Anyone watching the live HR669 Hearing??

I can't see to watch through that website...

Did you click on the "View Archived Video" link in the middle of the page?

Glad to hear everyone's opinions and see that everyone is still going to keep working hard!!
What I can't understand is why no one can convince these idiots if they are willing to spend Billions of dollars destroying an entire industry and euthanizing animals.. Why wouldn't they rather provide us in the industry with the means to microchip the animals instead? It would cost a lot less and would solve their problem of not being able to prosecute people who let their animals go. And I don't just mean with the large breeders, I mean with the pet stores as well just to make sure everyone is covered. Just have everyone who wants to sell or breed learn how to microchip and sign up to have shipments sent to them upon request, then they would get their money they're searching for and we would get to keep doing what we do. But who's to say they would even listen if someone could get the point across to them. That's just my two cents.
Keep it going everyone!!

WE DID IT FOLKS!!!! Victory over HR669! You can thank yourselves and the Reptile Nation, for a hard fought Victory! Our nearly 50,000 grassroots letters and 1,000s of phone calls to the offices of the subcommittee members clearly prevailed at today's Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing on HR 669. HR 669 in it's current form is finished. For anything to go forward it MUST be re-written from the ground up....and USARK will have a seat at the table along with other stake holders.

Delegate Faleomavega from Samoa said, "The letter and phone campaign hit the subcommittee like a BUZZ SAW". Harry Burroughs, of the subcommittee staff said, "I haven't seen a letter writing campaign like this in 30 years! You should be proud of yourselves." Take heart in the fact that the Reptile Nation stopped HR669 in it's tracks!!

We also need to thank Congressman Henry Brown, SC for helping us to focus our fight on the Subcommittee as opposed to the full House of Representatives. He is the one who instructed us to write real letters to be truly effective. He said emails are fine if that is all you can manage, but they can be filtered and deleted. There is no denying the weight of thousands of paper letters from American citizens. The Reptile Nation was responsible for 49,229 letters delivered to the Subcommittee in less than two weeks. Congressman Brown's staff made sure they all got in the door. 38,000 of those letters will be entered into the permanent record. Thank you my friends!

Credit should also be given to Bill Martin, a witness who testified at the hearing. He is the President of Blue Ridge Aquatics, a large multi-state Tilapia farming operation. They farm Tilapia as a food fish. He had some serious problems with the bill and the ear of much of the committee. His plain talk of how this bill would destroy hundreds of families hit home. What they do and the impact this bill would have on them parallels the plight of the Reptile Nation.

Senior Democrat staff from the House Committee on Natural Resources advised Subcommittee Chair Madeleine Bordallo that if she wants something to go forward she will have to go back to square one and draft a new bill. Then have another subcommittee hearing. When and if she does, USARK will be there to represent the interests of the Reptile Nation!! They probably will try, and that will be our challenge for another day. But Today VICTORY is SWEET!...... Celebrate today and rest, because tomorrow we must get ready to fight again.

Thank you Reptile Nation! Thank you Tom Wolfe. Thank you everyone who did their part.

Stay tuned... This fight has only begun!

USARK

A note from Tom Wolfe:

"The good news is, USARK engineered a significant victory which caught the attention of the entire membership of the Subcommittee and their staffs.

The bad news is this is just the first step in the process. Members of the Reptile Nation should be jubilant with this victory. However, our success should be measured, because the proponents of HR 669 will be back soon with another version of the same legislation. They will not rest, so we must not rest either.

Take satisfaction in a job well done and a victory well deserved, but know we all must rise up again to fight on because the battle has just begun!"






( pic above ) - USARK President, Andrew Wyatt presents Republican Staff Director Harry Burroughs the 38,000 letters that were admitted into the record of the official proceedings of the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, April 23, 2009.



( pic above ) - Partial view of the 14 boxes and 11 USPS mail bins containing the 38,000 letters delivered to the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee.



( pic above ) - Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee Ranking Republican Henry Brown, (SC-1) accepts one of the 25 containers comprising of over 38,000 letters from THE REPTILE NATION delivered to the subcommittee hearing on April 23, 2009. Left to right, Andrew Wyatt - President USARK, Congressman Henry Brown and Tom Wolfe - Washington representative for USARK.

getting back to emails and phone calls!

and real mail!

Where should all of this be directed? Anyone got a list of where to send everything? I'm having trouble finding contact information for most of the people.

Originally Posted by AvandisFifth187

Where should all of this be directed? Anyone got a list of where to send everything? I'm having trouble finding contact information for most of the people.

http://www.nohr669.com/index.htm

You can send email and find phone numbers through the do something now link, and the link for the letter and info for writing snail mail letters and addresses is under the what else can I do link.

Thanks Shadera!

Originally Posted by Playballp

MR. Marshall Meyers kicked ass! but I felt that we didnt have enough allies in there besides Mr Martin and a couple of the subcommittee people like Mr Brown, he also kicked ass and Faleomavaega was good too.
And props to Wild Creations for writing such a great letter. (I think the letter was read by Mr Brown from SC)
And I hate Powerpoint presentations, everyone likes pictures and believes in them too, thus making a strong point. We needed a scientist on our side as well

I'll take back what I said about Marshall Meyers and PIJAC. Today I found out (from a very well known breeder) that PIJAC is making deals under the table with HR669 sponsors and how both parties agreed that any type of snake breeding should be illegal.
Have anyone else heard about this?
The one organization we have there to represent us is back stabbing us

That's a pretty serious accusation, what kind of proof does he have. Just because he is a well know breeder does not make him exempt from making stuff up, passing along misinformation or simply misunderstanding something.

Originally Posted by Playballp

I'll take back what I said about Marshall Meyers and PIJAC. Today I found out (from a very well known breeder) that PIJAC is making deals under the table with HR669 sponsors and how both parties agreed that any type of snake breeding should be illegal.
Have anyone else heard about this?
The one organization we have there to represent us is back stabbing us

I want to apologize for making this statement without doing my own homework about it. After talking to several people and several emails I found out that there seems to be a conflict (if we can call it that) between a few organizations opposing hr669 and there's a lot of talk out there. All I know is that I will keep supporting every organization thats on our side, that includes PIJAC, USARK, Nohr669.com