Yesterday, I was going to my local fish store to talk to a family friend who works at the store about selling some of my new baby plecos to the store. We started with small talk, and it led to a proposed act that he had recently learned about in West Virginia. The act bans many animals that seem like common sense, such as Zebra Mussels Snakeheads. This act has been proposed to protect the environment and people, but it has gone too far. The animals included are listed by entire classes and orders, instead of listing specific species of animals. This act, if passed in its current state, will ban many species of frogs, turtles, snakes, lizards, salamanders, as well as over 400 species of Crayfish, numerous different types of snails, the entire Order Tetraodontiforme which includes around 360 species including all File Fish, Trigger Fish, and Puffer Fish, the entire Family Gobiidae which includes nearly 2,000 species of Gobys, Family Poeciliidae including nearly all livebearers, Mosquitofish, Family Cobitidae including all true loaches, Order Characiformes including well over a thousand species of fish including ALL TETRAS, and Order Siluriformes that contains ALL CATFISH including Whiptails, Glass Catfish, Plecos, Corydoras, Synodontis Catfish, etc. Certain research facilities, educational centers and zoos would be allowed to get permits to keep such animals, and current owners would be able to get their own permits to keep the pets, however, it would be illegal to breed the pets, or obtain any more. The act would require the cost of up to $100 per year, per animal for the necessary permits. I personally breed fish, and this act seems terrifying. I know many people who have a large part of their income reliant on breeding some fish that would be banned under this act. It would be nearly impossible to keep schools of many of the fish that everyone treasures. I don't even live in West Virginia, yet this act needs to be stopped, and/or reformed. I am including the actual draft of the proposed list of banned animals, as well as a method to get in contact with those in charge of the West Virginia Dangerous Wild Animal Board to try and convince the three person board that made the list that it is far too vague and all inclusive.
Write a Letter
Proposed List of Banned Animals
Please spread this information in any way that you can, and take the time to write in. We're all in this together.
Write a Letter
Proposed List of Banned Animals
Please spread this information in any way that you can, and take the time to write in. We're all in this together.
