There has been a lot of talk about the EPS recently. In short, as of 21/11/2007 it will now be a criminal offence to possess a number of commonly traded pet species unless you have obtained a licence before then (that isn't intended for private keepers) or have documentary proof that your animal was captive bred, caught outside the EU or was captured before 1994. It is also illegal to transport, trade in, or even advertise for these species for trade. They have declined to give a written response to what will happen to the animals that are seized under these new laws and their official advice to people who don't want to keep their animals is to donate their animals to a museum to be used as part of their dead specimen collection.

Those of you that own these species but can not prove their legal origin are in a difficult situation. At the Pro Keeper's Lobby we've been doing a lot of groundwork on this issue and are now starting up the first stages of a campaign to raise awareness and ultimately we hope to influence the licensing authority to re-assess its lack of provision for private keepers.

You can help with this campaign to protect the rights of private keepers and voice your concerns about the unfair implementation of these laws and all it will cost you is the price of a stamp. We have prepared a number of letters to one of the ministers responsible for approving the application of, and bringing into force these new laws and all you need to do is pick the one you like best, sign it and put it in a post box. If you don't think the form letters suit you, we encourage you to write yuor own complaint using the points raised in our letters as a rough guide. The address to send it to is on our example letters.

All the letter samples can be found at:
Pro Keepers Lobby | "Left Wing Right Politics!"

There are also some awareness flyers available from the same page. The best way to raise awareness is via retailers so if you can convince you local petshops to have some of the flyers available for customers, you'd be helping greatly. We're currently working on a proper information pack for retailers themselves that we'll release shortly and start sending out to known exotics shops.

DEFRA and Natural England have ignored the existance of private keepers when preparing this legislation and still refuse to accept that there are millions of these animals living comfortable lives as pets in private collections. Their official reports claim that these changes won't affect many people in the UK. This is your chance to let them know otherwise.

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-Oni


2.4 E. macularius, 1.2 H. caudicinctus, 1.0 R. ciliatus
0.2.1 A. fragilis, 1.1 T. merianae, 1.0 V. niloticus ittibittius
3.4 P. guttattus, 1.0 P. guttatus X E. climacophora, 1.0 P. o. rossalini, 1.0 P. o. lindheimeri, 0.1 E. anomala
1.2 Lamprophis spp, 1.0 L. g. nigritus, 0.1 L. g. californiae
1.2 E. c. maurus, 1.1 E. c. loveridgei, 0.1 E. conicus
1.4 P. regius, 1.1 A. maculosa, 1.0 H. n. nasicus

This is an important chance for keepers of both Non EPS as well as those whom are EPS holders to voice their opinion.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

Rory Matier
Pro Keepers Lobby

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Letter printed and in the post as I type

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Have you sent anything off against this piece of legislation?

R
PKL

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