sure that local ordinances make it possible for people to own reptiles and take care of them responsibly. He doesn't want to see a situation where people might buy a 6-foot snake locally and see it grow longer than the law allows and then not know what to do with it.

"That's one of the big things about the herp society," Bechtel said, making note of the newly formed Coulee Region Herpetological Society. "People now have a place they can call."

Bechtel, who moved to Onalaska two years ago from Iowa, teaches science at Central High School in La Crosse as well as at Western Wisconsin Technical College. He is an active member of the Coulee Region Herpetological Society, a group that formed in response to La Crosse County's attempt to pass an exotic animal ordinance.

Bechtel represented the group before the La Crosse County Board and addressed some of the board's worries, such as disease and animal care.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 3 percent of U.S. households own at least one reptile - which includes lizards, snakes and turtles. The statistic is accompanied by a warning about the one disease reptiles can carry: salmonella.

It's a statistic that many reptile owners, including Bechtel, think instills an unwarranted fear in people. The CDC lists 11 diseases that cats carry and 13 diseases that birds carry.

The county did not succeed in passing its proposed exotic animal ordinance, which many area animal owners considered restrictive and uninformed.

While the exact number of reptiles owned as pets is not known, it is clear that ownership of reptiles is on the rise, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

It is estimated that 1.5 million to 2.5 million U.S. households owned one or more reptiles in 1996, with snakes and turtles being the most frequently owned type of reptile.

Most pet reptiles and amphibians are purchased from pet stores or pet superstores, with the average price ranging from $15 for frogs to $91 for snakes in 1998. Owners spent an average of $67 to $451 in a year for the feeding and care of their animals, depending on the species owned.

When he learned of Onalaska's ordinance Bechtel said the first thing he did was go around to see what species of snake were available at local pet stores. Two stores in the city sell Columbian red tail boas, a snake that can grow up to 10 feet long, well beyond the 6-foot limit stated in the ordinance.

Jeff Zilliox, who manages Marineland Pet Center in Onalaska, sees a problem with ordinances like Onalaska's, which he considers too vague and often difficult to enforce.

"I'm against any generalization laws," Zilliox said. "They're banning snakes that make perfectly good pets."

Zilliox said the store has been selling reptiles since the early 1970s.

Local regulation of reptiles varies, but often falls under larger ordinances regulating a much wider variety of exotic animals, similar to Onalaska's.

The city could have a new, more relaxed ordinance in the near future.

"Our committee did not believe there was an issue," said Alderman Diane Oldani Wulf, who chairs the Administrative Committee. "We did not see a reason why we couldn't relax the ordinance."

During the past two decades, there has been an upsurge in the popularity of reptiles as pets. Reptiles are currently the fastest growing segment of the pet trade, according to the Wisconsin Herpetological Society. The group, a nonprofit organization of amateur and professional herpetologists dedicated to the conservation of reptiles and amphibians (collectively referred to as herptiles or herps) formed in 1973.

The increased availability of reptiles and other exotic species has given rise to some unfortunate situations. As with any issue, the actions of a few cast a negative image on the many responsible reptile owners. Negative publicity from incidents - such as a recent cobra bite in Waukesha County earlier this month - often lead communities to draft ordinances that ban exotic animals without regard to the species.

"I want to come in here with the idea of educating people and trying to work something out," Bechtel said. "I'm going to try and see if we have any options."
 
Old 08-22-2016, 12:24 PM   #20
EricWI
LaCrosse/Coulee Region Herpers

Any LaCrosse WI or Coulee region area herpers who may be currently on here, please contact me or send an email to events@madisonherps.org
This is especially for anyone who may have previously been a part of the Coulee Region Herp Society and/or been involved in fighting the ordinance there in 2004.
Thanks!
 

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