By John
As much as we all love our congressional representatives for their flawless governance, the House of Representatives needs our input on bill H.R. 669. This one needs to go down in flames as ineffective and a colossal waste of tax money in a bad economy. Since some only read the first paragraph or two, I’ll put the good stuff at the top. Contact your House Representative to oppose HR669. You can go to www.nohr669.com. There, you enter your zip code and it will create a form letter to oppose the bill. Feel free to make modifications to cite specific examples important to you. You’ll find that the form letter requests the bill in its current form be killed; and that legislation specific to the real problem be introduced to the floor. Click send and you’ve done your civic duty.

Now for the details…

The Everglades in Florida are struggling with an influx of Anaconda snakes. These are not native to the area and are predating native critters with nothing to predate the big snakes. In an attempt to manage this situation, the House of Representatives introduced a bill to ban all non-native animals of the United Statues. Good intention, very bad law. Think about all of your pets. How many of you have goldfish, guppies, betas, any aquarium fish? Banned under HR669. What about gerbils, hamsters, gunea pigs, etc? Banned again under HR669. Hmm… Let’s try iguanas – yep, those are banned too. Parrots, cockatoos, or parakeets? Banned again under HR669. Your Poodles, Yorkshire Terriers, etc are not native to the U.S. Banned under HR669. Remember this entry a while back? The Saker, Gyrfalcon, and Aplomodo will be banned. It goes one step further, hybrid animals are banned. No more Gyr-Saker or Gyr-Peregrine falcons, and no more donkeys. It’s probably apparent now why I’m opposing the bill. Yep you guessed it, I love donkeys! ;)

In California, native raptors cannot be used for commercial purposes. California isn’t the only state with this regulation. So, the companies that use Aplomodo falcons to keep pigeons away from the golf courses and airports will now be forced out of business. Golf courses like the falcons because they are much quieter than the alternative noise cannons to keep pigeons away. Remember the commercial jet that went down in the Hudson River a few months ago? Many of the large airports, commercial or military, use falcons to keep birds down around the airports. States like California will need to find an alternative; nothing is more effective than the fear of dieing at the talons of a falcon.

Help me and all animal lovers oppose this bill and encourage good legislation.