SB 310

I was asked to share this with all my Ohio friends- It was written By Chris DeLange and is the latest news on SB 310:

Today marked the 6th and final committee meeting for SB310. There was no testimony presented. Senator Balderson made a few amendments to the bill:

-The fee cost/structure for snakes was altered dramatically in our favor. There is now only a $150 fee for possession, and a $300 fee for propagation REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY SNAKES YOU HAVE. This was a HUGE victory for us! With this in mind, even IF they somehow manage to manipulate the system and add other snakes back onto the list, the fee system won't kill us!

-The Director of the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture is able to recommend the addition of animals he deems dangerous, BUT it has to go through the administrative rule change process (which involves public testimony) AND it then has to go to a joint (House and Senate) congressional committee that - based on the evidence provided including testimonies - will determine if the addition is justified. Senator Balderson ALSO included a 2 year moratorium on any additions. THIS IS ALSO A VERY GOOD CHANGE.

After the amendments were voted on (favorably), the Senator fielded questions from the rest of the committee members regarding the bill. It was pretty obvious that most of the committee members didn't really know much at all about the bill and were taking Balderson's word for it that it was a "good bill". It was then voted out of committee unanimously.

From there it went almost straight to the full Senate floor right after lunch during the General Session for the day. Senator Balderson gave a short speech about the bill including how difficult is has been for all involved. It was then voted on by the full Senate. SB310 had near unanimous support with only a single Senator voting against it (Senator Jordan from the north central part of the State). SB310 will now pass on to the House for further markup and consideration.

In the House it will follow the same steps it did in the Senate. There will be a number of committee meetings (likely in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee) where testimonies from both sides will again be heard. This is also where the House will have a chance to make any amendments they see fit. I overheard an interview the local news conducted with the Ohio HSUS and ASPCA reps and they both said they will be pushing to make it more inclusive and much more strict in the House (they both want to see boas added BACK onto the list, as well as an increase in fees and the omission of the "12ft" rule for constrictors - among many other things). We need to be sure to keep the pressure on!

Once the meetings are scheduled, I'll be announcing them here. I'll also put out a phone/email list for people to use.

I know this is getting very tiring (believe me... I don't even know how many hours I've sunk into this bill so far), but we need to remain strong in our opposition to SB310! We need to attend these meetings just as faithfully as we did in the Senate! The HSUS and ASPCA (as well as others) are not going to give up, and we need to maintain our efforts to keep them at bay! We did a FANTASTIC job of showing the Senators that we FAR outnumber the proponents, but we need to repeat this showing in the House!

SB310 has seen HUGE and VERY POSITIVE changes to the "Restricted Snake" portion of the bill, but very little has been done to help the Restricted Primate and Dangerous Wild Animal people. For us, this bill is about as good as it's going to get. Unfortunately, the same CANNOT be said for the rest of those involved. We need to keep fighting for them! If this bill passes (and I believe it will), it needs to be watered down enough so we are able to swallow this "pill" and still be standing after the fact.

Again, please let me know if you have any questions, and PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL OF YOUR OHIO FRIENDS!

-Chris