Wednesday, January 21st
Our January meeting will feature the club's annual Photo Contest, and Board Elections.
If you'd like to enter the contest, simply come to the meeting with a photo of a reptile or amphibian that YOU have taken. You can enter as many as you'd like. Winners will receive a year's membership.
Meetings start promptly at 8pm in the Alumni Room of Medaille College.
Reptile Prizes at Lawn Fetes and Carnivals
Hey everyone, it's that time of year again! That's right, now starts the beginning of the summer lawn fetes and carnivals all over Western New York. What this also means is that it is the beginning of the season of unscrupulous carnies giving away anoles, iguana, and sometimes even red-ear sliders away as prizes. In previous years these carnies were giving away an inadequate cage and selling the animals at ridiculously low prices! Fortunately, our state legislature actually did one productive thing last year and strengthened the law concerning giving away or selling live animals as prizes.
If in your travels you happen to see any of these unethical carnies giving away live animal prizes (except fish) please contact the local police department. If for some reason the local authorities will not help you, you may also try to contact the SPCA as well. Please remember that the SPCA's resources are limited and if at all possible have the local police department handle this. I would not recommend confronting the carnies directly because it will do little good and only alert them that you will probably be contacting the authorities. When you contact the local authorities it will be handy to have the actual statute available for them. New York Stare Agriculture and Markets Law, Article 26, Section 358-a states:
S 358-a. Live animals as prizes prohibited.
- For the purposes of this section "livestock" shall mean any domesticated sheep, goat, horse, cattle or swine.
- No person shall give or offer to give away as a prize, or exchange or offer to exchange for nominal consideration, any live animal other than purebred livestock or fish in any game, drawing, contest, sweepstakes or other promotion, except when any live animal is given away by individuals or organizations operating in conjunction with a cooperative extension education program or agricultural vocational program sanctioned by the state education department.
- The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations which provide guidelines, conditions and requirements when any live animal is given away under the exceptions provided for in subdivision two of this section.
- Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be subject to civil penalty of not more than two hundred fifty dollars or in lieu thereof shall be guilty of a violation punishable solely by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars.
Hopefully we can prevent thousands of reptiles from horrible deaths from improper housing and maintenance this season by preventing as many of these animals as we can from being given to people who do not know how to properly take care of these animals.
For more information see our other article concerning this on our Reptile Legal Issues Section.
Help further herpetology research and education by donating to the Marvin R. Aures Herpetological Grant