W.Va. moves to tighten laws for wild animal owners - FaunaClassifieds
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General Legislative Discussions Any general discussion concerning legislative issues or events. Not necessarily specific to a particular region, or even a type of animal group.

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Old 02-04-2012, 11:25 AM   #1
EricWI
W.Va. moves to tighten laws for wild animal owners

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia has joined a string of states looking to regulate or ban exotic animals kept as pets following the release of dozens of wild animals in an Ohio town last year.

The Senate introduced a bill this week that would require current owners of such animals to obtain a permit and inspection from the Division of Natural Resources and generally bans breeding and possession of non-native, wild animals. A related bill in the House of Delegates would ban future purchases and prohibit breeding but does not provide a permitting process.

Animals under the ban could include snow leopards, cobras and crocodiles.

Both bills also detail records that the owners must keep or present to health or animal control officials and allow the animals to be confiscated.

The Senate bill currently lacks a specific list of animals and lawmakers are working to change the wording before the Natural Resources Committee could consider the issue as early as next week, said Sen. William Laird, the committee's chair.

The Fayette County Democrat said the bills were prompted by the release of dozens of animals by a private owner in Zanesville, Ohio, last October. Police were forced to kill 48 of the animals and several others were taken to zoos for care and treatment.

"In West Virginia we don't currently have what are considered to be adequate laws relating to exotic animals," Laid said. "This legislation is intended to bring some elements of oversight to that process for persons would choose to have animals that are not indigenous to this region."

Existing state law provides pet permits for some native animals and commercial permits for captive deer. State law also prohibits keeping some animals like raccoons as pets because of the risk of rabies, said Paul Johansen, assistant chief in charge of game management with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

But officials have no idea how many people own exotic animals because state law doesn't require owners to report them, Johansen said.

"A lot of this stuff takes place underneath the radar screen," he said. "We don't know where they are. We don't know how many there are. We don't how they are being housed or if they're a threat to local communities."

The last time DNR officers encountered an exotic animal, a tiger had escaped its cage and was spotted several miles away from Snowshoe Mountain Resort in 2008, Johansen said.

The Humane Society of the United States supports the House version of the bill. The organization wants to prohibit breeding and prevent future wild animal purchases in the state in order to reduce the risk of spreading diseases to domestic animals and humans, said Summer Wyatt, the state director in West Virginia.

Exotic animals that escape or set free pose a risk to native wildlife. Constricting snakes are a particular problem in West Virginia, Wyatt said.

Owners purchase them when they are small and manageable. But when they grow to full size, owners often can't care for them or grow tired of them and let them loose. The constrictors, which can kill a full-size deer, have no local predators and often breed, she said.

"It is really scary how these animals can affect our world when they're in the wrong places," Wyatt said.

The West Virginia Legislature considered a similar bill several years ago but lawmakers showed little interest and the measure stalled. But the release and destruction of the animals in Ohio showed lawmakers just how dangerous owning wild creatures can be, she said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...02-03-16-07-19
 
Old 02-05-2012, 12:58 PM   #2
zooherper
Specifically calling out constrictors...in WV! Seriously! How many rocks are in this woman's head?!
 
Old 02-11-2012, 04:03 AM   #3
jbbean1369
The winters in wv are usually pretty harsh, and if a captive bred snake is ( 1 in a 100 million chance) somehow let loose by its dumb @ss owner id give it a 0.001% chance of surviving that cold, and as for its luck finding a mate, ha ha ha, right, I want some of whatever she's smoking, lol jk
 
Old 02-11-2012, 09:16 AM   #4
geck123
it's stated in the article that officials have no idea how many exotics are in wv.,and then says constricting snakes are a problem-how do we know this ? please educate me of an incident where large constrictors have posed a problem,as mentioned before the winters are too harsh here,most of the year is too harsh for constricting tropical snakes.i'm assuming that is what she is talking about,how is a dead snake going to breed ?

there are so many inaccuracies about her proposal that i'm not going to try to point them all out,i'm too bad of a typist,so i'll summarize what she's doing.summer wyatt seems to be taking incidences that happened in ohio and florida,and theorizing they could happen here.she is not basing anything on fact,and is just making things up,as far as the constricting snakes are concerned.it's de ja vu of what happened in florida,the only difference i see is that it is impossible for it to happen in west virginia.

we all know the political hassles the python ban caused for florida,and i'm concerned it is happening here because of an uneduacated person dreaming facts up in her head.uneduacated people with power are dangerous,that is what she is,an uneducated person with the power of the humane society behind her,deciding it is her right to take away our rights,based on whatever she thiks up.how do we stop this before it goes too far ?
 
Old 02-12-2012, 11:10 AM   #5
ROBERT SIDERS
WE will take away their ass , the same way we are doing it in OHIO organizing groups to control the vote , like with balderson in ohio , and alloway in penn ,thats how you scare them.We are also getting ballot approved language to get on the ballot the IDEA that no politician IN OHIO be paid any more than the avg wage for their area. IE, avg salary in muskingum co ohio 21000 a yr, paid like the avgf joe , this IDEA really scares em good let them get their money attacked you got their attn VOTE
 
Old 02-17-2012, 08:23 AM   #6
geck123
anybody heard anything new about this ?
 
Old 02-17-2012, 05:38 PM   #7
salottimc
Perhaps she is talking about the rat snakes and king snakes plaguing West Virginia... Oh, and SURPRISE SURPRISE! There is HSUS doing their non-lobbying that allows them to maintain their tax exempt status (somehow). What a crock.
 

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