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Wilson County Snake Ban UPDATE

R

RoyerReptiles

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On Monday, we attended the Wilson County Commissioners Court meeting and presented our opposition to the ban. Jason spoke briefly about how the ban would affect him as a long time resident and business owner. Also presenting in our corner were Dave Barker, Pete Mimikos and Dr. Tim Tristan DVM. We received an outpouring of support not just from fellow keepers, but from ARAV veterinarians, AZA zookeepers, and even a TX Dept of Health Zoonosis veterinarian. A hardy thanks to Bonnie & Randal Berry for helping spread the word and getting us in contact with key supporters. To Dan & Scott @ Herp Nation Radio, thank you for helping us spread the word. We cannot thank you enough for your show of support!

Since Dr. Hill has been the sole voice of opposition, Judge Quinney requested that he and Jason get together, review the proposed keeping regulations and present them at the next meeting (Feb 25). Overall, the court was happy to be provided more information on the subject and displeasure over Dr Hill's misleading "facts" was expressed. It's not over till the fat lady sings, but as of now, the all-out ban will be revoked, and keeping standards for the big 5 and all venomous snakes will be put in place.

We are very happy with the results, but recognize that huge strides must be made within the community to promote education of new keepers and responsible sales. Since Monday, we have been approached by both the county librarian and a local business asking us to provide educational demonstrations. It's up to us as keepers to promote a healthy relationship with the public. No matter how big our hobby gets, we will always be the minority. If you've ever had the desire to engage in public education with your reptiles, now is the time!

I'd like to quickly address the rift in the community regarding loyalty to a particular advocacy group. In our case, we received advice and support from USARK, Herp Alliance AND PIJAC, the latter of whom actually took the initiative to contact us. Whatever a person's personal beef against any one of these organizations is, they are all fighting for us.
 
finally, some good news! Keep up the great work, you help all of us with your efforts.
 
Good news on Monday from Wilson County Texas! Andrew Wyatt made the trip down south to finish up the work that everyone put in regarding the ban that was put in place starting back in November while Kas and I are in Iraq. He presented the amendment, the commissioners, judge and county attorney liked it, and they voted unanimously to pass it. That's right, no more ban in Wilson County!!!

A very large group of reptile people and citizens came together to make this happen. We'd like to thank everyone that showed their support and fought with us on this. PIJAC, USARK, the Herp Alliance, the ARAV, zoo keepers and curators, reptile veterinarians, reptile professionals/breeders and reptile keepers of all kinds helped us out in this. It was a huge effort from our side. I don't believe the judge and commissioners had any clue that our community was so large! We hope that this is an example of how we can all come together to fight side by side, regardless of our differences. This was a very positive outcome considering that the ban was already put in place. We also hope that this is a sort of wake up call for herpers in their own communities. We were unaware of any move to ban these animals in our county until it was already done. It happened very, very fast. The same thing can happen in your community/county/city. Don't hide out on the sidelines thinking that you won't get noticed or that nothing can happen to your ability to keep your favorite critters. We're a large industry now and we're being noticed. A good option is to let your city/county government officials know who you are and express your concerns so they know where to go if the issue is ever brought to them by someone else. Get out there and educate the public! Our local library and a local feed store have approached us after this asking if we would bring out some animals and put on public education workshops. Show people how important keeping these animals are and that it's not as dangerous as some would make it out to be. It's also very, very important to make sure that any potential buyers of our animals are prepared to take care of these animals. Every time an inexperienced keeper gets in over their heads and makes mistakes with a more "advanced" species it gives fuel to the other side to use against us. It also causes the animals that we love to suffer at the hands of that inexperience.

We put together all of the videos of the meetings and presentations regarding this ban on our Youtube channel. Some of them are pretty entertaining! Come by and have a look. There's video of the very first meeting concerning the ban, voting in all species of boas and pythons, the reptile community's presentation to the court, the first version of the amendment being presented to the court, and then a non-native snake workshop that was put on by the veterinarian that originally voiced his concerns. We'll be adding the video of Monday's meeting to the channel soon.

Enjoy!

Wilson County Ban Videos

Herp Nation also took the time to interview Andrew following the meeting on Monday

Herp Nation Interview
 
Yes, congratulations on your victory! It sounds like a lot of good people came together to help, it's very good to see. Thank you all.
 
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