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

[thkosan]

The APA/IWBA are very involved in the process. Dr Allen's office told me so some weeks ago. The APA is allowing the IWBA to head this up. Better to have one contact than many. Dr Allen knows the number of breeders that IWBA is representing. The final regulation may not be pleasing to everyone, but it will be one we can live with.

I don't mean to be contentious, but it is very important to keep in mind that the APA and IWBA are lobbying for the rights of exhibition Muscovies, not backyard flock or pet owners. They don't speak for or represent the concerns of the latter, which includes me. If we don't keep speaking up, the final regulation may NOT be one that we all can live with. It may be one that the APA and IWBA can live with, but not regular folks like me who do not own exhibition birds.

We need to keep calling and writing and making our opinions known. You state that

Dr Allen has heard us and is making the effort to revise these regulations.

but, for example, he still refuses to modify the control order (which is, in my opinion, overkill -- in an earlier posting I compared it to the equivalent of bombing an entire city to kill a convict hiding in a single house, and I still feel that way. Feral populations are local issues and local solutions should be applied; not the FWS control order, which is basically a national extermination order). I urge you you to take a minute and read the poignant comments in the muscovy petition to see how the control order is affecting people across the US.

I know Dr. Allen will do his best to address our concerns, but please don't assume that he has heard and understood all of our concerns -- this is a democractic process -- the more people speak up, the greater the chance that we WILL have a final regulation that the majority of us can live with. People STILL need to voice their opinions. Don't depend on the APA/IWBA to communicate all of our concerns with regards to the regulation.​

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

What Dr Allen understands is that folks sell Muscovy ducks as pets. Folks buy Muscovy ducks as pets. Said pet ducks get released into the wild. Those have become an issue. Harassing Dr Allen will only make things worse. If folks continue to call him, he may say, forget it and issue an order to inforce the regulation as is. It is best to allow the professionals at IWBA and APA to speak for us as one voice.

In the end, we may all have to band our Muscovy Ducks. Small price to pay. At fault here are irrisponsible pet owners. Same issue with feral cats and feral dogs. Only, they did not migrate into Texas, giving FWS a legal standing. FWS are now involved with the Muscovy. We can not change that. They are trying to be fair. We just need to stay off the phones and allow the FWS time to complete the new proposed rules and then they will give us a chance to respond.

 

[thkosan]

For the record, Dr. Allen has not once expressed frustration with being contacted. He has expressed to me that he is not sure how he is going to address specific issues -- this is why we need to maintain contact. They have not completed the proposed rules and have no idea how to address many of our issues.

He welcomes comments: he is a professional and it is his job to accept comments and respond to them. He is not being harrassed. I specifically inquired about this. He has answered every question I have posed to him personally and in a well-thought out matter. He has given me permission to publish his responses. Keep this in mind: Dr. Allen works FOR US. The FWS is a government agency, not a private one. We have to tell them what we want so that their regulation will address our issues.

The professionals at IWBA and APA are exclusively interested in exhibition poultry. They are NOT representing pet owners, backyard flock owners, families raising ducks for local consumption nor the many, many people in the US who live in subdivisions with ponds and waterways who enjoy having Muscovies sharing their real estate.

We are clearly going to have to agree to disagree on this: I will not stop spurring people to make their voices heard. I will continue to write blogs, send out press releases to the local and national media, and to give interviews about the issue. That is what living in a democracy is all about. Freedom of speech and using that right to change things. Every single government entity that you call or write to is ethically, morally and legally obligated to listen to our concerns and address them. And they will listen. They all work for us; we voted them in and we can vote them back out.

The Farm-to-Consumer Defense Fund agrees and has an urgent call to action alert out on this issue and they continue to urge people to "make your views on this issue known to the Fish and Wildlife Service and other government officials." I'm with them on this. People need to KEEP CALLING their representatives, senators and other government agencies.

 

[thkosan]

Good stuff, well written.

“I'm working at revising my revisions,” Allen conceded this week.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6975719.html#


http://www.chron.com/disp/video.mpl/media/21350480?autoplay​

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Thanks for posting the links, thkosan.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

Since it looks like they are still going to make us "mark" our Scovy, thought I'd send a ltr to Dr. Allen with my concerns and requests/suggestions regarding 50 CFR 21.13 b

I'm feeling a bit defeated by all this. They have a foot in the door and they're not going to let go.

 

[thkosan]

I feel the same way. They do have a foot in the door in that the Muscovy is NOT going to be removed from the Migratory Bird List (although I do believe that the Farm-to-Consumer Defense Fund is attempting to fight this by arguing that Muscovies are livestock, have been for 500+ years, and that trumps the fact that they have recently wandered across the border from Mexico into Texas and I'd like to see more folks get behind this).

Dr. Allen admits that he is continually revising his revisions because of the information people are giving him and the questions they are asking him, so we need to make sure that we ask him to address specific issues important to us and even suggest some ways in which they can be addressed. This is not harrassment, this is necessary sharing of information to ensure that the end result is reasonable.

I am getting frustrated by statements in the press and in discussions such as "we won" and "they are going to amend the regulation so that we can own and breed Muscovies -- we're done." Well, it is NOT a done deal. They are NOT going to give us carte blanche to raise Muscovies without some sort of control measure (permits, banding, etc.); they are NOT going to revise the control order that is basically and extermination order for all Muscovies outside of the southern Rio Grande Valley.

Stay strong and keep making your voice heard. If we feel defeated now and give up, then the FWS certainly won't address the important issues and we'll end up with a revision that includes specific measures that are not acceptable to many, if not the majority, of us.

 

[NewHopePoultry]

As of now, can you own Muscovies or not?

 

[savingdogs]

Technically you have to already own them.

 

[keeperofthehearth]

As of now, can you own Muscovies or not?

If you want them, get them. There is a VERY good chance w/the revisions etc. you would be allowed to have the grandfathered in at the very least.... If push came to shove.... so to speak.​