Please Help Us In Florida Defeat This Possible Ban On Tegus And Iguanas!

Isilwen

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Senate Bill 906 (SB906) will ban possession and any activities with both the green iguana (Iguana iguana) and the Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae).

This will not stop with just these species of reptiles or with Florida.

Please sign the below petition if you have reptiles or know someone that does!

Signez la pétition

The petition is in English, not sure why the link isn't.
 

HTacianas

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Senate Bill 906 (SB906) will ban possession and any activities with both the green iguana (Iguana iguana) and the Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae).

This will not stop with just these species of reptiles or with Florida.

Please sign the below petition if you have reptiles or know someone that does!

Signez la pétition

But what if I support the bill?
 
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brinny

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Senate Bill 906 (SB906) will ban possession and any activities with both the green iguana (Iguana iguana) and the Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae).

This will not stop with just these species of reptiles or with Florida.

Please sign the below petition if you have reptiles or know someone that does!

Signez la pétition

The petition is in English, not sure why the link isn't.
Why are they attempting to ban them?
 
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HTacianas

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I don't know what to tell you.

Why do you support the bill?

I support the idea of banning the sale of iguanas and tegus in Florida because they have become an invasive species. I support the banning of any invasive species.
 
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Isilwen

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I support the idea of banning the sale of iguanas and tegus in Florida because they have become an invasive species. I support the banning of any invasive species.

You do know that by banning them you are only going to make the problem worse? It's not going to help what's going on in the wild with the wild populations.

Here is some information from USARK:

SB906 consequences:



1. This bill will encourage the release of non-native reptiles.

2. This bill does nothing to remedy the current problems caused by these animals in the wild.

3. Banning these species encourages a black market and underground, illegal activities.

4. Florida business owners have millions of dollars invested in these species.

5. The overreaching negative impacts upon these businesses must be considered as a termination of their future sales is a taking and they must be reimbursed, which means there must be an economic impact study and restitution.

6. Protection of Florida's native wildlife is of utmost importance but this bill is a backward approach to addressing the issues.

7. FWC has reported a preposterous and superfluous cost of $1,000 per tegu for removal purposes. Currently, independent trappers are catching and removing tegus and iguanas at no cost to the State. This current state revenue saving activity would be banned and the cost of future eradication efforts would sky-rocket. Florida legislators need to learn the full story to avoid ineptly spending tax money and FWC resources on this issue when no-costs options are currently in play.

8. Additionally, Florida stakeholders have developed a plan in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide an expansive tegu and iguana removal program (at no cost to the State) but the Florida Wildlife Commission has failed to implement this proposal and we are instead facing this unjust recourse.

9. This is a grand example of collective punishment in which good and responsible citizens are punished due to the actions of a few bad actors. Rather than actually finding and punishing criminals, a bad law is written which does nothing more than allow legislative grandstanding while creating bigger problems.



Some points of clarification from misinformation provided:



1. There is NO evidence that Tegus have taken eggs from sea turtle nests.

2. A public health risk has been sensationalized. After being in our landscape for many decades we have yet to see evidence to support there is an actual public health risk from iguana feces on the ground as no salmonella cases have been recorded.

https://www.usarkfl.org/post/2020ban

There are better ways of going about this than an outright ban. Do you own a cat?

In the spirit of disclosure, I own a tegu. Her name is Blue and I would never dump her into the wild.


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Isilwen

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Why are they attempting to ban them?

They are an invasive species and there are populations of them in Florida. However, an outright ban would not work to control those populations and will actually make it worse.
 
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brinny

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They are an invasive species and there are populations of them in Florida. However, an outright ban would not work to control those populations and will actually make it worse.
Thanks.
 
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Sparagmos

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Senate Bill 906 (SB906) will ban possession and any activities with both the green iguana (Iguana iguana) and the Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae).

This will not stop with just these species of reptiles or with Florida.

Please sign the below petition if you have reptiles or know someone that does!

Signez la pétition

The petition is in English, not sure why the link isn't.
I think we need a lot more info, like why the ban is being proposed and why the people proposing it are wrong.
 
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Sparagmos

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They are an invasive species and there are populations of them in Florida. However, an outright ban would not work to control those populations and will actually make it worse.
What do the experts say? I understand the motivation to keep a beloved pet but if the people moving this petition are motivated by that (or the desire to capitalize off the sale of animals) they are really biased.
 
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Isilwen

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That is a list of claims without citations. It doesn’t even quote scientists.

I don't have any scientist citations or anything like that at this time. I cannot give you those things at this time.

I am just very passionate about this as I love my scaly pets as much as my furry ones and there isn't much time to combat this because they are looking for it to go into effect by the summer of 2020.
 
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Isilwen

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There is also the problem of cats. They are far more destructive than the tegu or iguana will ever be, yet there are no talks of banning cats.

**I'm not saying that we should ban cats, just pointing out the hypocrisy.
 
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Isilwen

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That is a list of claims without citations. It doesn’t even quote scientists.

There is this on the USARK website, "Our members are veterinarians, researchers, breeders, manufacturers, feed producers, hobbyists and pet owners; collectively known as the Reptile Nation."

https://usark.org/about/

So, what they say isn't just because they are biased or don't know what they are talking about.
 
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Kenny'sID

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Did we ever ban the Boa's?

I actually thought it was kind of cool knowing the the Boa's were becoming native. They can't be any worse than gators danger wise.

I guess I'm wondering why the Iguana and not the Boa? Maybe it depends on their eating habits and capabilities of taking over. Just thinking out loud.
 
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Hank77

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I guess I'm wondering why the Iguana and not the Boa? Maybe it depends on their eating habits and capabilities of taking over. Just thinking out loud.
I think you are on the right track. Consider this that native species in the wild that eat the same food are competing against the non-native iguana. They also are competing for territory, where they can lay their eggs, mate, etc.

Here's a blog article from the University of Florida about this issue.
Pets Gone Wild: Iguanas Spreading Rapidly Throughout South Florida - UF/IFAS News
 
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Kenny'sID

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I think you are on the right track. Consider this that native species in the wild that eat the same food are competing against the non-native iguana. They also are competing for territory, where they can lay their eggs, mate, etc.

Here's a blog article from the University of Florida about this issue.
Pets Gone Wild: Iguanas Spreading Rapidly Throughout South Florida - UF/IFAS News

Thanks, Hank, I saved the article.

In the end, there is much more to this than meets the eye.

Fortunately for me, I'm more of a furry mammal pet owner, and never did go for reptiles as pets...not that there's anything wrong with that.
 
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Hank77

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They are an invasive species and there are populations of them in Florida. However, an outright ban would not work to control those populations and will actually make it worse.
I agree with you about an outright ban. I think pet owners should be allowed to keep their pets. There are laws in Florida against releasing non-native species into the wild and good pet owners will abide by those rules.
However, because other owners have not obeyed the rules there is an overpopulation of these lizards that are causing a lot of property damage as well as competing against the native species.
So imv, there should be a ban on any further importation of the non-native species.
 
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Isilwen

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I agree with you about an outright ban. I think pet owners should be allowed to keep their pets. There are laws in Florida against releasing non-native species into the wild and good pet owners will abide by those rules.
However, because other owners have not obeyed the rules there is an overpopulation of these lizards that are causing a lot of property damage as well as competing against the native species.
So imv, there should be a ban on any further importation of the non-native species.

That's a sensible approach.

However, I don't think there is much in the way of importation of at least tegus, not sure on iguanas, anymore. All the shows I go to they are captive bred. There is one or two vendors that sell wild caught, but they are Florida wild caught. Unlike iguanas, tegus tame down relatively well when caught in the wild.

Here is an example: https://www.tegusonly.com/sale-page
 
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