new nc reptile laws?

it was just brought to my attention that the laws in north carolina are getting ready to change. from what i can tell not many people even know about the changes and the ones who do know about them dont seem to know what they actually involve.
i knew that for the past several years animal rights people and others have been trying to get a ban put on all the big pythons and all other exotics deemed dangerous, i thought this got blocked. but from the looks of it they just rewarded it and sent it through anyway.

some information on this can be found under article 55

it requires cages for the big snakes to be escape proof and have locks of some sort, which is fine

the other thing is how the law on the ownership of venomous will change, from what i read i cant tell for sure if their being baned from personal collections or not, i know zoos and scientific related facilities will be allowed to have them but what about the little guy. from one source i talked they told me that it may be put in effect that if you want to own venomous you have to also have antivenom to go with each species of snake you have.
if this is the case no average person would be able to keep them.
antivenom is very expensive and it also has a short shelf life.
the local hospitals around where i live dont even keep antivenom for the native species we have here.

this is all getting very aggravating and if anyone has any information or would like to just commit on the subject that would be great.

From what Andrew Wyatt of USARK has told me, and I completely believe him since he helped write this new set of laws, the new laws in NC are completely reasonable.

It is basically the same set of rules for venomous and giant constrictors. You have to have up to standard, locking cages. You have to have a $25 annual permit for the collection, this includes all animals in the collection, not an individualized permit. This permit does require you list all animals owned that are covered in the legislation.

The one difference with venomous is that you have to have an emergency plan sheet for each species kept in the snake room. This includes the nearest antivenin storage available and how to treat a bite.

Personally I think that would be common sense for alot of the exotic hots.

Don't take any of this for absolute fact, and if you want a rundown, contact Andrew through www.usark.org and get the complete info.

Hope this helps, Chris