Update on legislation ending the hobby in US

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Byron

Supporting Member
Tank of the Month 🏆
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
21,667
Reaction score
13,325
Location
CA
My earlier thread is up to 10 pages, and new data can get lost, so I'm posting this on its own. This is a summary of the legislation proposed, written by Stephan Tanner, a European biologist now living in the USA, and well known in the hobby.

Consequences of Section 71102 (or Lacey Act amendments) in house bill H.R.4521 for the U.S. pet hobby
• Outlaws >98% of all pet species in the US trade (birds, mammals, amphibs, fish, reptiles, plus invertebrates such as corals, spiders, insects, crustaceans, etc., by declaring them invasive/injurious wildlife by default within 1 year after signing of the final law
• Wild and captive born animals are treated the same
• Import/Export and moving with most pets across state lines become illegal
• Lacey Act is federal law; any species deemed a risk anywhere is outlawed nationwide
• Legal species aside of cats and dogs limited to a small handful
• Legal status designated by USFWS=conflict of interest: fewer species → less work
• Importers, wholesalers, breeders, fish farmers, coral growers, etc. go bankrupt
• Most local pet shops close, so will many specialist manufacturers and equipment suppliers
• Thousands of mostly small businesses cease operation, diminishing property values
• Tens of thousands of jobs lost, diminishing income tax revenue
• $20 billion in annual sales lost, diminishing sales tax revenue
• Black marketing and criminal smuggling increase, how did alcohol prohibition turn out?
• Prices for legal species increase as overall market is smaller
• Equipment and foods disappear as manufacturing is no longer profitable
Current status:
• Sec 71102 was added by to H.R.4521 without debate in early Feb 2022
• H.R.4521 with Sec 71102 passed the house of representative 221:210 on Feb 4, 2022
• Senate bill S.1260 passed the senate 68:32 on Jun 8, 2021, but lacks these amendments
• Reconciliation of both bills is likely and there are enough votes to pass a reconciled bill
• Our only chance is to remove Sec 71102 during reconciliation
• Urgent: write to your senators!
Make no mistake, if these amendments survive into the final law,
the animal hobby ends!
 
I suspect this is partially driven by only the large pet store companies being able to work within and afford these proposed regulations, thus driving smaller lfs (read competition) out of business,
 
This is an interesting debate topic. One of the strongest points for the "against side" like you and me and everyone else in the hobby would be that many companies will have a massive decrease in customers causing prices to rise and could leave many people unemployed. The law that should be enforced here is that the purchase of man-made mutated fish(like balloon Mollies) should be illegal.
 
What about fish other than live bearers?
This is terrible for anyone who owns an “unusual” pet, I.E anything besides cats and dogs. We need to get this out to everyone, not just other fish keepers.
I totally agree. Just keep a mix of live bearers if the situation becomes too bad. I own budgies myself and even if I'm not in the USA I worry because say if one of my budgies die, the other would suffer because these are social birds. What makes cats and dogs so special?
 
Exactly!! Don’t get me wrong, I love my two fluffy kitties and my old dog, but other pets deserve just as much attention!
Agreed. All living animals deserve to be in good living conditions. I believe that before purchasing a pet, the customer needs to present a picture of the tank or cage(home for the pet) so that the specialist can decide whether it is suitable or not.
 
Question @Byron , does this include rabbits and horses as well? I know a bunch of people that would be impacted if they were included.
 

Most reactions

trending

Staff online

Members online

Back
Top