jb's blog

I recently spoke with Andrew Wyatt of USARK about some of the confusion, misunderstandings, and conflicting information out there about the recent "final ruling" from the USFWS regarding the 4 species placed on the Lacey Act and also, the 5 that were omitted.

What Has Happened

On January 17th, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that USFWS had finalized a rule that will ban the importation and interstate transportation of four nonnative constrictors. The rule lists the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons.

5 species of snakes which were originally intended to be included by USFWS were not announced as being added. Those five species are: reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda, Beni anaconda and the boa constrictor.

Questions have been raised about why these 5 were left off, and the others were left on. There are two main reasons why they left off any of these animals. The first reason is “risk”. Risk, in this case, refers to the risk of a species becoming established in the wild. The 4 that were listed were all deemed to be “high risk” by the USFWS. Of the 5 which were NOT listed, 4 were deemed to be medium risk and 1 was deemed to be “high risk”. This of course begs two questions:

1. Which species was the one that was deemed as “high risk”, but not included with the 4 that made the list that were also “high risk”?
2. Why wasn’t it included?

The boa constrictor was deemed to be “high risk”. It was not included because of the economic impact that listing boa constrictor would have had. Listing boa constrictor with the other 4 “high risk” species would have driven the economic impact of this rule change above $100 million dollars. This is significant because at the threshold of $100 million, the announced rule would have then been subject to minimum standards for information quality and would have opened up the USFWS and USGS to scrutiny from the Office of Management and Budget (the OMB is responsible for overseeing the process) that they couldn’t have withstood – the entire listing would have failed.

Logically, they also couldn’t attempt to go after the other 4 that were deemed “medium risk” because how could they explain asking to list those 4 which were medium risk while ignoring one that was “high risk”? Essentially, the USFWS “took what they could get” without protest from the OMB. By being greedy and trying to take more, they would have failed.

What About The Future?

It was said on January 17th that USFWS “is continuing to consider the status of the other five species and will publish final determinations for those species when that process is completed.”

This has left a giant question mark in the collective minds of the Reptile Nation as to the future of those 5 species. This has also led to a lot of speculation and educated guesses from numerous people which of course, has led to much debate and misunderstanding.

To clarify the situation, it needs to be made abundantly clear that there are two scenarios to consider moving forward which the USFWS could consider to list these animals as injurious alongside the four already listed. In reality, they could attempt either, or both scenarios – but not without consequences.

As I've laid out here, neither of these actions is likely to result in success for the USFWS... Unless there's no one there to fight them! So, we can't consider this matter over. We must remain vigilant, active, and aware of what's going on at all times.

In Closing

I hope that by explaining why the current listing failed for the other 5 as well as the two possible scenarios to list those 5 in the future (and why they would likely fail); you’ll have a better understanding of the situation going forward.

Please remember, the fight for the 4 species that were listed is not over. The USFWS crossed a line in the sand and they need to know that as a community, we will stick together and fight this injustice, and any future injustices they may attempt. There is a legal battle brewing and USARK is heading the fight. USARK is made up of all kinds of reptile and amphibian owners. We are a community and we need to show that solidarity and avoid any “in fighting” that may occur between the ______ owners and the _______ owners. It doesn’t matter what species you work with, we’re all one team. Stand together and support one another – and USARK!

Please click here to join USARK, or if you're already a member, click here to donate whatever you can afford, to help fight this injustice!

As always, feel free to link to my blog to share it with others!

- jb