07/02/2025
UPDATE 3/10/25: This bill is scheduled to be heard by the Wildlife Subcommittee on Wednesday, March 19th at 12:30 PM. The location is: Blatt Building Room 409, 1105 Pendleton St, Columbia, SC 29201. Written testimony should be emailed to [email protected]. You can also email to register to speak. Send another comment even if you have already done so, and any stakeholders should attend the hearing to oppose in person. Sample letter, bill text, and more at https://usark.org/25sc/.
Sample letter, bill text, and more at https://usark.org/25sc/.
South Carolina House Bill 3937 (H3937) was introduced on Feb. 6, 2025 by Representative Hixon. It will ban venomous reptiles (list below). The bill makes it illegal to import into, possess, keep, purchase, have custody or control of, reproduce, or sell within this State. Current owners can get permits and must register their animals within 90 days of the effective date. Permits must be renewed every three years and the cost is $150. Exemptions (but permit still required) apply to:
1. Public facilities at a fixed facility that are open to the public for a time of no less than thirty hours per week for at least six months per year; and
2. for bona fide research purposes, licensed medical or pharmaceutical facilities, institutions of higher learning, or other similar institutions at the department's discretion.
Venomous reptiles banned, including hybrids: families Elapidae, Crotalidae, Viperidae, and Hydrophiidae; all reptiles in the genus Heloderma; all reptiles in the family Colubridae belonging to the genera: Rhabdophis, Balanophis, Macropisthodon, Boiga, Dispholidus, Thelotornis, and Thrasops, and all reptiles in the family Atractaspididae.
This is a snippet. Sample letter, bill text, and more at https://usark.org/25sc/.
