Do you have wild neighbors?
June 18th, 2009 by admin
Clapping is not a sound you would expect to hear during meetings of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). But during yesterday’s FWC meeting in Crystal River, applause erupted after the commission voted unanimously to ban the commercial hunting of freshwater turtles in Florida. Florida now has the strongest protections for freshwater turtles of any state in the country.
Protecting Florida’s turtles was not the only important issue on the agenda. Commissioners also gave final approval to long-awaited updates to Florida’s captive wildlife rules, including the addition of cougars, cheetahs and hyenas to the list of potentially-dangerous animals that are illegal to keep as pets. An ARFF representative attended the meeting and spoke in support of the rule changes.
The FWC classifies captive wildlife according to the danger they present to the owner and the general public; examples of Class I and Class II animals include bears, tigers and large primates. The FWC has resisted calls to require people who apply for a permit to possess these animals to notify their neighbors. But during yesterday’s meeting, FWC staff demonstrated a new feature on the FWC website that allows Florida residents to discover if their neighbors own Class I or Class II wildlife.
Do you have wild neighbors? To find out, go to http://ocean.floridamarine.org/dle/, click on the + box next to “Captive Wildlife” to expand the selection, and then use the map to drag and zoom to your neighborhood.