Hi,

the Austrian council has decided today:

Item 26: Prohibition of the sale of exotic animals at fairs (14-82): 100% agreed
Item 27: proof of expertise for exotic animal keeper (14-83): 100% agreed
Item 29: Prohibition of keeping Giant snakes and poison snakes (14-84): 100% agreed

Kind regards

Martin

I have forgotten to mention that they mentioned boidae meaning also ball pythons, tree pythons, boas etc.

Even though Austria isn't my country, this is a concern for all of us. One country starts it off and others follow. Worrying.

Is this a complete prohibition, or will there be a permit system?

We don't know it, Wolfgang, but i fear there won't be exceptions - at least not in the venomous section.
Maybe they will crawl back in the giant snakes section, at this time it's planned to prohibit the Boidae family generally - that will declare some ten thousands Ball Pythons as illegal.....
What they did yesterday is only the decision to create these new rules.
best regards
Peter

Very sad and worrying is this the start of the end game for many of us?

Isn't it funny that this whole shit has been initiated by the FPÖ (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs = Austrian Party of Freedom!)
Tu felix Austria.

must be very careful to parties of freedom .... in Italy the name is PDL (People of Freedom).
and a law banning "dangerous" animal is already there, but there is no law that prohibits criminals to sit in the parliament!

http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/A/A_01274/imfname_195623.pdf

It is a complete prohibit.
They are F****** assholes, sorry for that, but that means that my rainbow boas are illegal now. Crazy!

BTW: They except only zoos. All scientific purposes will get "some time until they have to give the snakes away"

Can an escaped boid survive in the wild in Austria ? If not then the ban makes no sense ?

No, it is too cold.
An typical Austrian solution would be just not to talk about the illegal keepers.
Or to fund money for an euthanisation program. Just to save the poor kids in the neighbourhood from the highly dangerous Python regius, especially at election times ...

....now it is time ..."to live happy, live hidden"
That's what the authority always winwith that kind of sh** laws. Sad...

BTW, what about monitor lizards ? big or small (odatria sp) ?

If it would be possible to get a "license" (with exam) like for dangerous dog species (we already have this law in Austria), I could see a logic.

@Günther:

Note that this was an application from one party to discuss the matter in the "health board" (Gesundheitsausschuss). It was in 2010!

On Ocotober 13, 2010 the board decided (all yes) to file the application in the National Council. This was discussed yesterday (October 19, 2011) and 100% agreed on the 3 application.

Now someone (the federal minister for health?) has to amend the related laws (TSchG) and it's bylaw. The amendment would have to pass also the National Council (again).

Kind regards

Martin

It doesn't matter to them whats fair or reasonable.. it's just the message they send out to their voters. Nothing more, nothing less..

But I'm curious of one thing (To all you Austrians) ?
Was there a cause to these decisions? Any recent accidents? Or maybe a lot of stray snakes found or left abandoned or something like that?

Günter:I like your kind of humor as well as the ironic statements in some other posts (a law banning "dangerous" animals is already there, but there is no law that prohibits criminals to sit in the parliament).
Now I know why I don´t keep Eryx, Lichanura,… - Because I knew I would have to give them away (for getting euthanized?) if this law will come.

Just a few thoughts:
This law would lead to illegal keeping of venomous,… snakes and therefore be the best way to keeping these animals in unsafe conditions and under conditions that are unfavorable for the animals because keeping them illegally usually means keeping them under restricted conditions.

The word "freedom" in the name of that party has always been a mystery for me. Around 70 years ago we had a party in Austria and Germany trying to rule a big part of the world that used this word in a similar way. We know what that led to.

If you read the bill (Günter´s second post, only in German) and know the law cited there (several Boids and venomous snakes are listed in there) you can see that it contains the normal mixture of truth, ignorance and lies. The usual way, populist politicians act and the other members of parliament fell for their line.

Martin: You are right but the first step has been taken and it may be a matter of months, years or forever until it may or may not pass the National Council. If that question will be brought up in election campaigns no party will dare to act rationally but rather for a ratio of votes like it went in Vienna (no venomous snakes,… allowed) and Lower Austria (allowed with restrictions) many years ago.

Peter: Try and keep big Varanids, Crocodiles,… in Vienna and you´ll see what will happen.

Jan: There was an escaped Boa constrictor (mentioned in the bill brought to parliament) last year that was made a problem by media for better print runs in a time when nothing else happened. Lots of policemen,… were sent for searching the snake that was said to “be able to kill and eat cats, small dogs and even babies”. The Boa was finally found inside the appartment of the owner, it was much smaller than published at that time and very much smaller than written in that bill.

Graeme: You know we recently had the same problem (deriving from the Boa-story mentioned above) in the part of Austria where I live. I could, at least for the moment, gain time also with help of the information you gave me about regulations in GB, though the problem isn´t solved yet. This new federal law would solve our local problem by bringing the same problem on a bigger scale.

Best regards,
Rainer

It is sad that common sense plays no role in these kinds of decisions. Unless you define "common sense" as the readers' comments in the Bild Zeitung, Daily Fail or Faux News....

Of course there have been problems in the past like an escaped Ball Python here and a released Burmese Python there - but the cause triggering off the "Boidae-decision" has been an escaped Boa constrictor one year ago. It was quite a biggie, measuring almost 3 meters, and escaped from it's terrarium, but did not go out of the appartement. Many people (police, fire brigade, snake experts) searched for her a couple of days in the neighborhood, of course with no success. Amanda was finally found behind a cupboard in it's owners appartement digesting a rabbit which was fed to her right before her escape.
regards
Peter

Currency in politics is votes not common sense - that´s the problem for people who have common sense.

In Austria we have a word called "Stimmvieh" - I'll try to translate, but it is difficult, maybe "voting cattle" would fit best. It is used for the stupid mass which can easily be influenced (at least they think so - I don't!) with simple appeals to basic instincts ("Save our children!").

I wonder who should elect them in the future when they tend to forbid keeping of animals. Reptiles first, then maybe dogs, cats and at last they will prohibit the cattle (we had incidents where cows attacked tourists, yes!) and finally Parkinson's law will take away the win!