Gauteng members - pet hobby in danger

Yes @Jenn - You have pretty muched summed it up in A VERY nice way. There is a lot of people out there that is fighting the fight for our hobby and livelihoods out there. Thank for all that was there. The more we are at these gatherings the better it is at the end of the day.

 

Thank you so much to everyone who was there, each voice and hand made a difference. I think they were quite surprised at the level and number of objections, and the MEC (big boss) in particular seemed not to have been aware of the lack of consultation. With any luck some people are going to be in trouble on Monday!

Now, the way forward from here. As @Jenn has said, we have 2 weeks to make representations at the e-mail addresses she provided. I understand that the forum moderators will coordinate an official "forum response", but the more they get in their inboxes the better, but with the following caveat: BE RESPECTFUL. No calling people idiots, NO RACISM please! We don't want to antagonise anyone, we want them to take us seriously. Use spell-check, edit your mails! If you want to, also send your suggestions to @Jenn for the mods' official response. Basically what we want is for tropical aquarium fish to be put on the "pet species list" or unrestricted list. This isn't unrealistic, birds are already there. Give reasons, particularly that the importation of those species considered to be potentially invasive is already not allowed, and that import is subject to permits.

There are other issues not related to our forum that you may also want to comment on, such as several species of small mammals (such as sugar gliders, add your own here) that should be added to the pet list, along with feeder insects (mealworms and crickets) and marine fish and inverts. If those changes are made then the bill will in my opinion be acceptable. 14 days from today, get writing!

Then, after 14 days, another meeting will take place. We will keep you informed of what we find out about this.

 

Do we know if we can get AgriSA on board? Solidarity? We need to protect our hobby, the industry and jobs!

 

@ JJ-Law (and everyone else reading this)

There are now 12 days left of the re-opened public participation process. I am trying to mobilise as many of my academic collegues as I can as this poorly worded draft will affect research in the province too. If you have contacts in AGriSA and Solidarity, or anyone else who can help, then please, please get the, on board. NatCon was, in my opinion, determined to bulldoize this through on Friday, if it wasnt for the huge turnout of extremely angry people, the advocate for the Suger-Glider community, the presence of the press and the MEC herself realising that her staff had been telling her the PP process had been done correctly when it clearly wasnt, this thing would have had to be challenged in court. The more the merrier, we only won the first battle, we need all the help we can get to get this thing rewritten rationally.

 

Appreciate your efforts, and everyone else who is doing something about this.

Can I suggest that an e-mail template is created, with the exact wording of the message which needs to be sent in objection to the act. This way there are no mixed messages, and more forum members will bother to actually send the e-mail. Formulating this e-mail without EXACTLY understanding what collective objective exists and on which basis, is going to be challenging.

 

@ IamDieter
May I suggest a forum thread be set up for
brainstorming. You don’t have much time. I don’t keep fish and have my hands
full co-ordinating a different fight back strategy.


The only thing I BEG you all to include in you letter/s, "Is this law
going to be used to regulate the Muthi industry? If not, why not?" as
there are identical or close to concerns of environmental and property rights tied
up in that question. Yup, its loaded, and if not, then this whole piece of
nonsense is about going after soft targets. US!

 

+1 for @iamdieter 's suggestion and thanks to all who took the time to attend and give feedback!!

 

Ok, so to start creating this e-mail template, can I ask for feedback from those who were present, in point form, of what the exact issues/concerns to the hobbyist are and the reasons why the power to be sees these as necessary?

 

If you read my previous post, you will see I have done that.

 

Psy, Dirk, and others,I have a few lawers and attorneys, owing me a small favour or two. I am taking leave of absense from work on thu trough mon next week, in which time I will make a draft representation and ask these fellows to update themselves with the bill, in the meantime, whilst I draft the reply, then have them read it make changes and pending their advice submit
.Points to concider, amongst others are:
1.
Our suggestions can not be in contravention of National Legislation.
2.
Our suggestions should not be wholely antagonistic, we do need practical regulation.. keywords, practical regulation
.3.
Our main focus will be on aquarium related species, fish, plants, corral, and feeders, but, it should be put forward in such a manner that the other affected plants, animals and critters, as listed or not listed in the bill, will benefit as well, as and when applicable.
4.
The need of a national, and or provincial self regulating authority can be investigated or proposed.
5.
We have to suggest proposals in line with international nature conservation practices.
6.
Reference to to the United Nations Red List should be incorporated, depending on the scope of your reply.
7.
Our suggestions should be done in a manner as you would want yourself to be spoken to adressed, respect them, but guide them in your reply.
I hope to suply some tips with the above statements, these are by no means the only guides or things to remember in e-mails forwarded by people interested in posting replies.
The more people who reply the better, we unfortunately do not have time for in depth legal opinion etc at this time, so it would be less of a reliance on big brother and organised organisations, ie SAPTA, they actually need our individual support to head off this disaster. Also, law is for the individual, and we need to make up numbers now, 12 days to go!

 

The more individulas responding, the more letters the better, they supplied e-mails only, am working on correct postal and street adresses for hand delivery now. Unless somebody have it already?

Keep your ideas of control as practical (cheap) as possible, focus on:
1.
Imports, and how that is already regulated also look at where did the illegal species come in from and how we can close the gap to ensure future control, before they want to blanket ban everything again
2.
Look at levels or categories of sales permits, breeding permits and of course "keeping or growing permits". Thus, the more invasive, or potentially invasive a species can be, the stricter the controlls need to be.. (who wants to swim in the Vaaldam full, of red belly phirannas?)

3.
Look at disposal of unwanted species, how and where?
4.
Look at wild collecting and indiginous preservation, breeding suplementation through our hobby of indigenous species.
5.
Look at requirements for breeder/distributer.
6.
Look at breeding of feeders, roaches, larvae etc.
Even if you don't wanna post your ideas here, and prefer sending them to the GPGov, the idea is that our proposals should be reasonable, practical and sustainable towards our bennefit, benefitting all of us.

Again, the points highlighted serve purpose to allign our thinking and replies, if you have a question or idea, please post it here so we can brainstorm it as Inyanga stated. The points I highlighted is not the be all and end all, and sure will receive sceptisism and critisism, but at least it will help I trust.
Regards

 

This is what is happening in the UK .... A much better step.

New Import of Live Fish Act UK: Channel catfish get banned. | News | Practical Fishkeeping

 

@jj-law - You are on the right track with this. Thanks. Let me know if there is something that I can help with. Some comments below.

I was speaking to Arno Naude at the meeting and according to him their is already wheels in motion from the dept to try and setup an NGO outside the dept to help manage the fish trade. I am trying to get myself involve with this.

We will need to setup a charity "rescue centre" and get it known. I have been chatting to Reptile and Exotic animals rescue to get them to call me when there is a need for a fish rescue. I have posted a new thread for people that want to join in. We will need to have some long discussions in get together about it.

Natcon is not open to this idee BUT if there is a proper NGO I am sure that this point can be opened for discussions.

I am very intressted in this discussion.

 

I must have my blonde wig on because I cant get into the blacklist that you guys posted from the DropBox. What am I doing wrong?

 

Hi Skye01

Do you have Dropbox loaded on your computer and a registered account with them?

 

also can not get into black list
@

ROEKSTE
​

Arno is the man

 

You don't need an account with them to download something hosted on dropbox just click the link and select download.

 

Here is a link to the NEMA IAS website ....

- National Invasive Species Legislation - 1 NEMBA Invasive Alien Species Regulations 12 February 2014

 

Tomorrow is D day for submissions!

 

Hi people in the next post I will place a summary of the submission prepared wkth help of legal friends. Please understand that this is intended as a type of guide for yourself, closing is today. Feel free to ammend or use the info for your submissions and ammend according to your personnal value system.
I did not get much sleep these last 5 days, averaging 3 hours a night. So i am just dumping the info, i did run my e-mail submission on spell check etc. But posting here will change original formatting, spacing, etc.
Regards