SB477 "Dangerous Wild Animals" Bill; Disastrous for Virginia
While it is a fact that the general public should be protected from wild and dangerous animals SB477 goes above and beyond protection into penalizing and making criminal a whole section of the law abiding citizens within the commonwealth of Virginia. The herpetalogical community has been a boon to the Virginia economy and has a track record of being law abiding citizens whose property you are usurping. Yet, In many cases the animals listed in chapter 5 title 29.1 article 8 subsection 2. Class Reptilia b. Order Squamata, (2) Family Boidae such as but not limited to anacondas (Genus Eunectes), boa constrictors (Boa constrictor), Burmese pythons (Python molurus), reticulated pythons (Python reticulatus), amethystine pythons (Morelia amethistina), scrub pythons (Morelia kinghorni), Northern African pythons (Python sebae), Southern African pythons (Python natalensis), which are in fact not wild animals but do qualify as domesticated livestock or companion animal under § 3.1-73.6 of the Code of Virginia. Subsequently this legislation may have the unintended reactionary consequence of having more citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia decide to release into the wild their pets rather than have them confiscated and/or euthanized which is an outlined procedure for the seizure of “Dangerous Wild Animals”, which is exactly what this bill is trying to prevent. Scientific data as presented by North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Section of Human Ecology and Epidemiology, a peer reviewed scientific study, on the statistics across the US does not show any instances of released pet reptiles causing injuries or death to anyone in the state of Virginia or nationwide. The only known statistic of fatalities from snakes is from professional work related fatalities, coming in at .023 percent a total of 10 known deaths from *Other animals including but not limited to fish, water buffalo, snake, giraffe, bat, antelope, and unidentified farm animals.
Yet another thing to take into consideration is in an economy such as ours the burden it would place on state revenues to prosecute, procure, seize and transport said companion animals to qualifying facilities and/ or the euthanasia of said companion animals. Money from this industry could be a boon to our economy instead this places an unneeded amount of pressure on families and businesses that rely on the money generated from the exhibition, breeding, and sale of said companion animals. Please honorable delegates and senators of the Commonwealth of Virginia take into consideration these things and remove these listed animals from SB477 and any subsequent legislation enacted in the Virginia Senate. We the undersigned do put forth our support for this amendment to SB477.
Please pass along this petition and add more people as needed to this. I will be making it public today on e-petition as well as Care2 and several other sites. Please also go check out these sites and their response to the bill as well
by Sarah Sertic on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 10:10am
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