It’s a frustrating day in Canada. On June 1st the province of Saskatchewan introduced new rules for prohibited species. Government regulation that is ill informed and heavy handed, as is tradition I suppose.
In short, there’s three lists of species, Allowed, Division 1, and Division 2. Division 1 means the animal is illegal overnight and must be removed/euthanized. Division 2 means the animal may be grandfathered for the rest of its life as long as the province is notified. Keepers have until November 30th to comply in both cases. If it’s not on any list, and there are quite a few common species missing, it’s likely illegal and even requesting a species to be categorized would likely result in it being explicitly restricted.
Examples of Division 2 animals which must receive a permit to grandfather or else be declared illegal:
- Various Varanidae (Nile, Water, Savannah monitors)
- Various Leaf-Tailed geckos
- Red-eared Sliders
- Various box turtles
- Various Uromastyx
- Western Hogs
- Bullsnakes
- Eastern Indigo snakes
- and more!
If you were breeding these species, or would like to sell them to keepers in the province then you’re just out of luck.
Division 1 includes gems such as:
- The usual “scary” pythons, Burmese, Rock, Reticulated etc.
- Green and Yellow Anaconda
- Crocodiles and Alligators
- Boa Constrictor and Boa Imperator
- Kokoe, Black legged, Golden Dart Frogs
- Venomous reptiles
Both lists also have a number of birds, mammals and amphibians that are also banned. In fact I was first made aware about this from a parrot breeders group. It seems that it was expected for a couple years that the provincial government was working towards some form of regulation but this seems to have taken everyone by surprise. To me, that seems to speak volumes as to how much public input was considered, i.e. practically none.
That’s the most frustrating part of this. There doesn’t seem to be any reasoning behind any of this given, other than generic “public safety and wildlife conservation.” I’d love to have a chat with one of the “experts” on what way someone’s BCI somehow poses a threat to public safety, or how breeding captive bred albino Western Hognose will deplete the native population. On top of all this, I’ve heard that the province of Manitoba was waiting for Saskatchewan to regulate before attempting the same. I’m not a resident of either province, but I have no doubt if this isn’t fought it will find its way here.
But at least they are allowed to keep Ball Pythons I guess, whoopie.
You can tell that animal rights groups (again) were the ones that “educated” these lawmakers. Well, I’m going to research this. I don’t think there’s much I can do in the states but I might be sending out a few emails.