# Abolish European Reptile & Amphibian Ban



## xxx-dztini-xxx (May 12, 2009)

epitition to sign....

Abolish European reptile and amphibian ban. - e-petitions

Responsible department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Changes are soon coming to reptile keeping in the UK.
The EU are passing new laws to ban reptiles and amphibians. This must be stopped. If this new law is passed all 8 of my pet snakes I currently keep (including corn snakes, boas and pythons) will have to be destroyed. This is all due to invasive species being released into the wild. There is no record of invasive reptiles surviving and breeding in the wild in the UK.
Taking away the freedom of keeping your reptiles and making it illegal to keep reptiles and amphibians will upset a lot of people. It is unacceptable that the EU can decide we do not deserve to to keep our loved pets.
The reptile trade is the fastest growing trade in he UK, I believe taking this away will do more damage to our already dull economy.
Please sign this petition and pass it on to everyone you know that keeps reptiles and other pets, its only a matter of time before the next pet trade is targeted.


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## spottymint (Oct 3, 2010)

Signed, Bl*&d* EU. :whip:


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## merritt (May 22, 2010)

Signed


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## RescueCat (Aug 13, 2011)

Signed. No way anyone is taking my babies from me!


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## soolonger (Apr 18, 2012)

Signed and do you have any links to what this bill actually will ban?


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## Andy84 (Sep 5, 2011)

I have signed the petition...however, I think it is a bit early to start getting carried away with the bill. I can't actually find any official documentation about the proposed law (if someone has it, please send it to me). 

I am a follower of EU politics and one thing that is very common is that laws are routinely watered down before they hit the statute book. Reading between the lines, it appears that the laws are going to be aimed at more dangerous animals and not so much at the leopard gecko/bearded dragon end of the market...though, again, this is just reading between the lines. 

If the law is brought into line with the US, perhaps we should not worry too much. Animals can still be bought and sold there and people still keep reptiles. 

I would also say that the media here do love a good bit of EU bashing. Remember banning bendy bananas and cucumbers? All of that was nonsense - perhaps this is too.


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## Andy84 (Sep 5, 2011)

Open Consultations - Your Voice in Europe - European Commission - European Commission

There should be a section on this website where you can make your opinions known. This is the offical forum for the European Commission.


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## Beardy Boy97 (Dec 13, 2011)

Signed


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## dubs (Oct 13, 2008)

Signed


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## Chris18 (Mar 22, 2009)

This came up a while ago and seems to have died down again since.
I don't seem to remember it stating what animals they were banning, just simply stated invasive species.
Most reptiles and amphibians aren't able to survive long enough to become invasive species in the UK, the only way they would be counted as a risk is if it was based off the other EU countries which are hotter so could support the species.
I also seem to remember it wasn't a blanket ban on all species of x type, there was going to be a list of species which are considered a threat.
Another thing, I highly doubt they will request animals to be destroyed, a mass genocide of reptiles/amphibs won't sit well with anyone. It's more likely they'll put a ban on breeding and wait for them to die out.


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## nicnet (Apr 3, 2011)

There is an article on the FBH site by Chris Newman on this.

Federation of British Herpetologists - European Union debates ban on pet reptiles


While I agree that the Legislation needs to be written up extreamly carefully, I do believe that some legislation needs to be in place on species that can live in our climes if they are let out. ie red eared terrapins.

No amount of petitioning is going to stop the legislation, but they could mitigate the 'damage' to the hobby by some of the means that Chris Newman suggested. If they make a black list of proven invasive species per country rather than simply a blanket ban on potentially invasive ones.


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## JimmyMature (Jan 8, 2012)

xxx-dztini-xxx said:


> epitition to sign....
> 
> Abolish European reptile and amphibian ban. - e-petitions
> 
> ...



Seems that this is simply scaremongering. It appears no me that people have signed this petition without even reading the detail of the *proposed* legislation.


Jim


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## Andy84 (Sep 5, 2011)

nicnet said:


> There is an article on the FBH site by Chris Newman on this.
> 
> Federation of British Herpetologists - European Union debates ban on pet reptiles
> 
> ...


I agree with this. My wife is from Australia where you can't get anything much. While this is a massive step too far, something does need to be done to control the influx or certain reptiles. Also, we need to look at how some wild caught animals are transported. The lack of legislation means that many thousands die each year. 

I think most of us should be okay. I think those people who keep larger, potentially more dangerous creatures may have to start worrying.


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## JimmyMature (Jan 8, 2012)

I don't know about you guys who signed this petition would like to see Adders or Slow Worms getting wiped out by an invasive species.


IMO there's no chance that a Royal Python would be banned as an invasive as it simply wouldn't survive here in the wild.


Jim


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## truncheon1973 (Oct 12, 2008)

its not about the uk as such 

if the eu pass law on it as its invasive there as we are part of the eu it will affect us so just because it isnt invasive here it doesnt mean were ok!




Chris18 said:


> This came up a while ago and seems to have died down again since.
> I don't seem to remember it stating what animals they were banning, just simply stated invasive species.
> Most reptiles and amphibians aren't able to survive long enough to become invasive species in the UK, the only way they would be counted as a risk is if it was based off the other EU countries which are hotter so could support the species.
> I also seem to remember it wasn't a blanket ban on all species of x type, there was going to be a list of species which are considered a threat.
> Another thing, I highly doubt they will request animals to be destroyed, a mass genocide of reptiles/amphibs won't sit well with anyone. It's more likely they'll put a ban on breeding and wait for them to die out.


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## JimmyMature (Jan 8, 2012)

truncheon1973 said:


> its not about the uk as such
> 
> if the eu pass law on it as its invasive there as we are part of the eu it will affect us so just because it isnt invasive here it doesnt mean were ok!


Well to be honest if it is invasive in Europe then they should be banned. We love reptiles, that's why we are on this forum. 

If it's proven that certain reptiles damage the local Eco system when released then I'd rather the natural species are protected.

Again it's scaremongering IMO, they aren't going to ban Royal's or Corns etc but they might want to ban Cane Toads etc, just look at the complete devastation that's happening in Australia due to invasive species.


Jim


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## Tarron (May 30, 2010)

JimmyMature said:


> Well to be honest if it is invasive in Europe then they should be banned. We love reptiles, that's why we are on this forum.
> 
> If it's proven that certain reptiles damage the local Eco system when released then I'd rather the natural species are protected.
> 
> ...


Jim, 

This talk has been going on for a while now, in fact the last petition ended this month with around 1000 signatures.

The talk was surrounding a Europe wide legislation on reptile keeping. Initially, it looked like they would propose a Europe wide white list of species. Wherever in Europe you are, these are the animals you can keep and that's it.
So if a species could survive in a European area such as Tenerife or south Italy, it would be banned.

However, Chris Newman wanted to put forward the thought that if any legislation comes in, it should be a country specific black list, so people in southern Italy would have a lot banned but we would have next to nothing banned.

There is a conference in Brussels on 4th/5th October which Chris s attending, on out behalf to discuss the legislation proposals.


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## Janine00 (Sep 20, 2008)

JimmyMature said:


> I don't know about you guys who signed this petition would like to see Adders or Slow Worms getting wiped out by an invasive species.
> 
> 
> IMO there's no chance that a Royal Python would be banned as an invasive as it simply wouldn't survive here in the wild.
> ...


 
Us OOmman bein's are what is wiping out adders and slow worms, not invasive species! :gasp:


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## Andy84 (Sep 5, 2011)

The irony is that, in the UK, we have loads of species that are not native: rabbits, grey squirrels, potatoes - are we going to ship all of those out as well?


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## scotty667 (Oct 14, 2011)

Bump only just seen this on facebook the petition ends in march.


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## scotty667 (Oct 14, 2011)

I'll also like to say i believe a corn could easily thrive in our environment but lets not get onto that if so make another thread up.


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