Exotic Wild Animals Banned in Wilkes Co.,NC

[rosehaired1979]

Hey I was unsure to where to put this so I put it here. It the ban includes scorpions and certain spiders excluding tarantulas but here is the story to read yourself.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/8483887.htm?1c

 

[Wolfchan]

It wants a log-in. Any chance of a cut-paste?

 

[rosehaired1979]

It wants a log-in. Any chance of a cut-paste?

Here try this link http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/S...asDN=journalnow.com&oasPN=!localnews!localgov

 

[alikkon]

Odd that they'd ban scorpions... most scorps aren't particularly dangerous from my understanding...

Either way, I do actually agree with it to a certain extent, but at the same time, it causes another problem. Big cats are big predators, and probably should not be kept by anyone but a zoo, or people trained specifically to deal with them. Private ownership of them is simply a bad idea. The problem comes in that some of these people will - and I'm certain of this - elect to KEEP their animals, but keep them outside the county. This will result in mistreated and (In many cases) malnourished "pets". A better solution would have simply been to make a prime example of the lion's owner by making her responsible for the animal's actions. Treat the case as if it were murder, and give her prison time accordingly. Ensure that the case is well heard in the area, and make sure that people understand that the actions of an innately dangerous exotic pet fall on the owner, and not on the animal itself. (IMHO anyway)

 

[skinheaddave]

Odd that they'd ban scorpions... most scorps aren't particularly dangerous from my understanding...

This legislation actually seems to be a bit better than most in that a lot of stuff is excluded from the ban. In the case of scorpions, it is likely that nobody stood up to point out that only a small fraction of scorpions are medically significant. If nobody knows then nobody cares.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Critterfarm]

Odd that they'd ban scorpions... most scorps aren't particularly dangerous from my understanding...

Especially since there's a scorpion native to that county in North Carolina (Vaejovis carolinianus). Is it now banned?

 

[Eurypterid]

What I find interesting is the involvement of API, especially in pushing this to the state level. API is an animal rights group whose main goals include the banning of *all* exotic pets of any kind, simply based on their tree-hugger attitude that all animals should be allowed to run free in paradise. This leads me to believe that they have simply exploited the child's death for their own political agenda. They see the pet industry as nothing but a destructive force, and don't accept at all that some of these species would be extinct if not for captive breeding programs, since the main threat to most species is habitat destruction, not over-exploitation. If we leave them in the wild, we often abandon them to extinction by chain saw and bulldozer.

Gary