OK boys and girls. This is a very important post and requires action by all citizens of the United States. Rest of the world, please indulge me. HR 2603 is a comprehensive bill that would remove all Non native species from the ESA list. That means no federal permits would be required of any species not native to the US. Specifically on this forum: Radiated Tortoise, Galapagos Tortoise, Ploughshare Tortoise, Etc. USARK has a sponsored bill HR 2603 that would eliminate any species not native to the US be removed from the list. All native species to the US need to be protected as they are own countries fauna and flora. I am a big proponent of this. We need not poach our own wildlife. However, non native species have no business being on the ESA list. CITES 1 treaty globally recognizes worldwide conservation of protected species. There is a lot of work to be done with this, but having listed species on the ESA list and non native status is just bureaucratic nonsense. I encourage you to contact your US representative in washington and ask that they vote for this bill. I know there are a lot of people on this forum that would love to have Galapogos Tortoise or Radiated Tortoise but can not because of the burdensome paperwork and fees that go along with the application. I will include the link to USARK and how to contact your representative. Feel free to copy and paste any part of this discussion. I greatly appreciate you reading this and acting on it.
www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-HR-2603-ESA.pdf
www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-HR-2603-ESA.pdf
- Enhances conservation of endangered species by allowing for improved genetic diversity among captive populations previously isolated by arbitrary geographic lines;
- Decreases federal spending by millions of dollars through elimination of unnecessary regulation, petition responses, and litigation by profiteers;
- Removes duplicate regulations as CITES will continue to regulate international movement and protection of endangered species;
- Increases genetic strength of captive populations as private breeders are the ones successfully breeding many, if not most, of these species in greater numbers than zoos or societies;
- Allows captive propagation to aid conservation by providing essential understanding of husbandry and biology of endangered species;
- Saves additional millions of federal dollars by preventing exploitive NGO’s from profiting by misusing ESA to continually litigate against the USFWS;
- Liberates precious USFWS resources by abolishing the pointless and costly Captive Bred Wildlife permit system, as well as the five-year review process, for nonnative species;
- Eliminates unintended conflict between federal and state law where bans on possession of these species destroy both conservation and American freedoms in 26 states;
- Eradicates unintentional conflict between ESA and CITES;
- Prevents criminalization of responsible Americans and animal owners whose species of interest are frequently being unjustly listed under ESA due to political pressure from pseudo-environmental groups;
- Increases commerce and economic opportunity through deregulation of interstate movement;
- Allows FWS to continue regulating nonnative invasive species and in no way impairs their ability to do so.