Bill Description:
This bill defines “domestically bred species and subspecies” as any member of a species or subspecies of fish and wildlife appearing on the United States list of endangered foreign fish and wildlife that is bred in the United States from parents or stock held in captivity at the time the breeding of the animal takes place. The bill also excludes domestically bred species and subspecies from the state list of endangered species, and explicitly allows for the “taking, possessing, transportation, exporting, processing, sale, or offer to sell” of any of those species.[teaserbreak]
The bill spells its out the purpose of these changes:
“The intent of this chapter is to allow for and encourage the conservation of species by means of propagation and captive breeding. It is further the intent of this chapter to allow the trade and keeping of any [of the above-defined] domestically bred species or subspecies…”
Background:
There are multiple negative implications of this bill. The first is that it would make it harder to create laws and regulations in the future to restrict the trade in exotic species, because many of those animals will be defined under this umbrella of so-called “domestically bred species.” This will help the cruel exotic pet trade to continue to flourish.
Furthermore, this law would reduce the number of exotic animals in Indiana who are given protections under the state Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act. If an animal belongs to a species that has been listed as endangered, but is born within the U.S. to captive-held parents, that animal would no longer be considered or endangered. This would greatly reduce the number of animals that are protected by breeding and trade restrictions. The federal government reaffirmed that species protections under the Endangered Species Act extend to captive exotic animals with their decision about captive chimpanzees in 2015, which you can read here. The same should apply to state endangered species protections.
Lifting restrictions on the breeding and trade of exotic animals does not aid conservation. These animals will never be released into the wild. It instead encourages the treatment of animals as commodities, and perpetuates a brutal industry that churns out animals only to have them languish in captivity for the rest of their lives.
Take Action:
Indiana residents, contact your state representative and urge him or her to oppose this bill!
Read the full text and follow its progress here.