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23 April 2009



andrea o.

Was anyone from rescue groups testifying? I'd hate to image what would this "complex" permitting process mean for rescues and shelters who transport animals across state lines everyday?

H. Houlahan

USDA also pushed the introduction of multiflora rose in the Northeast.

County agents told farmers to plant it -- "it will make a living fence."

I curse every one of them in the most vile possible terms as I tackle each vicious foot of neglected fenceline -- commingled barbed wire, smooth wire, vines, brambles, and #@!^% multiflora rose! (It's in the middle of the pastures, too, but there I can go at it with Tractor-San first.)

I just ripped the thumb out of a pair of heavy-duty leather work gloves on a multiflora thorn.

I had to send Rosie into a multiflora thicket when the morning duck-herding went awry. There was no way I could roust those ducks myself. One came out with a ripped back that I had to treat.

Kudzu is actually a useful plant in moderation, and makes good pasture, and doesn't have thorns.

Multiflora is Satan's landscaping. Nothing native eats it. It won't keep your cows, goats, horses, or poultry in, but it will catch and hold your sheep forever.

I can't think of a single invasive species of ANIMAL that came through the pet trade -- OUTSIDE OF SEMITROPICAL AREAS.

IOW, California and Florida and Hawaii should look at what regulations they need to protect ecosystems and agriculture and human safety -- though I think the horse has been out of the barn a long time in Florida and Hawaii -- and the Feds shouldn't worry about boas naturalizing in Wyoming or cavies taking over Connecticut.


Kudzu? They were really comparing non-native animals to kudzu, the vine that ate the South AND was introduced by the USDA, not by gardeners. So maybe if they want to pass a bill that would keep the USDA from introducing non-native invasive species . . . .


Ferrets are also illegal in NYC. Not sure about the state, just remember Rudy's famous ferret rant on the radio . . .


I found it heartening that Mr. Brown of SC had caught enough grassroots hell about this bill he tore himself away from some seriously devastating wildfires to voice his opposition to it.

Gina Spadafori

tabkat, that would depend on where you live. For example (and most notably) ferrets are illegal in California.


what list or regulations are there on owning, breeding, or adopting ferrets?


But I don’t think even we were paranoid to image that it would end up “then they came for the hamsters”..

Comment by EmilyS — April 23, 2009 @ 11:09 am

yeah, I don't think anyone saw this one coming!


Well, yes, ole Lightbulb was on my mind when I read your post... ;-)

Rochelle Lesser

You are a saint to do this for everyone. A pure saint. Have I talked you into lots more liveblogging, yet?

Christie Keith

LOL -- it's like childbirth. You forget.


"LOL — it’s like childbirth. You forget."

When? :-D


well, the pit bull folks have always adapted the Niemoller ( quote to "first they came for the pit bulls..." But I don't think even we were paranoid to image that it would end up "then they came for the hamsters"..

Thanks for the report, Christie

Gina Spadafori

[M]ost politicians are career politicians who went directly from school to the world of wheeling and dealing for political gain and advancement. They don’t come from anything else and have nothing to go back to if they can’t find some other political office.

Comment by JenniferJ — April 23, 2009

Case in point: The ousted Lloyd Levine, nanny-state ninny behind the California forced spay-neuter bill defeated last year. (But rearing its head again this term ... and we're watching.)


lovin the disconnect. Not.

A friend made the observation that once upon a day many politicians were people who had been successful in life and went into public service out of a sense of civic obligaton. That meant they had a connection to the real world and a basic understanding of it.

Now, like it or not, most politicians are career politicians who went directly from school to the world of wheeling and dealing for political gain and advancement. They don't come from anything else and have nothing to go back to if they can't find some other political office.

What would these politicians know or care about hamsters, rainbow boas or cockatiels?

Far more non-native and invasive species make it here in the bilge of ships or in freight shipments as hitchhikers than are imported intentionally. Most non-natives cannot survive because they are non-native.

What might survive in Hawaii or Florida will not make it in Duluth! It's why states (I am talking to YOU Florida) can make their own laws to determine what is permissible but the Federal Gov needs to stay out of it. The states will screw up enough on their own anyway (come on California, you need $$$ so why not license all those ferrets that are already here?).


For three summers I worked for the Forest Service doing nothing but documenting and combating invasive weeds in one part of one national forest. We had a tiny budget (enough to hire one person for three months - me) and that was only because the botany department at my office (one full time person) worked hard to get the funding.

It's infuriating that they would even CONSIDER a federal law to take away trade in pet animals when you can't even get funding for stopping the spread of critters and plants that are ALREADY a known problem.


I want to know what's going to be done about the kudzu dammit! That stuff is EVIL and strangled our poor Weeping Willow to death (along with countless other trees). Can't say I've had any run-ins with hamsters but I'm all for going back in time to quash this kudzu idea.

Original Lori

My friends who live in NC told me that there were actual old recipe books out there for how to make kudzu palatable, from when it first began to take over down there.

Pamela J. Betz-Baron

This is nuts!

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