Congressional Hearing Banning Nonnative Species April 23 Action Needed

*scratching head*:confused: I just don't know...I have a :sick:feeling that Congress is trying to be "low-key" about this so they can slip it to us "under the radar" of the general public while we are caught totally unaware. That is just the feeling I get about the whole thing. I really hope I am not right!:eek:

This is one time that I really hope that I am WRONG about something!:rolleyes:

Boy am I ever gonna lose faith in everything if our rights are taken away!!:mad: That is NOT the country I thought I was living in, nor the officials I thought I had voted for, nor the agenda I wanted for them to do... IF it is voted in.

I guess we will just have to wait and see how this is handled now...

waiting...

:yawn:
 
The initial hearing if it takes place, should be on C-Span 1 or maybe 2 today for all of you USA folks that have access to these channels.(23APR09).

However, I have from a pretty solid source that this bill has been referred back to the committee due to public outcry.

I have yet to confirm this personally, but I will be posting throughout the day as new information becomes available.
 
The initial hearing if it takes place, should be on C-Span 1 or maybe 2 today for all of you USA folks that have access to these channels.(23APR09).

However, I have from a pretty solid source that this bill has been referred back to the committee due to public outcry.

I have yet to confirm this personally, but I will be posting throughout the day as new information becomes available.


I have been searching and searching for something more official about this and the hearing that is supposedly to take place today and I cant find anything official. Just normal civilians on forums and blogs.

I would like to find something from congress stating what is really going on today.

So far everyone that I have talked to that e-mailed local congress states that the member they e-mailed never even heard of this bill.
 
I never heard back from any member of congress.:( I only got a confirmation that my email was sent. At least you got a reply...:rolleyes:
 
I never heard back from any member of congress.:( I only got a confirmation that my email was sent. At least you got a reply...:rolleyes:


well the hearing took place today at 10:00 est. I missed the live web cast and it is not archived anywhere. I have a good feeling it was shrugged away.
 
well the hearing took place today at 10:00 est. I missed the live web cast and it is not archived anywhere. I have a good feeling it was shrugged away.

I HOPE so!! I won't feel too good until I KNOW for sure though...
 
well the hearing took place today at 10:00 est. I missed the live web cast and it is not archived anywhere. I have a good feeling it was shrugged away.

Their's a blog on it and much of the testimony you can listen to on Kingsnake.com
It wasn't shrugged away but I think their are serious problems with the bill.

The key is we have to be rational in our assessment of the bill and not come off like a bunch of kooks. I'm pretty sure the one reptile show organizer I know came off as a kook when he visited his representative. He had some of his facts mixed up and was pretty fired up when he was talking to me about the issue.
 
Bad news folks.


HR669 has passed the subcommittee hearing. This means the bill will continue to move forward.

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/04/hr_669_the_hearing_has_conclud.php

Video is not available on the web as of this posting. I watched it live, and it is very depressing.

While it is not law yet, they are in fact moving forward with this bill.
Please continue writing and calling your representatives in a professional manner.

"OMGWTF" type communications only continue to hurt our cause.

I would like to restate now that I am in support of the intention of this bill. I do not support the bill in it's current form as it is blanket legislation based off of media hype and the deep pocket books of PETA and other zealous organizations.

For those of you that are not from the U.S:
It appears that the E.U., Canada, and Australia have very similar laws in the works right now. You folks may want to research this, as I have no international sources and as an ignorant American, I do not even know where to begin to find information for other governments.
 
Agreed, John.

The good news is, The U.S. government is a slow plodding dinosaur, so we still have time to kill this thing before it becomes law.


I wonder if axolotls can be trained to wear body armor and march in formation?

I can breed an entire Anti-HR669 Army of caudates!:smile:
 
Bad news folks.

HR669 has passed the subcommittee hearing. This means the bill will continue to move forward.

Please continue writing and calling your representatives in a professional manner.

I am REALLY not happy to hear this! So what now - do we write to all those same people again? Or will there be a new list?

We need to keep pointing out the absurdity of a blanket ban on pretty much everything, and the tremendous negative impact such a thing would have on all levels. Not the least of which is, IMO, that when you remove people's contact with animals, you remove a connection with the natural world and make people less likely to care about the planet as a whole.
 
This is also a topic which has been addressed on other forums. From what I have been previously informed the ban DOES NOT affect any animals you may currently own. But it will prevent you from releasing, trading, selling, or breeding the animal. The ban is going to be placed on pet stores. And they have no intention of taking peoples current pets away, just stoping future people from attaining them.
This IS bad, to an extent, although they will not be taking your pets away. This ban will cause alot of petstores to no longer carry alot of the pet foods which feed the animals not allowed in your area.

Basically if you cannot shop online, you will end up having to hand your pet over anyways because you will not be able to feed it. Unless you can find some home made aulturnative to store brand diet for the specific breeds.
 
Bad news folks.


HR669 has passed the subcommittee hearing. This means the bill will continue to move forward.

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/04/hr_669_the_hearing_has_conclud.php

Video is not available on the web as of this posting. I watched it live, and it is very depressing.

While it is not law yet, they are in fact moving forward with this bill.
Please continue writing and calling your representatives in a professional manner.

"OMGWTF" type communications only continue to hurt our cause.

I would like to restate now that I am in support of the intention of this bill. I do not support the bill in it's current form as it is blanket legislation based off of media hype and the deep pocket books of PETA and other zealous organizations.

For those of you that are not from the U.S:
It appears that the E.U., Canada, and Australia have very similar laws in the works right now. You folks may want to research this, as I have no international sources and as an ignorant American, I do not even know where to begin to find information for other governments.


This site claims its still pending and some others say it may not even make public with the results for some time.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-669
 
Someone had also posted this on cichlid-forum but no link. Just a copy and paste job.

Good news I found this on a other site tonight.

VICTORY over HR669!!!

WE DID IT FOLKS!!!! Victory over HR669! You can thank yourselves and the Reptile Nation, for a hard fought Victory! Our nearly 50,000 grassroots letters and 1,000s of phone calls to the offices of the subcommittee members clearly prevailed at today's Insular Affairs Subcommittee hearing on HR 669. HR 669 in it's current form is finished. For anything to go forward it MUST be re-written from the ground up....and USARK will have a seat at the table along with other stake holders.
Delegate Faleomavega from Samoa said, "The letter and phone campaign hit the subcommittee like a BUZZ SAW". Harry Burroughs, of the subcommittee staff said, "I haven't seen a letter writing campaign like this in 30 years! You should be proud of yourselves." Take heart in the fact that the Reptile Nation stopped HR669 in it's tracks!!
We also need to thank Congressman Henry Brown, SC for helping us to focus our fight on the Subcommittee as opposed to the full House of Representatives. He is the one who instructed us to write real letters to be truly effective. He said emails are fine if that is all you can manage, but they can be filtered and deleted. There is no denying the weight of thousands of paper letters from American citizens. The Reptile Nation was responsible for 49,229 letters delivered to the Subcommittee in less than two weeks. Congressman Brown's staff made sure they all got in the door. 38,000 of those letters will be entered into the permanent record. Thank you my friends!
Credit should also be given to Bill Martin, a witness who testified at the hearing. He is the President of Blue Ridge Aquatics, a large multi-state Tilapia farming operation. They farm Tilapia as a food fish. He had some serious problems with the bill and the ear of much of the committee. His plain talk of how this bill would destroy hundreds of families hit home. What they do and the impact this bill would have on them parallels the plight of the Reptile Nation.
Senior Democrat staff from the House Committee on Natural Resources advised Subcommittee Chair Madeleine Bordallo that if she wants something to go forward she will have to go back to square one and draft a new bill. Then have another subcommittee hearing. When and if she does, USARK will be there to represent the interests of the Reptile Nation!! They probably will try, and that will be our challenge for another day. But Today VICTORY is SWEET!...... Celebrate today and rest, because tomorrow we must get ready to fight again.
Thank you Reptile Nation! Thank you Tom Wolfe. Thank you everyone who did their part.
Stay tuned... This fight has only begun!
USARK
A note from Tom Wolfe:
"The good news is, USARK engineered a significant victory which caught the attention of the entire membership of the Subcommittee and their staffs.
The bad news is this is just the first step in the process. Members of the Reptile Nation should be jubilant with this victory. However, our success should be measured, because the proponents of HR 669 will be back soon with another version of the same legislation. They will not rest, so we must not rest either.
Take satisfaction in a job well done and a victory well deserved, but know we all must rise up again to fight on because the battle has just begun!"


( pic above ) - USARK President, Andrew Wyatt presents Republican Staff Director Harry Burroughs the 38,000 letters that were admitted into the record of the official proceedings of the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee hearing on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

( pic above ) - Partial view of the 14 boxes and 11 USPS mail bins containing the 38,000 letters delivered to the Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee.

( pic above ) - Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife Subcommittee Ranking Republican Henry Brown, (SC-1) accepts one of the 25 containers comprising of over 38,000 letters from THE REPTILE NATION delivered to the subcommittee hearing on April 23, 2009. Left to right, Andrew Wyatt - President USARK, Congressman Henry Brown and Tom Wolfe - Washington representative for USARK.
 
Can you link the cichlid forum link please?

Personally I'm a little confused - some are saying it wasn't rejected and some are saying it was. Which is it? That PhD on Science Blogs is either high or shouldn't be writing that blog (or both).
 
I have to agree John, the above transcript is nothing like the hearing I watched.

Here is the current stuff on the topic so far today:

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-news/2009/04/23/hr669-after-the-hearing.aspx

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h669/show

http://www.pethobbyist.com/sitenews/index.php?/archives/334-Is-HR-669-dead.html

http://www.pijac.org/governmentaffairs/hr669forum.asp

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dv...d/Article/detail/594857?contextCategoryId=378

http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=60&extmode=view&extid=246


As of this posting the details are still sketchy-

So far it is confirmed that this bill is not "dead", it is merely on the back burner.
Amateur and enthusiast sites are claiming victory.
Government sites have not been updated on this topic as of yet, or are swamped with heavy traffic.

Here is the Archive Video:

http://resources.edgeboss.net/wmedia/resources/2009_04_23_insular.wvx

Please forgive me if I confused anyone yesterday, valid information was very hard to find yesterday on this topic.
 
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I have to agree John, the above transcript is nothing like the hearing I watched.

Here is the current stuff on the topic so far today:

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-news/2009/04/23/hr669-after-the-hearing.aspxhttp://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h669/show

http://www.pethobbyist.com/sitenews/index.php?/archives/334-Is-HR-669-dead.html

http://www.pijac.org/governmentaffairs/hr669forum.asp

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dv...d/Article/detail/594857?contextCategoryId=378

http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=60&extmode=view&extid=246


As of this posting the details are still sketchy-

So far it is confirmed that this bill is not "dead", it is merely on the back burner.
Amateur and enthusiast sites are claiming victory.
Government sites have not been updated on this topic as of yet, or are swamped with heavy traffic.

Here is the Archive Video:

http://resources.edgeboss.net/wmedia/resources/2009_04_23_insular.wvx

Please forgive me if I confused anyone yesterday, valid information was very hard to find yesterday on this topic.


Like I said I have no other solid evidence of it but from the pics those people look pretty happy with some kind of result. Also, the way it would work is that it wont just go on a back burner it needs to be re thought and re written from scratch to better appeal those that voted against it meaning yes in its current form it is DEAD.

There is lots of people taking this way out of context all over the internet and I urge people to not be so worried about the bill. I for one believe it will not pass if the above quote I posted from the other forum is not true but what people need to understand is that it does not pertain to every single non native species of animal kept as a pet. They must prove that they can in turn become a invasive species and that alone will take some time. I mean, I see people flipping out that we will no longer be able to keep cats and dogs:rofl:
I feel very confident that the majority of congress giving the diversity of the states in the US will acknowledge that this is something best left to state Gov. and its gaming and wildlife commissions to decide on just like it has been.

It makes no sense at all to keep some native species which this bill will encourage when in some states it is not permitted by law without a permit and some states not permitted at all period.
 
What number will they pick next? First 6311, then 669. How about it, you mathmeticians among us, what is the next number in the progression?
 
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