I hope HR 669 Passes

[cguarino30]

This thread is gold. You guys are so dramatic. Best case scenario is the bill folds. Middle ground is you get a noxious list and a grey list of stuff you can't import but can legally trade, breed, own blah blah, basically what is in the country is what you have to work with, natives are a free for all. Worst case you end up like us in Australia. No exotic reptiles, amphibians or inverts. Very few exotic birds. Common aquarium species imports only, a big noxious list and a massive grey list.
Funnily enough our pet trade still survives (including LFS) because your average folk are happy to buy common fish cos they aren't expensive to replace when they kill them through lack of knowledge. Rarer stuff can be sourced through aquarium societes and fellow hobbyists as well a better LFS. The blackmarket is there for serious hobbyists who desires the "how and where did you get that?!" and noxious fish and has ample cash to spend. Every now and then the government has a hissy fit and shifts some stuff from the grey list to the noxious list, effectively encouraging the importing of fish they don't want in the country by making them worth more to smugglers. When this happens we all grrrr for a bit then get on with it. No-one here really likes it but that's how it is, the government does what it wants with or without the hobbyists approval.
And FYI, comparing this bill to the Nazis taking over Europe is possibly the most retarded thing I have seen on this forum in a good while.

Oh my God, thank you so much. I was really getting exhausted with all these ****ing people. The fact that there is one other person out there with a stable view of the situation is really refreshing, even if I did have to go to the other side of the world to find them. Thank you. Leave it to an Aussie to save my faith in humanity. haha.

cguarino30, You are a WHACK JOB! There i said it!!

why would you even bother to join a fish keeping community then start a thread like this.......you should be ousted from the community, i know i don't want someone like you claiming to be a loyal tropical/rare fish enthusiast. you give the rest of us a bad name, you would like to see the downfall of the hobby i bet........i don't get ppl like you. pack you bags and leave, you disappoint me

That's right, you caught me. I'm really a supervillain bent on destroying the aquarium hobby. Muahahahahaha. And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling drama-queens.

Yes I did, and I didn't really see anything that fixes the problem. The problem is not the number of species that are potentially invasive within the entire country, the problem is a a few dozen species which are potentially invasive in a handful of states, and the majority of those states already ban them. The one thing that no one seems to be focusing on that is the largest problem is education. How many pet stores have materials promoting responsibility regarding the release of pets into the wild? Not many. How many advertisements have you seen from fish and game or other organizations about the release of non-native species? Probably not many again. Education wouldn't fix the problem, but it could definitely help.

If you are a member on this site, and this bill passes, the fact that you would just buy fish that are legal doesn't make any sense. Most of the fish that would likely remain legal would be commonplace specimens and definitely not your rare, exotic or predatory fish.

I like how you responded to my insinuation that you did not read the rest of the thread by bringing up another point that was WELL explored, earlier in the thread. I reiterate my point. Go back and read the thread.

 

[cguarino30]

I agee in spirit with what this bill is trying to do. I do however think that this bill takes things too far. This bill is meant to controll the spread of invasive species and prevent new ones from becoming established. Look at what Burmese pythons are doing to the everglades its not cool. And then there is the problemof snakeheads which are giving the politicians a scare because they are in the potomic. Lets just think of a scenario... convicts have evolved to survive ice covered water and near freezing tempatures. They would be unstopable! We would be the US of C (United states of convict). So if this bill passes and all the stuff people are saying happens... then sailfin mollies and Rio Grande Perch are gonna be mighty populare!

all excellent points. I ask all of you people who are so very mad at me right now, would your life really be so miserable if you were forced to keep panfish instead of cichlids? Darters instead of loaches? Killies instead of tetras? I personally don't keep any native fishes, but I'd be perfectly fine if I had to, and I doubt anyone here would really be all that harshly impacted if they had to either. Change and Apocalypse are not the same thing.

 

[benzjamin13]

So if we all miraculously agreed with you would you be satisfied? Would you feel accomplished? Would your life really be that much more better knowing that everyone on this forum converted to your way of thinking?

 

[cguarino30]

So if we all miraculously agreed with you would you be satisfied? Would you feel accomplished? Would your life really be that much more better knowing that everyone on this forum converted to your way of thinking?

Why do you assume I was trying to convince any of you? I couldn't care less what you people believe. From the responses I've been getting, I consider most of you to be (at the very least) so dramatically inclined that I couldn't convince you the sky wasn't falling. I posted this thread because I was tired of keeping my opinion to myself for fear of having it get shouted down by you nutcases, because I thought there was a great deal of logic behind the bill, albeit flawed, and nobody was aknowledging that, and in the hopes that there might be anyone else in the hobby that felt the way I did. Those things being accomplished, I'd say I'm already satisfied, but thanks for asking.

 

[benzjamin13]

I have a life outside this hobby like most. You have to understand that the reason you think it's so dramatic is because it's dedicated to fish. You go to a reptile or bird or another fish forum, you'd get the same response. If you go to any hobby forum and if the government were to restrict their hobby, they be up in arms too. I just don't appreciate your tone by calling us ****ing people or nutcases! It just makes you look like a...I'm a Mod so I'll just end my sentence there.

 

[tcarswell]

First of all, calm down. Second, it would only ban breeding of fishes that were deemed by the secretary of the interior to be a potential hazard. That doesn't include any fish I'm particularly worried about.

Wow you must be blind. If they pass the law that takes away the fish you dont care about suddenly you don't care. Meanwhile the next bill does affect the fish you care about its called incremental removal of things. Just like gun control.

 

[tcarswell]

This is ridiculous no more troll food im out

 

[big E]

I have a life outside this hobby like most. You have to understand that the reason you think it's so dramatic is because it's dedicated to fish. You go to a reptile or bird or another fish forum, you'd get the same response. If you go to any hobby forum and if the government were to restrict their hobby, they be up in arms too. I just don't appreciate your tone by calling us ****ing people or nutcases! It just makes you look like a...I'm a Mod so I'll just end my sentence there.

wned:

 

[cguarino30]

I have a life outside this hobby like most. You have to understand that the reason you think it's so dramatic is because it's dedicated to fish. You go to a reptile or bird or another fish forum, you'd get the same response. If you go to any hobby forum and if the government were to restrict their hobby, they be up in arms too. I just don't appreciate your tone by calling us ****ing people or nutcases! It just makes you look like a...I'm a Mod so I'll just end my sentence there.

Are you really complaining about MY tone? Go back and read some of the things people have been saying about me. Nothing I said was directed at you personally, but look at the group as a whole. They earned the phrases I used. Dedication to fish doesn't excuse the associations people are making here. There is no circumstance under which it's appropriate to liken my opinion to those that appeased Hitler. As a German Catholic, whose family was killed and fled from Europe as a result of the cultural backlash, I take a serious offense to that. People have been throwing terms, accusations, and intentions around here that have long since passed a level that I would call rational. If people don't want to be called nutcases, I would highly recommend they spend a little more time choosing their words and a little less time trying to one-up each other in intensity.

 

[cguarino30]

wned:

excellent contribution, thanks for your input. I think everyone here is a little wiser now that you have graced us with your reasoning,