Copied from BC Reptile Club Forum
Hello to all Breeders and Snake Owners
Just reporting on our meeting with the Ministry of Environment on the Exotic Species Ban in B.C. on April 9, 2009. The meeting was attended by the manager of environment, the administration committee, herpetologist and wildlife officers.
Henry Piorun of A1pytons, Don Patterson of Pythons and Boas, David Chan of Exotic Serpents were present at the meeting and Dr. Burton who is a veterinarian specializing in exotic animals, was at the meeting through tele-conferencing, during the presentation to the Ministry of Environment.
After the consultation, we have given them time to re-work the exotic ban of the boas and pythons. Our recommendation to the board was to ban the big 5 plus the Green and Yellow anaconda.
At this point in time, all boas and pythons except the ball python is considered banned by this Act that they have announced.
The board will take our ideas and try to re-work the ban so that we can continue to breed our boas and pythons, and if such boa or python reaches a length greater than 3 meters, then the owner of that boa or python would need to register that animal, but also continue to be able to breed the boa and python. We also have questioned their 3 meter rule and how they came up with this arbitrary number, all we got was basically blank stares and the only response was that if a snake was 3 meters in length, that it could harm someone. We agree to disagree on this point for now and have told them that we will take this up at a later date, after we see what they are willing to change within the Act.
The other suggestion we made was if the Ministry of Environment decided to stick with a ban option, then they should ban the snakes based on their reputations and not on the basis of ignorance, prejudice or fear. For example all deaths in the past were committed by the big 5 pythons and the 2 anacondas. We recommended education not a ban.
We were told that the government does not wish to regulate the reptile business, but would rather do a ban. In our opinion this is not good enough. The basis of this ban is to protect the public safety and stop the spread of disease, which does not exist. If there is to be any involvement of the government when it comes to the reptile trade, in our opinion it would be to set up regulations.
If the government had done their due diligence and public consultation, they would know that there is no public safety issue as well as no threat of spreading any disease that would be any different than those of our common domestic animals, in fact, snakes only spread the disease of salmonella.
The government’s mission statement with this Species Act was stated as a public safety issue as well as preventing the spread of disease.
Neither one of the reasons given by the Ministry of Environment is valid and therefore should this case be taken to court, the Act would be considered null and void, in our opinion. The precedence for this case is in Windsor, Ont. The applicants for that case was; Xentel DM Incorporated, Outdoor Amusement Business Association, TZ Productions, and Garden Brothers. ( Stanley M. Makuch, Signe B. Leisk, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP ). The respondent to the case was The Corporation of the City of Windsor. ( Mark P. Nazarewich, Office of the City Solicitor, Solicitor for the Respondent ).
In this case, the City was looking to place a ban on the business of Circus acts using live animals. The ban was based on public safety issues surrounding the animals and their well being. In ruling on this case, the Supreme Court of Ont. ruled that the municipality over stepped their powers by using special interest groups to base their decision of the ban, but did not do any research what so ever to either support or to dispute their claims of public safety. When questioned by the judge, a member of PETA could not give any evidence proving any of their claims. It also stipulated that had the municipality done their due diligence and a public consultation, they would have known that there is no public safety issue with these animals. The resource used in this case was the fatality rates of death or injury by these animals and the Insurance Board of Canada, which stipulated that there is no public safety risk with these animals and that when issuing insurance, they pay the normal fees of any commercial enterprise.
At this juncture in time, the Ministry of Environment will not be able to do any work on this Act until after the election which is May 12, 2009. The writ will be dropped early next week. We will more than likely not hear back from them until sometime in mid June as to the actions they are willing to take.
During this time, I will be in the process of researching the cost of litigation to challenge this Act as unlawful and decisions made were based on special interest groups, fear mongering and prejudice who cannot back up their assertions of public safety or the risk of spreading disease. They did not do a public consultation nor did they do their due diligence in this matter.
For those who wish to join in the lawsuit and aid in raising funds for this case, please drop us a email at
keepers@exoticserpents.com.
I will be posting updates on our site at
www.exoticserpents.com as to our progress and our meetings with the Ministry of Environment.
The materials that we submitted to the Ministry is available in pdf format for download from
www.exoticserpents.com, and
www.a1pythons.com, we encourage all of you involved to download the file and send it to Ministry Penner’s office in protest of their Act that they have placed upon us. Also with the looming election just around the corner, contact your MLA’s and give them a copy of this report. A copy of the trial is also on the site for download and possibly you can send that along with the report that I had published for the Ministry.
If there are any questions, please write me at
keepers@exoticserpents.com. I look forward to hearing from pet owners as well as breeders of these beautiful animals.
David Chan
www.exoticserpents.com
Phone: 604-277-8097
Henry Piorun
www.a1pythons.com
Phone: 604-820-9324
Don Patterson
www.kingsnake.com/donpatterson
Phone: 250-655-0706
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