CONGRESS HEARING ON HR 669 WOULD BAN NONNATIVE SPECIES

[Silkie's Grandma]

CONGRESS HEARING ON HR 669 WOULD BAN NONNATIVE
SPECIES - April 23

Would all who are on other bird lists please send the message below to those lists?

Hi Folks,
In a couple days we (Genny Wall, AFA Legislative VP and Laurella
Desborough, ASA Legislative Chair), will have prepared a capwiz for this
bill. The capwiz tool enables you to send YOUR message directly to each of
the members of the committee hearing the bill. The capwiz provides talking
points you can select or not, and also provides space for you to write your own
comments. You can combine talking points and your comments, or
only send one or the other. Your choice.
It is rather useless to send actual letters to any legislator in DC as
those letters have to go thru the "anthrax killer machine" which
irradiates the heck out of messages to the point that some are totally
fried and crumble when they are opened. And, it takes many more days to
get to the committee members due to the anthrax process. We were told
about this process by government officials, legislators, agency personnel,
etc. who have recommended that we send faxes, emails, make phone calls, or
send letters to the LOCAL address of the legislator.
Now, the NAIA Trust capwiz is a tool which is designed to allow us to send
messages directly to local, state and federal legislators and is the tool
they accept as valid for communication from constituents.
For more info on NAIA Trust go to www.naiatrust.org
If you sign up for legislative alerts, you will receive alerts for your
state and federal alerts about bills which affect animal owners.
NAIA is the National Animal Interest Alliance which is PRO-animal and
ANTI-animal rights and works with us and with legislators to protect our
ability to keep and breed and exhibit or use animals.
See www.naiaonline.org
For more info on the capwiz, go to www.capwiz.com/naiatrust/
A tremendous amount of contact info on YOUR state and federal officials is
available on that site.
Back to 669. Genny Wall and I have kept contact with Marshall Meyers and
with our avicultural people on this bill. When fighting bad bills, it pays
to work together. organization has put a lot of money and time behind many of
these bad bills. BUT, we do have the numbers and IF our people make a
point of sending emails, making phone calls and visiting legislators, we
can often prevail.


One thing to keep in mind is BE POLITE and BE RESPECTFUL to officials and
legislators at the same time you express your opinion and communicate your
passion about your birds and animals. While we may be angry or upset,
directing those feelings toward the legislator is VERY NON-PRODUCTIVE!
They can hear us better and understand us better when we communicate
clearly and when we tell them how this legislation will negatively affect
us and our activities. Indeed, legislators want to hear from their
constituents on these bills because they want to do what works best for
those who vote them into office.

So, sign up for legislative alerts and watch for info on the lists about
H669 and the capwiz tool. Please tell your friends and family and pet
stores and feed stores know about it so all can help fight this bad bill
which would dramatically affect all of us.

Sincerely,

Laurella Desborough, ASA Legislative Chair,
NAIA Trust Legislative Chair

 

[jenjscott]

Can you give us more information on the actual content of the legislation or a link to find out about its content? Non native species have become such a problem and a threat to our wildlife and fisheries that it is a real issue. The foreign carp are taking over the Mississippi River, eliminating the native fish. There is a breeding population of Burmese Pythons in Florida (these get big enough to eat a child) walking catfish, etcetera etcetera. So I guess what I'm saying is it all depends on the wording of the bill, what is it that we are going to lose? What is it that we are going to gain? WHY IS IT A BAD BILL?

 

[Silkie's Grandma]

The information was forwarded to me from a game bird web site (another yahoo group) I do not have anything more than what is on the page. (there are several links to follow for more information)

 

[farmgirlie1031]

Quote:
It's a BAD BILL because they want to take away all your pets that are not native. Parakeets, Button Quail, Muscovy ducks (even those raised on farms for people to eat), tropical fish, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, ferrets, and more. I do understand that non-native species do hurt native species but the way they have worded the bill is taking away everything not native. I love wildlife and want to protect it but I also love to eat Muscovy duck meat. I make sure mine are contained and do not roam with the wild ducks on the river a mile away from here. A Parakeet around here that gets loose will maybe live during the warmer months but the winter is going to kill it so around here they wouldn't become a threat but I could see them competing with wildlife in maybe Florida. The way I understand the only non-native animals they will allow are horses, goats, and cattle.

 

[jacca5]

Here are the animals that it will not affect



(D) does not include any cat (Felis catus), cattle or oxen (Bos taurus), chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus), dog (Canis lupus familiaris), donkey or ass (Equus asinus), domesticated members of the family Anatidae (geese), duck (domesticated Anas spp.), goat (Capra aegagrus hircus), goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus), horse (Equus caballus), llama (Lama glama), mule or hinny (Equus caballus x E. asinus), pig or hog (Sus scrofa domestica), domesticated varieties of rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), or sheep (Ovis aries), or any other species or variety of species that is determined by the Secretary to be common and clearly domesticated.



And here is another part of the bill




(f) Animals Owned Lawfully Prior to Prohibition of Importation- This Act and regulations issued under this Act shall not interfere with the ability of any person to possess an individual animal of any species if such individual animal was legally owned by the person before the risk assessment is begun pursuant to subsection (e)(3), even if such species is later prohibited from being imported under the regulations issued under this Act.

 

[MichiganWoods]

There is absolutely no way that will pass. I'm betting there are a LOT of people in congress with pets not on the "safe" list.

They listed goldfish as being domestic BUT there is only one species which is native to America. The Comet goldfish was born/mutated here. The other goldfish belong to oriental countries. -- If they're going to get picky about things they should at least know what the heck they are talking about.

 

[DarkWolf]

Here is the full details. Read it all first before jumping to anything.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-669

 

[poltroon]

Quote:
Domestic, in this context, does not mean "native to North America" but instead domesticated animals, ie, those whose main populations are owned and maintained by people.

It would allow you to keep pets of those species you already have, but it would not allow you to breed or sell them. Some of these pets are long-lived and might well need new homes over the years.

This bill doesn't affect poultry, but it could potentially affect other bird species and reptile and fish keeping, depending upon the unspecified findings of what species should be included.

If it merely restricted importation, and not captive breeding and sales, that would be one thing, but this has the potential to be quite broad until a larger list of species is created for each category.

 

[GardenerGal]

Homo sapiens sapiens are an exotic species in the U.S. too. And look what happened -- they have a breeding population running rampant all over the danged place!

 

[Emzyyy]

Ummm no way I have hedgehogs, parakets, zebra finches, a tortoise UMM NO WAY