Monday, April 6, 2009

Congressional Bill Threatens Fish Owners Rights

There is a new bill making its way through congress that could impact what people keep in their fish tanks. This bill is seen as an effort to keep the aquarium hobbyist from keeping many different types of fish among other things. It is committee right now.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-669See The bill Here



Although on the surface, the bill looks to protect the US from non-native species "invading" our habitats, it will ultimately pose restrictions on the hobbyist.

Since virtually all of our aquarium fish are non-native species, this bill, if passed as is, would severely restrict the fish we can keep in our tanks. The bill would allow the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine on a species by species basis which animals US citizens would be allowed to keep based on their potential to threaten native species.

While we can be sensitive to the idea that some tropical fish could survive in sub-tropical areas of the country (e.g. South Florida), limiting someone in Minnesota from keeping a fish that could only survive in Florida doesn't seem to make sense. Legislation of this kind, if at all, should be left to the states. Plus, it's assuming that these species are being let go in the wild, which is already known to be dangerous, and illegal.

Currently, the bill is in committee and a long way from passage. The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council has set up a HR669 page and is working with industry to combat this bill. At this point, they do not feel that a letter writing campaign is necessary, or maybe even the best thing to do.

The situation will be monitored, but if you ever get the ear of any of your local congress people, let them know the danger of passing this bill.

6 comments:

DogsDeserveFreedom said...

I found your blog through PetsBlogs and thought I'd stop by and drop you a line! Interesting article you have here about the fish. Are you interested in swapping links? Please feel free to pop by and leave a comment or two!

DogsDeserveFreedom

parlance said...

We had a similar law passed many years ago in Australia, and it seemed awful at the time, but we leanred to live with it. One of the main provisions was that only one gender of certain fish could be imported. I remember that at the time I had paradise fish in my outdoor pond and only males could be imported. But I had males and females.

Also, for many years after that I had a family of Rift Lake cichlids (I forget which species, as it was years ago) and didn't realise how precious they were. They lived happily in my tank, breeding fighting, building their caves and minding their children, and it was only years afterwards when I had a catastrophe in the tank and went to buy replacements that I realised I probably had had the only remaining family of this fish in Australia!

kiera said...

hi my names kiera and im 11 my little fish sammy died :( he died today but atleast he didn't die at the fair.

he was better living at my house in his little bowl which he called home than being stuck at the fair in a plastic bag i would have got more fishes if i could.

bye little fishy your gone but not forgotten

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