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To: Public Comment
for the Study Committee for Senate Bill 1032. We are deeply concerned about the recent activities of extremist animal rights groups from outside our state who are attempting to influence North Carolina legislation using sneaky and underhanded methods. The result has been Senate Bill 1032. As an update to our postal correspondence, we would like to point out one of their web sites which actually boasts about how their California based PETA-style group has "a crucial foothold in the door" of the North Carolina legislature with Study Bill 1032. Please take a look at http://www.animalprotectionnc.org for a summary of their agenda, and for effective admission that the California PETA-style group, the so-called Animal Protection "Institute", originated this bill and is working to push it through our legislature. Masquerading under a "public safety" issue this Bill is really only an Animal Rights attack on Human Rights. At heart it is a means of soaking North Carolinians for contribution money for their personal crusade. One of my concerns as Curator of a privately owned reptile park and museum is that such extremist groups would leave our community (not to mention us personally) much poorer by making the animal industry a tightly restricted monopoly. The Cape Fear Serpentarium is a significant educational and tourism asset to our local community as well as a significant contributor to herpetological research, scientific and veterinary literature worldwide. We are the pre-eminent herpetological collection and the single most widely recognized authority in the state of North Carolina. We operate the only antivenom bank for snakebite in North Carolina, making this life saving medicine available to emergency units and hospitals. Under laws proposed by animal rights groups and other individuals who would prefer to support a monopoly, we would be forced to join an organization that we have significant political and philosophical differences with (the American Zoo and Aquarium Association) or close our doors. The AZA is attempting to secure a monopoly on the zoo and animal industry, which is unfair and unconstitutional. It is a good idea to set reasonable limits on the rights of people to keep and use animals, particularly when their use impacts on public health and safety. But the agenda of this bill is not fair and reasonable limits, rather what appears to be on one hand a neo-religious fanaticism advocating a total ban on hunting, fishing, farming and pet keeping, and on the other hand an unconstitutional attempt at commercial monopoly. The proposed study group is to be administered by a business with a clear financial interest in maintaining a monopoly on the zoo and wildlife industry (an AZA zoo). This is a situation of real concern. The Wildlife Resources Commission has already been working with a legislative advisory committee (NCPARC) to establish guidelines for rational legislation on the keeping and breeding of reptiles in this state. Represented on this committee is the Museum of Natural History in Raleigh, our state herpetologist Sarah Cross, wildlife officers and state employees of the WRC, and representatives from many of the zoos and parks in our state including the Asheboro Zoo and the State Aquarium at Fort Fisher. In effect this study committee already exists, at least with regard to reptiles. There is no good reason to waste taxpayer dollars setting up another study group for this purpose, especially not one that was mandated by animal rights extremists from out of state and administered by a business with a significant financial interest in the outcome. Thank you for your time and concern, Tanith Tyrr |
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