A new problem shipping/receiving and everything else

The state of Ohio is now requiring anyone shipping animals into Ohio or anyone in Ohio getting animals shipped to them, to notify the government prior to shipping with carrier, contents, recipient, arrival and more info. If you live in Ohio, this is the last straw. They are killing the pet trade and hobby of pets of any kind in Ohio. They have included crickets, fish, reptiles and all other animals in this restriction! This is a huge problem! The entire pet trade including PIJAC will now be focused on Ohio and the battle lines are now drawn. This is a big deal. Get involved before it is too late. Donate money to PIJAC. Write, call, fax, harrass your elected officials. Do something now. I am going to court in Ohio to get started on my situation. Imagine if your local pet store had to go through a customs like clearing process for international shipments just to get in crickets or goldfish.

Wow!
That's just too much like big bro to me....

Thanks for the heads up Evan.
Do you have a news link, so the story can be passed along to other sites?

I have this info from reliable sources. I do not even know if it is public yet. They are fighting us with negative public spin, lies, exaggerations and distorted stats in Ohio.

Evan,

This is what I know at this point. You are right, they are making things up as they go, and I feel they are still trying to figure out how to shut things down totally. I also heard the samething that PIJIC is getting involved in this as well.
I called the ODNR and asked about shipping. They stated if it was for public display then a vet certificate is needed for people bringing in herps to Ohio. Likewise I would need a vet certificate to bring things into the state if I purchased it from a out of state show. So, I asked again about shipping, as I wasnt to concerned about the shows. They forwarded me to the Ohio Agro dept. The person I spoke to there said they didnt know of any regulations on shipping to or from Ohio on non-native reptiles. I asked again how do I find out for sure and they stated that I needed to speak to the state vet (forgot his name). I left my name and number and never got a call back.
Well, considering USPS ships reptiles (not snakes) and the airlines, I felt that this may be a good place to start. I called Delta and talked to Linda the supervisor at port Columbus. She stated that once a law goes into effect they have to obide by it asap. The goverment (state or federal) sends a bullitin as soon as the law is in effect. I was told the same from the post office (remember goverment run). I can ship Delta just like normal. If I had reptiles other than snakes, I can still use USPS.
Whats this tell me ?? NOTHING !! Thats whats really frustrating. No one seems to know. Not just us herpers, but the damn people who are trying to enforce the laws. Their not even sure.
My best GUESS is right now its OK to ship. RIGHT now. Its not going to take long for them to figure out that loop hole. I was there when the raid took place and was actually interviewed by the Feds. One officer made it clear to me that this is a "NATIONAL clean up and only the start". Other states and other shows are very likely to suffer the same BS we went threw.
Think cause your in Texas, Maryland, Oregon, etc. that this wont eventually effect you ?? Just wait. Ohio is getting a bad rap about this. But be forwarned, its not just a Ohio issue, EVERY herper is going to be effected eventually. Ohio was just the first in line I guess. In a nutshell, this sucks.

That is really bad for the hobby!
As retic_ed asked... do you have a link to the article or legislation?

Like I said in the other thread, I'll help if I can. I'm worried now to be a vendor at any Ohio shows because I don't want the gov. to have my address.

Erin Benner

Hey Joe, I was in court in Columbus today and because I was one of the first to go in front of the judge handling environmental issues, he inquired about my experience and qualifications with reptiles and then asked if he could ask me a bunch of questions on the subject of business and legal issues as he is not familiar with this area and was not really understanding much of it. He was a super nice guy and I was happy to answer his questions. That is the root of the problem though. The Ohio DNR has convinced everyone that these raids and tickets are to prevent individuals from overcollecting native species and selling them for profit. There is not one of us who is not against that! The problem is, that is just not the truth or what is happening. I was there for selling a hatching, captive bred, genetic mutant of a species that happens to be native to Ohio. As I told the judge, having somebody like me selling this captive bred animal for $35, is your best deterrent to overcollection. Collecting is sketchy and if the snakes are not worth much and can readily be purchased from breeders, legally, most people would never even consider going out and collection them from the wild. So they are pushing breeders like me out of doing business in Ohio and that, as I explained to the court, is the worst thing you can do as it will only make the animals harder to obtain, more desirable, expensive and worthwhile to the greedy to collect.

Sorry for the sloppy grammar and spelling. I was up all night, drove 4 hours to court in Ohio at 5am and just got home at 5pm.

Somebody help out the simpletons. Like me.

Now, am I understanding correctly?

If I want to fight legislation of this nature so as to avoid Ohio setting a precedent other states may mimic, but I do not live in Ohio so can not vote on the issue......................

I do what?

1. Join PIJAC and donate cash? (And someone please assure me this will not turn out like when I happily forked over cash to the HSUS and then found out they were trying to destroy my hobby?!?!)

2. Write to elected officials? Like Whom....................? Ohio's officials are not likely to care about my letters, and California's won't care. Will they? So............

State Supreme court?

Help out those of us who would like to help, but are just not sure how.

1) yes, donate to PIJAC as they are taking up the fight now

2) write to YOUR elected officials at your state level, if everyone of these bums knew that we were against this type of legislation they would think twice before passing it but nobody speaks out