Appeals court ruling favors reptile keepers
Officials can’t stop interstate trade of exotic snakes.
MIAMI — U.S. wildlife officials can’t legally stop interstate trade of giant exotic snakes such as Burmese pythons, which threaten to eat all the native mammals in the Florida Everglades, an appeals court has ruled.
However, snake owners are cautioned not to move their reptile s just yet , as other legal challenges may remain. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the ruling.
The North Carolina-based United States Association of Reptile Keepers sued the U.S. government in 2013, asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to overturn a nationwide ban on importing certain constrictor species or transporting them across state lines.
Trying to protect native wildlife and prevent non-native snakes from spreading, U.S. wildlife officials banned Burmese pythons, yellow a n a c o n d a s , a n d n o r t h - ern and southern African pythons in 2012. The ban was extended to reticulated pythons, DeSchauensee’s anacondas, green anacondas and Beni anacondas in 2015.
The first giant snake ban was announced in 2012 in the Florida Everglades, where officials say tens of thousands Burmese pythons have decimated populations of native mammals that had never before encountered such a large predator. Native to parts of Asia, pythons found a home in the Miami-area wetlands after being intentionally let loose by their owners or escaping breeding facilities after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The ruling does not change the ban on importing these snakes or other “injurious” species, nor does it affect state laws such as Florida’s prohibition against keeping pythons as pets.
The entire ban was unnece s s a r y b e c au s e t h e v a s t majority of exotic snakes sold in the U.S. are bred domestically, and they could only survive in the wild in a hand- s e a rc h e d h i s West P a l m Beach home.
Perry spent weeks on the run before being approached by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Friday afternoon at the Delux Inn in Nashville, the city where he grew up. He shot himself in the head and later died at Skyline Medical Center in an “apparent suicide,” according to Nashville police and the FBI.
It remains unclear how ful of counties in Florida and Texas, said Phil Goss, president of the reptile keepers association.
“I understand Florida has a unique situation, but if you look at this anywhere else in the country, it’s an issue of government overreach,” Goss said.
In an April 7 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that the wildlife service didn’t have authority under the Lacey Act to restrict interstate trade of these snakes.
“While we are aware of the risk posed by the spread of invasive species, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all. We will work with the Department of Justice to identify impacts and appropriate next steps for the Administration,” wildlife service spokesman Ken Warren said in an email Monday.
Acknowledging that snakes that can grow 20 feet long “a r e n o g a r d e n - v a r i e t y snakes,” the court said the act only gives the government the authority to stop trade between the continental United States and Hawaii or other territories — not shipments within the contiguous 49 states.
The court cited the Chicago Manual of Style among other guides for proper grammar to rebuff the government’s argument that the act’s wording bars shipments from any of the 49 continental states to any other continental state.
“The government’s arguments cannot overcome the plain text of the shipment clause,” the ruling states.
The court didn’t address the scientific data that justified the ban, said Collette Adkins, senior attorney for the Center for Biolo gic al Diversity, which partnered with the government and the Humane Society of the United States in the litigation.
“This has implications for any invasive species that could establish populations through interstate trade,” Adkins said Monday.
The reptile keepers’ attorneys said the ruling would restore snake owners’ freedom to attend trade shows, seek veterinary c are and keep their pets with them when they move to different states. investigators found Perry at the hotel in east Nashville, about 3 miles northeast of the city’s downtown. Neither the FBI nor the Palm Beach County School District would say what triggered the investigation. West Palm Beach police and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office also were involved.
The FBI had o f f e re d a $25,000 reward to find Perry.