Fighting SB1414 and HB777 is GOOD the Environment!?!?

Exotic pets are essentially animals that are non-native to a region and/or nondomesticated. The exotic pet trade has been frequently criticized for the issues that invasive creatures do to the environment and public health or safety.

Inarguably, today there is a greater understanding of both free-roaming and captive wild animals. Thanks to facilities such as Crazy Critters Inc, pet care education has never been easier to obtain.

Added, there are local, national, and global legislative frameworks and approaches designed to avoid activities that are inhumane, ecologically unsustainable, and that threaten public health and safety, such as, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,

Why Pick On The Iguana and Tegu?

A recent analysis found that over 11 billion specimens equating to 977 million kilograms of “wildlife” were imported into the United States. That is 2,153,916,301.55 pounds of animals mailed into the US via cargo ships during the years 2000–2013.

With only one-third of which facilitated by the pet trade. Clear numbers of individuals in the trade have not been established however, globally billions of wild animals are traded annually as pets.

Some data are available to indicate the breakdown of pet keeping animals include 30-40 million fish, 8.5 million dogs, 8 million cats, 0.7 million indoor birds, 0.9 million rabbits, 0.8 million guinea pigs/hamsters, and 0.7 million reptiles. 

0.7 is such a small amount in comparison to other animals that are NOT facing any ban!?!? Do you know how many goldfish are swimming in our lakes? There is a trend on Youtube where people go around Florida catching them. Then they RELEASE the fish back into the waters.

However, there is no ban on goldfish suggested. At the same time, we view lots of people removing iguanas, snakes, tegu, and other invasives on other Youtube channels and those people remove the animals not rerelease them.

There Are Many people Fighting The Invasive Animal Issue!!!

That is why we built Crazy Critters Inc!!

According to the FWC the iguana is INVASIVE and can cause considerable damage to infrastructure, including seawalls and sidewalks. However, the tegu is not marked the same invasive. The website for FWC says… 

Potential impacts of tegus include competition with and preying upon Florida’s native wildlife, including some imperiled and protected species. Tegus prey upon the nests of other animals, and researchers have documented tegus eating American alligator eggs and disturbing American crocodile nests in Florida. Recent gut content analysis of tegus by the FWC revealed that they consume threatened juvenile gopher tortoises and agriculturally valuable foods, thus highlighting the impact this species may have on sensitive wildlife and agricultural lands. 

FWC clearly states the potential. However, there are clear benefits for human health and animal conservation when it comes to keeping reptiles and amphibians.

The keeping of companion animals provides clear benefits for human wellbeing. Indeed, keeping pets promotes psychological, physiological and social health and development.

Beneficial effects are not limited to pets with high interactive value (eg, dogs); even the keeping of non-interactive or poorly interactive animals, such as fish, has been shown to improve the keeper’s overall health. Nevertheless, other studies have failed to corroborate these positive effects, and in some cases even demonstrate a negative effect.

A further positive aspect of keeping reptiles and amphibians lies in connecting people with these animals and the potential for public education, nurturing interest and dispelling prejudice. 

Many prominent herpetologists in academia or museums declare that the keeping of herpetofauna during childhood fuelled their lifelong interest in herpetology in many cases.

Although IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) ex-situ management guidelines indicate that it is unlikely that animals from the private sector can be used for reintroduction.

The expertise and capacity available from hobbyists is a potentially valuable resource to support ex situ captive breeding projects, Interestingly, this has been identified as one of the few measures currently available to counteract the current global amphibian declines crisis.

Furthermore, research led by hobbyists has on occasion led to pivotal contributions to the knowledge of reptiles and amphibians and even the publication of standard reference literature. Consequently, the potential benefits of keeping reptiles and amphibians reach into broad areas relating to human health, science, and education.

1. The development and maintenance of species-specific minimal husbandry requirements, based on evidence, throughout the commercial chain. 

2. Pet keeper education by informed pet keepers and herpetological societies, This is an important key to improved animal welfare, public health, and environmental sustainability. Keeping both exotic and non-exotic pets should require a demonstrable minimum level of knowledge and expertise. 

3. The implementation of sanitary measures such as quarantine and entry controls to prevent the risk of pathogen pollution in a broader framework of improving public health and animal welfare and reducing ecological risks of pet keeping. 

4. Increasing the sustainability of the pet trade by promoting trade in captive-bred animals and those from which sustainable harvesting has been demonstrated

As well as closing legal loopholes that allow wild animals to be passed off as captive-bred or that do not take the species’ legal status in the country of origin into account. 

5. Promoting high standards of veterinary care for any pet. For herpetofauna, access to veterinary care may be improved by further diversifying herpetological medicine in veterinary curricula and promoting specialist training. 

Just Click On Your District To See Who You Should Contact And How… TODAY!

Wonder What To Do Now?

A Note From USARK FL… At this point we need inside support to gain more inside support. The only way to do that is to put pressure on the FL Senate to vote NO and the way to do that is through each Senator’s own constituents.

When you call ask for a meeting by phone with your Senator or if that is not possible a meeting with the staff member handling SB1414. When you email there is a little trick so that your email does not get lost in the public email- on the Senators page there will be an option to select “view complete Senator and district information”, the page that will bring you to show their Legislative Assistants name.

You need to email the legislative assistant, to do this email them as- last name. first name@flsenate.gov. Type “Meeting Request” in the subject line. In the body explain that you would like to schedule a time to speak to the Senator or staff concerning SB1414, that you are a resident of your county and that you oppose the bill. Keep it short and simple. Remember to include your phone number.

Call during office hours to confirm that they have recieved your request. If we do not fight this together, we will all lose. We need everyone in Florida to be involved and make their voice count.

We need everyone to share this post, spread awareness that these failed policies will lead to invasive population growth, waste of resources and unnecessary euthanasia of pets. There are alternative approaches that would be self funding and more effective. Thank you!

UPDATE:

On Thursday March 5, 2020 SB1414 was passed without further amendments by the entire Senate.

It was then sent over to the representative side.

HB777 was already scheduled

Just In From USARK FL…

HB777 is dead. SB1414 is in messages. If we can convince Representative Sprowls and the House Speaker Representative Oliva to not pick up SB1414 for consideration it will die too,

UPDATE:

Our first phone call was to Chris Sprowls. We will tell him that we do not agree with HB777 because it is negative for the environment. How we think reptiles benefit people more than harm and even though we do not like the invasive species issues, that we know there are lots of people doing conservation work at zero tax dollars.

We are going to tell them that we own and operate Crazy Critters Inc. because we do care and there are lots of other people just like us.

Please call and tell them why you do not support the animal ban.

District Address:
Suite 100
2364 Boy Scout Road
Clearwater, FL 33763-0901
Phone: (727) 793-2810

Capitol Address:
402 South Monroe Street
422 The Capitol
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
Phone: (850) 717-5065

Here is his information…. https://public.lobbytools.com/legislators/613

Next, we will call Jose Olivia and tell his office that we do not support HB777.

But he is NOT answering so I call his second number listed and he does not answer added his mailbox is conveniently full on both numbers!!!!

How am I supposed to let my voice be heard?

Jose Olivia
420 The Capitol
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1300
(850) 717-5110

I had to send the guys an email… but it just took one minute to do it! Now we wait some more.

Please call or email!

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