Muscovies in US - REGULATION CHANGES OPEN FOR COMMENTS - 10/1 update

[muscovychef]

thank you I have been waiting in call backs now i can relax . I have about 30 coming this year ,and what ever i hatch .
as long as i can raise butcher sale and buy with out government notice im happy.

 

[sandspoultry]

Nature's_Hatchery :

Our staff contacted George Allen this morning, and spoke to him on the phone. He says that this regulation will go into effect, but there will be no enforcement until an amendment will be put together that allows Muscovy raisers to keep their birds without a permit. As of 3/18/10, any persons trying to enforce this law should be directed to him for further information. He is currently putting this in writing and will send you a copy upon request once it is completed. His office, he says, has no time or desire to extract Muscovy permits from anyone or to regulate Muscovy raisers this extensively. The law was made for feral populations. They are currently working on a clause that will allow domestic Muscovies, and anyone on his emailing list (Those who have contacted him regarding this regulation by email) will be sent a notification when the amendment is completed. It will then be open for comments for a short period of time, and he requests that all Muscovy raisers let him know by email before the completion of this clause what they think the law should entail, and give suggestions for this new draft. He says that he is not willing to drop the regulation altogether, as there certainly is a localized issue in places, but he now understands that domestic Muscovy populations need to be taken into consideration.
In summary, this regulation is on hold as of 3/18/10 and will not be presently enforced until a new draft of this regulation is completed. Please send your comments to [email protected].


Reeve O'Neill
General Manager
Nature's Hatchery

www.NaturesHatchery.com
Toll free (877) 90-BIRDS
[email protected]

Reeve,
Thank you for the update however, as of 3/18/10 we all can still breed, sell Muscovies. As of 3/31/10 we cannot - unless the regulation is ammended prior to 3/31/10 that is still the cut off date. If they inforce it or not anybody selling after that is in violation of federal law. I have been in contact with them as well and have been told they are "tweeking" the regulation. The person that does the permits in Atlanta would not give anything in writing as of 3/16/10 when I spoke with her. Once again, if they inforce it or not it's still a law on March 31st. I hope they will follow through but until I see it in writting I don't trust them.

Sharon​

 

[Danaus29]

(g) You may not acquire or possess
live muscovy ducks, their carcasses or
parts, or their eggs, except to raise them
to be sold as food, and except that you
may possess any live muscovy duck that
you lawfully acquired prior to March
31, 2010. If you possess muscovy ducks
on that date, you may not propagate
them or sell or transfer them to anyone
for any purpose, except to be used as
food. You may not release them to the
wild, sell them to be hunted or released
to the wild, or transfer them to anyone
to be hunted or released to the wild.

I have read this section several times and it looks like propagation for use as food is permitted as long as you have them by March 31, 2010.

I spoke to a couple OFWS people Saturday and they had no idea this was coming up.

I'm in a quandry about how to advertise on craiglist now. Should I inform potential customers the ban is coming or will I be alerting troublemakers to the fact this ban is coming?

 

[danielnv]

I wish there were more muscovies available for presale purchases! I won't be moved until sometime in April, and I am sure there are others in similar situations--no incubator space or whatever. If money changes hands in March, the transactions are legal. Granted they MAY be legal later on anyway, but in the interim it seems this is the only option.

 

[Laurieks]

Some folks at work today were talking about duck & wild turkey hunting. I asked if they ever saw feral muscovies in their travels. One said "oh, the white ones? We call those 'Farmer Ducks', but we never see any". I told him they come in many lovely colors.
:lol "farmer ducks"

Thanks Very Much for the good news, Reeve. It's nice to know there will be some when we get ready to have them again.

 

[Iheart'scovies]

So, is there absolutely zero chance of doing anything to help the so-called 'feral' muscovies? It turns my stomach to think that they are about to start rounding them up an killing them. I am here in Florida (yes, *that* state that probably started this whole mess) and I love seeing them on the local lakes and ponds. They are lovely, sweet, and wonderful in my opinion. I understand that everyone has take things from a domestic owner's stance here since that certainly provides the surest legal footing to defend, but I am am also really distressed at the idea that the wild population is about to be decimated even if we 'win' this one in the end. Any thoughts?

 

[Parrotchick]

It will be up to the local or state jurisdictions to decide specifically how to deal with its feral ducks. The federal reg mentioned shooting and walk-in traps as possibilities. Obviously you can't have open season in the parks and golf courses where a lot of the complaints probably originated. Perhaps you can contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regional office nearest you to see what they are thinking of doing and discuss anything you might do to help to reduce the number of ducks that otherwise might meet a cruel fate. I think adoption of some would be great, though a difficult and time consuming venture that wouldn't be able to help a significantly large quantity of ducks.

I think that oiling the muscovy eggs sounds like a great idea. If the hens' eggs are merely removed, they just lay more. But if the eggs are oiled and placed back, the hen will sit on them, thus leaving a month or so out of the process of adding more generations to the feral population each time this is done. It sounds pretty easy to do; the difficulty would be finding the nests and having enough people to monitor them for eggs and to do the oiling. But perhaps you or someone in Florida who care about the muscovies could start a grass roots thing to begin saving the muscovies. It could be a win-win situation: people who like muscovies could hopefully participate in a venture to humanely deal with the feral ducks (as well as lawfully keeping their own when the new reg is amended). People who don't like the muscovies will see a decrease in the number of ducks over time.

If there were "problem" muscovies where I lived, I'd defintely try to do that. But I never even heard of or saw a muscovy until I got my baby drake last summer. And as an avid kayaker, I'm in LOTS of places that ducks like, and see lots of other breeds but not muscovies.

 

[vfem]

I had a heart to heart with my muscovy Charolette... she refuses to leave, and I letting her dress to impress as one of my pekins for the meantime.

And is it just HAPPENS a few new chocolate muscovies fly in to live with us, I'm not stoppin' 'em!

 

[muscovychef]

because they are not in the wild it was the public areas all along every search and contact i made was the same public areas. All alen had to do was google muscovy and he would have known. How many other laws are out there for public review that we as a people know nothing off????????????????????????????????????

 

[Dances with Ducks]

While we are in the business of making new regulations, how about this one?

Any new law, regulation, or ordinance which is discovered to have been written without notification and considered imput from the affected constituencies shall be immediately rescinded, effective retroactively.

There! Take THAT! - you nasty regulators!!