By now most of you have heard that boa constrictors have not been added to the overreaching adjustments to the Lacey Act.
This is not a victory for the Reptile Nation.
While some may be breathing a sigh of relief, the remaining larger constrictor keepers are suffering. It is not okay for any of these species to be listed on the Lacey Act. It is not okay to think “Well, sucks to be a retic keeper or a green anaconda keeper, but boas are safe so I am good!” while going about your day. This is as much a loss for us had the boas themselves been added.
There are severe potential repercussions to this decision and the main one being that this will further fracture what already has proven to be a divided industry, despite the better efforts of many. They have done everything they can to make this divide between us complete, but we cannot allow it to stand. This fight is not over.
This is a call to arms; boa people, ball python people, chondro people, every single person that keeps a non-traditional pet, especially reptiles. Last night many of you were crying, many of you were screaming, many of you were banging your fists in anger and, today, we should all still be doing that. We should all be standing up and saying this is not okay, this is not fair and this will not continue. While the faith many have in USARK may now be damaged, such groups are needed now more than ever. Last night was a major dose of reality for boa people and today was absolutely devastating to retic people and to anaconda people. If you think that boas not being listed is good enough to no longer be concerned, then you are not paying attention and you are not part of the Reptile Nation.
People need to donate to the legal defense fund for USARK and support groups working with us, they need to support their local herp societies, they need to keep writing letters, they need to keep calling. We need to stop letting a minority of people speak up for the majority. There are hundreds of thousands of us, we have a voice, we need to use it.
Quit being an ostrich with your head in the sand, quit being apathetic; fight for what you love!
Wake up Reptile Nation! The alarm clock has been going off and you have been hitting snooze! The snooze button is broken and it is time to act is still ongoing.
I am going to keep saying it until people are sick of it. No one is going to fight for us. We all have to fight together.
They are trying to pick us off one by one to isolate us from one another; they think this will work and, if it does, then we have no one to blame but ourselves and we should be ashamed.
For any of you that do not know what the Lacey Act is, do your research! Knowledge truly is empowerment and if we have hundreds of thousands of empowered people, we can do anything, we just need to get people to believe in themselves and to make an effort for themselves.
This war has been long, it has been hard, it has been emotionally draining, it has led to the ruination of people’s livelihoods.
No more.
No more overreaching legislation, no more waiting for others to act, no more apathy, no more failure to speak up.
We have access to a huge portion of our industry via the Internet, we need to actually utilize that. We need to be sending so many e-mails that we bog down servers, we need to be making so many phone calls that we overload the lines. We need to show them our presence and show them that they will not beat us down and they will not win.
We are the people and we will deafen them with our voice.
Retic Nation, I stand with you.
Anaconda Keepers, I stand with you.
Burmese Keepers, I still stand with you.
Reptile Nation, I stand with you.
jacobvanloon
germansingergirl
dailybridgerton
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
kaledo-art
yousharknotpass
