HUMANE SOCIETY - PERMIT ISSUES INQUIRY

I live in el paso county, Colorado!

In which, you have to get a permit with the Humane Society to keep any snake over 6ft. This came about due to 1 or 2 deaths at the hands of burmese pythons of recent, in particular, I think one of the people that died was a 14 year old girl in Denver which received a lot of publicity in the papers!

The problem I am having with a permit per 6ft snake, is that it costs $50

So, for every 6ft snake, regardless of species you have to apply for that permit and pay $50.

I think there really should be some sort of exemption or a different permit for reptile keepers as I think this new rule was designed totally for the person that keeps 1 snake...or two at the most!

It makes it extremely costly when a lot of species do exceed 6ft, but that's it. You still pay $50 just to keep it.

I am not sure if this is something that needs to be renewed every year either, which would make it totally rediculous and practically unaffordable. Not to mention that the humane society generally sends out someone to inspect your animals and cage setup that doesn't know one end of a snake from the other.

If anyone has any further info on this rediculous law please let me know.

Any suggestions for getting some sort of legislation in place that allows avid reptile keepers to hold a DIFFERENT permit that covers snakes (non-venomous) over 6ft instead of per snake?

Have you tried, talking to the humane society in person about it? I know here our human society, mostly goes by the person who runs the place...a little rinky dink place, so if that person desides something she can do it. Hope you figure something out, that would really suck
Shannon hall

I don' t have any answers for you, I'm not from CO and am unfamiliar with the legislation.
I do have a couple of questions though. The first thing that strikes me as odd is that you are required to get a permit form the Humane Society?
Is this an El Paso county ordinance?
How long has it been in effect?
Who gets this $50?

It's just odd that an elected government would mandate a permit requirement through a private organization. I can think of no public permits that are handled that way. Perhaps there are instances that are just not coming to mind.

The first step I would take would be to address the issue with the county lawmakers. Assembling all the affected reptile owners and bringing the case before the county to sensibly discuss the issue.
Ideally it should have been fought before being passed, but there might exist the possibility of having it repealed or at least altered so as not to be as broad and far reaching. Over 6 feet covers many species completely without need.

I have often wondered about the possibility of challenging vague and unfounded laws in court. I've never spoken to a lawyer about it, but I wonder if there is any possibility of the reptile owners bringing suit against the county to show just cause for such broad legislation which included many species which are simply incapable of inflicting any real harm.

As a last resort of course, I personally would seriously consider moving to another county if no other acceptable resolution could be found.

Yes, the human society is the place that issues the permit and the $50 goes to the human society. This law has been in affect for about 12 months, maybe a little longer.

I think it came about as a knee jerk reaction to the death of a 14 year old girl from a burmese. What caused the snake to kill her and the circumstances surrounding her death are not known.

I have 4 snakes that are over 6ft, 3 of these are burmese, but I am fostering them from our local reptile rescue and as a result they are legally okay for me to have because of the foster agreement.

I do a fair bit of work with our reptile rescue and I do want to take full ownership of them, which means paying out $50 each which I beleive is purely a revenue raising stunt.

I have about 25 other snakes of my own (not burms), that are mostly juveniles and some should barely crack 6ft.

BUT $50 each just to keep them and if that's the case and I have to renew the permits every year.....THEN I'M MOVING!!!

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Ideally it should have been fought before being passed, but there might exist the possibility of having it repealed or at least altered so as not to be as broad and far reaching. Over 6 feet covers many species completely without need.
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I don't think anyone was even aware that this law existed until it was in force. It was brought in extremely quickly! Colorado does things in ways that make no sense.

I am going to try and get some people (herps) opinions from this area together and see what can be done. Can't do it alone!

In regards to trying to talk to the humane society, our's isn't a little rinky dink one... infact our's has developed a reputation for becoming more law enforcement orientated, rather then a humane society trying to find good homes for animals.

Unfortunate.... but true!

That's very interesting indeed. What you have there is the elected government allowing regulatory control to pass to a private entity which stands to gain from the enforcement. I assume however, that refusal to follow the law would result in an offence that would be prosecuted by the elected government. If effect they are giving the power and profit to a private agency and agreeing to prosecute anyone who doesn't do what the humane society says.
Now, I could be wrong, but I would question the legality of that action.
From your description, the local humane society has full control of the permitting system. They send one of their own representatives out for the inspection, they collect and retain the fee, and issue the permit. I am amazed that this law was even passed.
This amounts to nothing more than privatized law enforcement. I am sure the humane society itself campaigned for it's passage, considering the fact that they stood to directly profit from the law. The whole issue smacks of corruption. Additionally it sounds as if the law was passed in secret, which in itself gives reason for strong objection.
What if they attempted to contract the issuance of parking tickets to a private company that got to keep all revenue from the ticketing?
There may be no legal grounds for the challenging of this legislation, but I would definately speak to a lawyer and see.
In the meantime I would still attempt to organize the affected reptile keepers. Should this law be stricken from the books, it is assured they will attempt to draft a new one, and it could possibly be aimed at a full ban, since they apparently aren't interested in handling the regulation themselves.
The reptile keepers will need to be prepared for this event so that a voice of reason will be heard.

One point I forgot is that you need the permit before you get the snake, if you apply for a permit after getting the snake you can be nailed!!

I am going to try and dig for information on this law and how it came into place etc, it should all be on public record!

well, hopefully!!!!!

I agree with Clay in that this thing sounds VERY fishy as well as possibly illegal.

I would think that your state's Department of Agriculture or Department of Natural Resources(or similar government based organization) would be the ones in charge of such permits and their enforcement, NOT the local chapter of the Humane Society. The HS is NOT a government affiliated operation and should not have been given the power to enforce, monitor, and regulate a a law.

Also, from what you're telling us, it sounds like a VERY vague law. There are a ton of snakes that reach or surpass 6 feet in length that are no serious threat to anyone. Honduran milksnakes can surpass 6 feet, when is the last time you heard of a Hondo eating a small child? Large boids is somewhat understandable, but all snakes over 6 feet is overly extreme.

Now, to further question the legality of this issue, the Humane Society, as Clay mentioned, is a private organization with no governmental affiliation. They are being allowed to regulate a law that THEY are profiting from. Since they will be charging and collecting permit fees, they are going to be charging however much as often as they want, which apparently, at $50 per snake and most likely per year, will be a good bit of money.

There is indeed an El Paso County zoning ordinance that requires all snakes over 6 feet (and all lizards over a certain size) to have a permit. However, this has been in effect for well over a year and I don't recall anything stating where to get the permit, or that the Humane society would be the ones to hand it out.

IMO it's a bit of a stupid law, as there are many harmless colubrids which are longer than 6ft as adults. If they were concerned about irresponsible owners keeping snakes that can kill young children, they ought to just have banned Boid snakes without a permit... or even Boid snakes over 6ft. THAT'd make more sense to me... I sincerely doubt a blue beauty snake is gonna strangle someone's little girl, even if it escaped from a cage.


Anyway... I'd have a talk with the people at the DoW to clarify that the HS is really where you need to go.

-Kat Hall

I know that our local humane society works with our local police department. When anytype of animal cruelty is reported the PD has the HS go out to confiscate the animals and the PD handles all the arresting of the owners. This could be the case elsewhere, I do also know that we can purchase licenses for our animals at the HS, but that's about it.

Our HS is pretty good with cats, dogs, and rabbits, but when you bring up herps, or anytype of exotic animal that you can't find on your average WI farm, they freak out and have no idea what to do with it or how to care for it...