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MD Reptile Law Fail

Posted by Tiki108 at 2/21/2012 11:05:21 AM

I'm hoping within the next 3-5 years to be able to get a permit to have an agkistrodon contortrix and a crotalus horridus to use for the educational program I'm starting. I'm not ready at all to have anything venomous, but a friend of mine who has venomous has offered to teach me how to properly keep them.

So I emailed DNR to ask them if it's possible and what the requirements would be so I can start working towards it. While I was doing this I decided to pull the exotic law in MD and realized I can get those species and any venomous reptile, here's what the law says:

(b) A person may not import into the State, offer for sale, trade, barter, possess, breed, or exchange a live:

(1) fox, skunk, raccoon, or bear;

(2) caiman, alligator, or crocodile;

(3) member of the cat family other than the domestic cat;

(4) hybrid of a member of the cat family and a domestic cat if the hybrid weighs over 30 pounds;

(5) member of the dog family other than the domestic dog;

(6) hybrid of a member of the dog family and a domestic dog;

(7) nonhuman primate, including a lemur, monkey, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, marmoset, loris, or tamarin; or

(8) poisonous snake in the family groups of Hydrophidae, Elapidae, Viperidae, or Crotolidae.

Well that's just wonderful cause there's no such thing as a poisonous snake, lol

I just thought you all might get a kick out of this.

Comments:

View Oldest First

jayme and william ,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 11:09:42 AM
	umm they dont think when they write this stuff.. i have a tegu for sale...

gfx,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 11:54:40 AM
	So as long as you don't keep any of the snakes that will kill you if you eat them, you're golden. Sweet!

Sonja K. ,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 1:14:44 PM
	I can't even tell you how often I've seen that in animal ordinances, makes me snicker. Including from the animal ordinance in the city I live which of the animals prohibited includes: "Any poisonous snake or pit viper such as a rattlesnake, coral snake, water moccasin, or cobra."

Taylor ,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 2:18:17 PM
	Technically, venom is a poison. It's kind of like the Turtle vs Tortoise argument, or if you got peeved because someone called your Rattlesnake a Viper. All Tortoises are Turtles, all Venoms are Poisons, all Rattlesnakes are Vipers, even though not all "poisons" are venoms (and so on and so forth). But, I get a kick out of it, too. You'd hope that the people writing these laws would know enough about the subject to actually use the appropriate terms... But, nope--that'd be too much to ask!

John "Blue" Francis,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 3:14:41 PM
	I thought poison was man made and venom is a specialized protine.... Is that like all chickens are birds.... hehe..

Tiki108,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 3:17:54 PM
	No that's why you have poison dart frogs, it's something in their diet, not something they naturally produce. Which is why dart frogs in captivity are not poisonous. Venom is also something that is injected, I think someone told me you can drink venom assuming you have no open wounds in your mouth, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that.

Taylor ,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 3:24:46 PM
	From my understanding, it's like turtles and tortoises... "Turtle" is the name of a certain family of chelonians, but it's also the name of the entire group, including tortoises. It's my understanding that "poison" is the name of a certain family of toxins, but it's also the blanket name for the whole group, including venom. If that makes sense. :P

Patrick Malloy,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 5:23:43 PM
	You can digest venom provided you have no open mouth sores. It needs to be in your blood stream to be effective. Which is why you can ingest it and live, I however will not test this just going to agree

Brett Nation,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 5:51:26 PM
	@ Patrick = Really? LOL

pidak reptiles,	Posted At: 2/21/2012 8:02:56 PM
	lawl- not lol

AWatson,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 8:28:47 AM
	I agree with floof and I think as a hobby we need to get over people using poison in place of venom, we only sound like snobby elitists pulling at straws to everyone else. If you look up the definition a venom IS a type if poison, so the description isn't wrong, its just not as specific or accurite as it could be. But do we seriously have to be so retentive and push the classification when we're all basicly saying the same thing? The animal is dangerous because it carries a toxin that can potentialy kill you, in the end Im pretty sure the dead person, doesnt really care what you called it.

Tiki108,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 8:59:26 AM
	AWatson, honestly it was a joke, nothing more, I'm not calling up the state making fun of them, I just thought it would be a little humorous and lighten the mood, sorry you didn't enjoy it. The point is that the state is clearly not educated and should not be making laws about something they don't understand. Have you read the WV ban? They spelled some of the scientific names wrong. If someone is trying to take my animals, they are attacking me, I'm not picking on someone trying to learn about our hobby, I'm pointing out how flawed the system is. I'm pretty sure that when they take all of our exotics it won't matter what it was called either, maybe you won't care but I will.

AWatson,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 9:04:27 AM
	I apologize for missing the joke for what it was, I guess I just see -way- to many people say exactly that with all seriousness and its become alittle bit of a pet peeve. Unfortunatly text doesnt carry inflection so its alittle hard to catch the subtler things at times. I agree the system is entirly flawed, my opinion on hots aside if things are going to be regulated they need to be so properly though I can understand the stance of the "other side" as well. Thats an involved discussion its just to early in the morning for me to want to voice in on. I do think you might be getting alittle carried away saying I might not care when they take our exotics, obviously Im going to since Im a keeper as well. I don't care for any law/ban/legislation passed without due process and proper, peer reviewed studies/statistics for that matter.

Tiki108,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 9:20:40 AM
	You are correct I might have been a little carried away with that, but I think regulations are fine and bans are not. I understand why someone who doesn't understand reptiles would think that they don't want one, so why would anyone else want one, therefore a ban is ok. I try to always take a step back and think, well just cause I might not want this, doesn't mean others might not want that and I should respect the way they feel. I apologize for what I said about you not caring if they were banned, I just don't like feeling attacked for what I feel was a joke, not trying to be snobbying or anything like that.

AWatson,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 9:24:28 AM
	No harm no foul. like I said txt X lack of inflection = easy to missinterepret. We're all good :). The entire ban thing is getting rapidly out of hand, unfortunatly we as a hobby seem to keep shooting ourselves in the foot and helping the lobbyists who are trying to take them away from us. Its a frustrating cycle that has everyone up in arms. Would be nice to see alittle more cooperation, alittle less in house fighting and alittle bit of understanding like what you've just suggested, from both sides. But then of course theres always the money issue, which unfortunatly tends to be a hugely decideing factor.

Tiki108,	Posted At: 2/22/2012 10:04:40 AM
	I agree, I don't think it helps attacking HSUS on their facebook, though I have gone on there and expressed my opinion, but very politely and with only stating facts in a respectful manor. Honestly I have zero respect for them, but me acting like an angry kid not getting candy in the grocery store wouldn't help anything. I went down to VA to lobby against the ban and I will be going to WV, hopefully next week, to lobby against the ban there as well. Believe me, I know not to make these kind of comments to the law makers, I just wanted to make it to everyone here for the fun of it.

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