I'm just going to clear up a few things in this thread
First of, the herptile-ban was introduced in 1976 along whit several other bans, as it at that time was very little info on keeping herptiles available in Norway, which is very understandable. We take it for granted nowadays when every piece of info is readily available on the internet. Most of the reptiles in Norway before the ban was kept in poor conditions, I have seen setups with grass snakes, terrapins, adders, and caimans all together in the same enclosure, and that was fine then...
Since then the people who are passionate about this have been working on removing this ban, as the reason it was introduced in the first place is now not a problem anymore. Unfortunately it is a very hard battle to fight, the things we go against are irrational snake phobias, powerful and lobbying animal rights groups who are spreading untrue facts about herptile keeping, and ministers with personal snake fears who do not listen to reason.
A non-profit organization has been working a few years on a proposal for a list of herptiles to be legalized, the list started as 32 species of reptiles and amphibians which was both normal in the pet trade and easy to keep in captivity. The list was reviewed by six professional associations and all of them sent the list forward with positivity, and proposed a change of law. They also collaborated some changes and the list ended up with 18 species. Which are as follows:
Lizards:
Spiny-tailed monitor -
Varanus acanthurus
Crested gecko -
Correlophus ciliatus
Leopard gecko -
Eublepharis macularius
Bearded dragon -
Pogona vitticeps
Giant day gecko -
Phelsuma grandis
Turtles/tortoises:
Hermann's tortoise -
Testudo hermanni
Chinese pond turtle -
Chinemys reevesi
Red-footed tortoise -
Geochelone carbonaria
Snakes:
Green tree python -
Morelia viridis
Boa constrictor -
Boa constrictor
Ball python -
Python regius
Kingsnake -
Lampropeltis getula
Cornsnake -
Pantherophis guttatus
Milksnake -
Lampropeltis triangulum
Rainbow boa -
Epicrates cenchria
Carpet python -
Morelia spilota
Amphibians:
Argentine horned frog -
Ceratophrys ornata
White’s tree frog -
Litoria caerulea
A perfectly reasonable list of species, and everything was ready, every professional association had given it a clear signal and it was up to the Minister of Agriculture and Food to decide whether to keep the ban or to follow the recommendations of the associations who study these things.
Well, he didn't like snakes, so he said no. Effectively destroying years of hard work from several dedicated groups
But there is a new minister now, along with a new government, so hopefully we can get this case up and rolling again.
Also, this ban only regulate private captive herptiles. The zoos can keep reptiles, they just need to be qualified as with every other animal, which is good in my opinion.
Some weeks ago a norwegian television programme called "Insider", had a documentary focusing on reptiles and amphibians as pets. It showed two people trying to smuggle reptiles from Sweden to Norway. They was stopped and the reptiles they smuggled, was confiscated.
Not quite right, they were not stopped on the border, got into Norway just fine. The documentary had nothing to do with them being caugth, the police had received tips about the reptiles already in Norway prior to the documentary.
Just to present a contrary opinion: exotic pets, outside of intensively farmed animals, are probably the most abused and badly maintained group of animals in human care that there is. I fully recognise that there are specialist exotic animal keepers out there that do a wonderful job and, in particular with birds and cold blooded species, they would put many zoos to shame. But the vast majority of people who fancy a snake or a lizard as a pet will do an appaling job and the animal with have an abreviated life span or at best a poor quality of life.
Funny thing about this in Norway, because of the ban, almost all of the herptiles kept in Norway are being kept by true enthusiasts, and thereby herptiles in Norway are most likely the group of animals being kept in the best conditions. Every other animal group can be bought by anyone, and is bought by anyone. Often ending up in a home where it is not taken care of properly, which is quite sad. In my opinion all animals in captivity in Norway should be held by strict rules on care and housing, for example by having to obtain a permit for the animal you want to keep.
That is a bit of an unusual list, especially omitting Green Iguanas because they are dangerous (not really) and Red-eared Sliders because they are invasive (would they survive a Norwegian winter???). It does indeed seem unusual for them to have included a rare monitor, but that might be because the proponents of this law likely include groups like The Norwegian Herpetological society, whose members may be more interested in owning rare monitors than common turtles.
The green iguana is not on the list of several reasons, not that it is dangerous (although they do have sharp claws and sharp teeth, they can certainly do some damage, I have seen iguana bites, they are not a pretty sight). It has more to do with the iguana compared to other reptiles, seeing as this list is quite short, every reptile can not be on the list, and iguanas are not for everyone. They require a very large enclosure, and get quite large (handling an adult green iguana who is not tame is not easy). So it has more to do with other reptiles that are more suitable.
As for the sliders, yes, they can (and do) survive winters in Norway. There are several cases of sliders being tossed outside when they get to big for the owners, or they grow tired of the turtles, and they have survived winters in Norway.
The spiny-tailed monitor is the most common of the monitors and not rare in the trade at all, so I see no problem there really.
After the terrible accident in Canada where two children was killed by an african rock python, have the reptile keeping case gotten much attention.
Some sources say that there are over 35000 snakes in Norway. A report say that in Norway there are 10 000 kingpythons, 6000 kingboas, 5000 carpet pythons, 1000 green three pythons, 1000 tiger pythons, 500 garden tree boas and 500 rainbow boas in norwegian homes. It does not stand in the report, but I would guess that there are also over 5000 cornsnakes and milksnakes in Norway. Although the case have gotten much more attention, the athorithies still do not want to legalise them.
As it turned out (and came as no shock to me really) the python did not kill those children, that story had more holes than a swiss cheese. It was infact a murder, but this never got out to the media as it isn't exciting enough... quite the world we live in right?
I read that report (came out in 2009 i believe) and found it had several flaws, I know the illegal marked in Norway quite well and some of those figures are way off, not that it matters that much.
Now lets see, was that all...
Yes, by the way, as with other animals in captivity for example marmosets, if we had a functioning system with permits and such I could see a possibility of those in captivity, but the way it works now, no way. To let anyone and everyone buy marmosets at the pet store would be catastrophic...
) As long as there are regulations and matters of controlling it, not just the individual care/keeper, but as a whole. If this is not the case, then a total ban on marmosets is better, for the marmosets, which are the ones who suffers. I will not die from the lack of reptiles in my house.
. Nevertheless the government have recently legalised segways
