VA: Dangerous Animal Initiative Update

Greetings all,

Thank you to many of you for participating in the Dangerous Animal Initiative Survey - we received almost 200 responses. We will share a compilation of the survey with the Dangerous Animal Initiative (DAI) Workgroup in the near future.

The DAI website has been updated with details of the next Workgroup meeting. Workgroup participants will be developing recommendations around public safety and potentially dangerous animals over the coming months. There will be an area of seating designated for members of the public to participate as observers during the first meeting of the Dangerous Animal Initiative (DAI) Workgroup. Please see this link for details: http://virginiaanimals.net/workgroup/. The Background webinar is available for viewing at: http://virginiaanimals.net/background/, and comments may be submitted regarding the Initiative via the "comments" section of the website as well.

A Dangerous Animal Initiative public meeting will be held in mid-late October, and additional details will be posted to the www.virginiaanimals.net website in the near future. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments at animals@virginia.edu, and thank you for your continued interest in the Initiative.


Best regards,

David Whitehurst, on behalf of the Coordinating Team
Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries

Christine Gyovai, on behalf of the IEN Team
UVa Institute for Environmental Negotiation

The Dangerous Animals Initiative study group was created after authorities in Ohio shot dozens of lions, tigers and other dangerous and exotic wildlife last year after they were released from a farm. Ohio had among the nation's weakest oversight of exotic pets before the release and has since tightened its regulations.I vote for this .

I think people should be able to keep animals that they want, include those that aren't reptiles. Regulations should not include bans and force everyone to give up their animals or not be allowed to obtain them.