Federal Legislation potentially extending Lacey Act (injurius wildlife)

[birdsandbats]

I hope this bill does a swift death. I understand the basis of wanting to curb invasive species and diseases but banning species has not stopped the problem and adding new bans is only going to hurt multiple industries. As well as it is completely unenforceable in terms of determining what species are injurious because one can argue that feral dogs and cats are potentially worse than any other invasive species but we are not going to be banning those any time.

This isn't really about invasive species. That's just what the AR rights groups are saying to get this terrible bill passed.

 

[Echobeast]

This isn't really about invasive species. That's just what the AR rights groups are saying to get this terrible bill passed.

Injurious can mean invasive which is why fish and invertebrates are mentioned in the bill. It’s also why meerkats and others are considered injurious. Not because they are dangerous but that they are potentially invasive.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Injurious can mean invasive which is why fish and invertebrates are mentioned in the bill. It’s also why meerkats and others are considered injurious. Not because they are dangerous but that they are potentially invasive.

The whole notion of invasives should be based upon which species have actually posed a (potential) threat. Some of the species considered are just outlandish.

Further, I remain convinced that these extreme AW lobbyists are actually preventing ex situ recovery programs from proceeding, being developed and negating what great positive impacts ex situ conservation breeding are bringing to conservation of threatened and endangered species.

As it is: I do agree with some of the concerns of private breeders that they are being prevented from operating ex situ conservation programs or activities.

The entire thing is a draconian method, a smoke-screen with absolutely unscientific framing to confront a so-called (perceived) invasive issue. And on top: it does nothing by way of removing invasive species already in the ecosystem and which have had a demonstrated negative impact on native wildlife and threatened species.

 

[PossumRoach]

There is great concern it would be used to essentially shut down multiple sections of the animal hobby, though on the other hand it would create a massive black market. Such action wouldn't just hurt our industry, we import from multiple countries where the breeding/collection of such species is significant to their income.

This.

The only people who benefit from such laws are ARAs. The massive black market that you have mentioned will be their talking point when they are the one that caused it to grow.

Not because they are dangerous but that they are potentially invasive.

On what basis? The only reason why mongooses are in the Lacey act in the first place is because of what happened in Hawaii, an island system where anything and everything could be invasive, with farmers dumping small indian mongoose to hunt off pests. I don't oppose invasive species precautions done on a state level, but when an event that happens in a fragile island ecosystem is used to make federal laws for a large country that has many distinct ecosystems, then I think that it is bogus.

Zoos with the proper USDA licenses are usually exempt from these sorts of things, as long as they have all of the proper paperwork. That's why they can own and transport endangered species, for example.

Yes and no. This is obviously going to sound a lot like speculation but getting injurious species seems to be more difficult than getting endangered species across statelines. There is a reason why most unaccreditted zoos don't keep meerkats or just won't import and keep meerkats despite them being not endangered. This is because other than paperwork, they have to be able to demonstrate the government that their animals will be "maintained in double escape-proof enclosures" which probably isn't worth it for a small zoo if they want to have meerkats. The injurious listing is also another reason why raccoon dogs, Java sparrows, and dholes are rare in the US when thay areconsiderably ubiquitous in Europe.