Regulations On California RattleSnakes?

[StaySteezy]

What are the rules and regulations on selling,buying, and storing rattlesnakes and rattlesnake venom in Southern California?:confused:

(Link to source would be great also.)

[MDT]

What are your thoughts for using the extracted venom? Do you have the facilities to freeze the extracted venom in liquid nitrogen? Can you freeze dry the venom?

[RandyRhoads]

You cannot sell, or buy, rattlesnakes, or their venom. You can however posses as many as you like of native ONLY species, provided you acquired them legally with a fishing/hunting license(I forget which it is they changed it).

There are also specific county regulations that may prohibit it.

[Corey209]

You cannot sell, or buy, rattlesnakes, or their venom. You can however posses as many as you like of native ONLY species, provided you acquired them legally with a fishing/hunting license(I forget which it is they changed it).

There are also specific county regulations that may prohibit it.

Fishing license is for herping and you can legally buy Albino WDB's.

GBU in Lodi sells them.

[Teal]

Yes, you can legally buy and sell pretty much an albino anything in California (even if the species itself is prohibited).

You do not need a permit of any sort to remove or dispatch rattlesnakes from private lands (but you need a permit for herping other species), except for the Red diamond rattlesnake - which is completely prohibited from taking. You can read allll about it here: California Laws Regarding Reptiles and Amphibians (http://www.californiaherps.com/info/herpinglaws.html)

You cannot sell or buy venom without a permit... I do not know if you can milk your own pet rattlesnakes and store the venom without a permit.

[RandyRhoads]

Albino has nothing to do with the legality of buying and selling. ALthough rare it can occur in nature, that doesn't mean you can sell it. If anything it would be because they are captive bred that would make them legal to sell, but after many conversations with DFG on the phone and in person at the state headquarters they still tell me you can not legally sell them.

With the new revisions, you don't need a license to take them, but once again the daily bag limit and total possession limit is 2 of each species. Every DFG officer and headquarters person I have talked to said they don't really care and wont enforce the total possession limit unless you're doing something crazy like a 200 rattlesnake pit...

[Corey209]

Albino has nothing to do with the legality of buying and selling. ALthough rare it can occur in nature, that doesn't mean you can sell it. If anything it would be because they are captive bred that would make them legal to sell, but after many conversations with DFG on the phone and in person at the state headquarters they still tell me you can not legally sell them.

With the new revisions, you don't need a license to take them, but once again the daily bag limit and total possession limit is 2 of each species. Every DFG officer and headquarters person I have talked to said they don't really care and wont enforce the total possession limit unless you're doing something crazy like a 200 rattlesnake pit...

On the fish and game website they say you can sell albinos.

[RandyRhoads]

.........Link?

[Corey209]

.........Link?

Having trouble finding it right now, the website has been changed a lot. It was a list that had like "(E) Pit-viper" and classified everything. The links I previously had bookmarked are no longer available.

[RandyRhoads]

Having trouble finding it right now, the website has been changed a lot. It was a list that had like "(E) Pit-viper" and classified everything. The links I previously had bookmarked are no longer available.

Regulations are subject to constant change, and a lot of them people read are from external sites besides dfg. I'm not saying you didn't read it but I've read a lot of things from sites supposedly quoting laws that are ridiculous.

[MizCandice]

I would definately check into your local ordinences as well, even if things are allowed by the county the municipalities at the city/town level may have nixed it. Just a heads up.

[RandyRhoads]

I would definately check into your local ordinences as well, even if things are allowed by the county the municipalities at the city/town level may have nixed it. Just a heads up.

Excellent point. The first house I rented all my snakes were technically legal as far as the state but the neighborhood zoning made them illegal. Ended up in a nice dfg investigation and inventorying my snakes, and I was given a choice to move or get rid of them.

[Zoo Nanny]

I am having a hard time trying to link to the page but if you search California Fish and Game Native Reptile Captive Propagation. It's an Adobe document, go to Page 3 and scroll down to #7 only those bred in captivity may be sold.

[RandyRhoads]

Found it. According to that you can sell captive bred like you said. But that's from 2011. I checked with officers this year who said no. But, not every cop knows the law, so maybe they just didn't know you could.

[Corey209]

Regulations are subject to constant change, and a lot of them people read are from external sites besides dfg. I'm not saying you didn't read it but I've read a lot of things from sites supposedly quoting laws that are ridiculous.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnrm.dfg.ca.gov%2FFileHandler.ashx %3FDocumentID%3D28427&ei=aSNoUqavAYS-igKj9IHQBg&usg=AFQjCNE4B6WQKg_LNyUKGhV8lWH0PHKEGw&sig2=DXCcw5SJeH3nlw4kZFT2sg&bvm=bv.55123115,d.cGE

this is a link to the prohibited animals unless you have a license, I can't find anything about albino WDB anymore though.

[RandyRhoads]

§2118.
It is unlawful to import, transport, possess, or release alive into this state, except under a revocable, nontransferable permit as provided in this chapter and the regulations pertaining thereto, any wild animal of the following species:

So there it lists what you need a permit for. There are no snakes listed period. That doesn't mean you can do it because it doesn't say you cant. On the other regs it says you cannot sell or own some native snakes without permits. Yet this list doesn't have them listed.

Isn't dealing with dfg great.

[Corey209]

§2118.
It is unlawful to import, transport, possess, or release alive into this state, except under a revocable, nontransferable permit as provided in this chapter and the regulations pertaining thereto, any wild animal of the following species:

So there it lists what you need a permit for. There are no snakes listed period. That doesn't mean you can do it because it doesn't say you cant. On the other regs it says you cannot sell or own some native snakes without permits. Yet this list doesn't have them listed.

Isn't dealing with dfg great.

GBU enterprises sells their albino WDBs along with a lot of other people, if it were illegal I'm sure they would be shut down. People have called dfg and were told it's fine to do.

(E) Family Crotalidae -Pit Vipers: All species (D), except Crotalus viridis (Western rattlesnake), Crotalus atrox (Western diamondback rattlesnake), Crotalus ruber (red diamondback rattlesnake), Crotalus scutulatus (Mojave rattlesnake), Crotalus mitchelli (speckled rattlesnake) and Crotalus cerastes (Sidewinder) not restricted.

[RandyRhoads]

When I lived in placer county a local shop had to get rid of teir albino wdb. Like I said not all officers know the law. Especially on something so rare.