04/02/2022
IMPORTANT ! ! ! Please! ! !
Contact your representatives in D.C.!!!
If this passes and goes into law, it will be illegal to move many of our animals across state lines, they will be illegal in some states (for example, Maine already prohibits possession of ESA-listed animals and birds), and we will be dealing with severe restrictions and rules.
From Kashmir Csaky:
*There is still time to make changes but, we are cutting it close. This is what happened at 2:15 pm today [Wed, Feb 2nd]. The information is written by PIJAC Lawyer Marshall Meyers.
The Act sailed through the Rules Committee with only one member specifically pointing out that the Lacey Act Amendments were “snuck in without so much as hearing in the Natural Resources Committee.” The radical changes were not vetted through the regular legislative process and are heading for a vote denying any input demonstrating numerous legal and scientific issues associated with, in essence, declaring all non-native wildlife illegal until proven innocent. When such an approach was attempted in a 1973 proposed regulation, the pet industry, zoological community, hobbyists and thousands of others joined forces and successfully defeated a regulatory process that would have achieved what is being attempted TODAY under the guise of an Act to improve America’s competitiveness.*
NOW is the time to read the proposed changes to the Lacey Act and let your representatives in DC know what you think! These changes will have affect all of us with exotics - the differences from the status-quo could be substantial. *PLEASE READ and understand what could happen.
NOTE that the proposed changes include developing a "white list" which essentially lists what animals *are* allowed, versus making lists only of animals that are illegal. If your animal isn't on the list, you're out of luck.
AND PLEASE follow the link, read the info, and send letters!!! US ARK makes it pretty simple to do (Thank you US ARK!)
From Kashmir Csaky, who has spent endless hours looking at legislation and laws related to keeping species listed under the US Endangered Species Act, and worked to get state law changed in Virginia (thank you Kashmir):
"People if you have not looked at this please read it. It is serious. You can bet that Quakers, Ringnecks, Patagonians and Nandays will be included. Here are some of USARK concerns. What worries me the most is the creation of a white list. White lists are permitted animals and plants. If your bird is not on the white list it cannot be transported across state lines. You may not will, gift, sell (which includes adoptions) your birds to a person in another state. You may not take your bird with you if you move to another state. This would be a federal law.
Briefly, the amendments will:
Provide that the Lacey Act bans the interstate transport of species listed as injurious. Specifically, it replaces Lacey’s current language ‘‘shipment between the continental United States’’ with ‘‘transport between the States.”
Create a “white list” of species that can be imported. This means that any animal (reptile, amphibian, fish, bird, mammal, invertebrate) that is not on the white list is by default treated as an injurious species and is banned from importation.
Create a new authority allowing FWS to use an “emergency designation” that becomes effective immediately after being published in the Federal Register unless an extension of no more than 60 days is allowed. That means no due process, public input, hearings, advanced notice, etc. for injurious listings.
Permit FWS to not allow importation if a species has not been imported in “minimal quantities” (to be defined) in the year prior to the enactment of this Act.
The effective date would be one year after the enactment of this Act."