Snakes to be banned in all Qld Suburbs

[Mel]

Hi All,

I know there are a few Queenslanders on here, but as I recall, not many Gold Coasters. As such, I doubt many of you are aware, or would have had the opportunity, to be following Dawn Crichlow's recently acquired opinion on snakes and rats being kept in the suburbs of Queensland.

Thanks to several complaints regarding a single individual on the Gold Coast (who was featured on Today Tonight some months back), Councillor Crichlow and the local council are seeking to overturn state laws and ban the keeping of ALL snakes in ALL suburban areas of our entire state. They are also seeking to reduce numbers of mice/rats allowed from 100 to 10 (including litters).

The most recent article regarding this matter was published in The Gold Coast Bulletin Newspaper last Thursday, and was as follows:

******
A PLAGUE of 50,000 rats is spreading across the Gold Coast and the city council is powerless to stop it.
A new report to the council estimates that some 50,000 vermin are being kept legally within the city by 500 residents who have been issued recreational licences by the State Government.
On Friday, Cr Dawn Crichlow, who last year campaigned for a Southport man to keep six chickens in his back yard, will call on the council to override the state and ban the keeping of snakes and rats in the suburbs.
She says the city, which restricts how many dogs and cats residents can keep, will be a laughing stock without the change.
The report recommends that changes to the local laws be investigated, but Cr Crichlow says it is time for action not investigation.
"People don't want snakes and rats living next door to them,'' said Cr Crichlow.
"The laws should immediately be changed to state that you're not allowed to keep snakes and rats in units or houses and they only can be kept on rural properties. Sorry, it's not on. There's a mice plague out west at the moment, we could end up with a rat plague on the Gold Coast. That would be great wouldn't it.''
The report, written by Jim Webb the co-ordinator of development assessment and compliance, recommends that the state laws be reduced from allowing up to 100 vermin without a permit to 10.
The investigation was prompted by complaints from Studio Village residents upset that a neighbour, Tony Werner, was allowed to keep 60 snakes in his garage and 80 rats in a shed.
They complained the stench from the rat shed was so bad that it stopped them sleeping at night.
A preliminary council investigation found that, according to the Queensland Health Act, Mr Werner was within his rights.
The report recommends a review of the local laws to include a restriction on the number of rodents and reptiles that may be kept on premises.
The matter will be debated by councillors on Friday.
******

I'm currently looking into it, and hope by the end of the day to know if any decisions were made.

 

[instar]

:shock: I can understand a complaint or two about the smell of rats, if they were not properly cared for, but to jump from complaining about rats to claiming peoples domestic rats kept for feeding snakes are or will cause a plague is ridiculous! If they really had a problem with rat smell, why not say frozen rats only?? This person must have no idea about anyone keeping anything other than cats and dogs, i think his/her ignorance is apparent in calling it a plague, and making no distinction between domestic and ferral rats.
As for not allowing snakes except on rural land, it's a knee jerk reaction, poorly thought.
seems no consideration to simply limiting the number of snakes to be kept per residence, was brought forward at all. such reaction is possibly coming from ignorance once again about snakes in general. probably he/she suffers from "good snake/dead snake" syndrome, and fear of "Deadly" pythons is to blame.
I do hope someone with more authority and alot more sense will stop nonsense like this before it becomes the attitude opf coyuncils everywhere. If the action is successful if could be a death knoll for herping in qld. very sad story. Still so many people need educating about these unique and wonderful creatures.

 

[ad]

Hi Mel
Let us know what we can do to counter this.
Talk about her own personal paranoia pushing the barrow.
The petshop industry would love her too! After investing so much Im sure they would love this crack-pot.
Cheers
Ad

 

[Nome]

:shock: Surely this won't happen :shock:

Plain discrimination to reptile owners. Gosh, look at all the problems dogs kept in suburbia have caused (I was attacked when I was pregnant with my second child). That is sick that they are just playing on people's aversion to snakes and rats to make that sure that they can get the laws passed. There statement that most people woudn't like to be living next door to snakes and rats, shows that :shock:

Keep us posted , Mel.

 

[ad]

I will love to see the debate she presents,
"because they are icky and slimy..."

 

[Fuscus]

As I have stated before Darn Criclow is a horrible and vindictive person. I am not surprised that she has run with this. What are the positions of the rest of the council?

 

[Mel]

The position of other council members is unknown to me at this time. I'll keep the site posted.

As for "what we can do to counter this", to be honest, I think some good old fashioned letter writing wouldn't go astray, to both her office AND especially en masse to the papers. Don't forget, she is taking this STATE WIDE, so everyone in a suburban area of Qld could be affected. As Fuscus says, she will definitely continue to run this down, and without active opposition from hobbyists, who knows how far she will get with it!

 

[Tricache]

I am a recent snake owner and a newcomer to here on AP&S and I live on the Gold Coast. I hope that this is overturned due to the fact that i will have to give my snake away. I can understand her standings but come on people, these snakes are just the same as a dog or cat, its like getting rid of one of the family....and thats the bottom line

 

[Nome]

I think all of us QLD reptile owners need to make sure we do protest this in writing. I don't know that there is too many of us, and I'm sure not many would know that this is happening. I know how much trouble the Gold Coast council had with banning pit bulls, so I am hoping that this is the same with reptiles. What justification can she have for doing this? Surely there must have to be some evidence that keeping snakes in suburbia is causing harm and a nusiance to people (rather than just one incident of TT). Unfortunately, her view will be popular due to people's problems with snakes. We'll all have to get together on this one if it goes further and make ourselves heard. Surely this is discrimination, plain and simple. They would need to ban dogs before snakes, surely, looking at the amount of dog attacks. I don't hear of any python attacks requiring hosipitalization. (BTW, I love dogs, just using this as a point). This is really a stupid, uneducated action to take, from watching one story done on TT, and most of us know the shows like this show popular opinion, which in this case would be 'snakes are bad'.

....sigh.....

~Nome

 

[JeffHardy]

Amazing. Why does the press give any credibility to people like her all she is doing is expressing a personal opinion that a reporter has presented in the form of a story. Everyone else only gets to write to the editor and maybe get an alternate opinion published.

Jeff

 

[Fuscus]

Amazing. Why does the press give any credibility to people...

Have you every read the Gold Coast Bulletin Newspaper Jeff? It is not the highest quality newspaper in Australia and seems to encourage our more loonier pollies.

 

[Tricache]

i agree Nome....keeping all us QLD reptile owners informed and find out if and where we can put in a protest

 

[Mel]

I have just spoken to coucillor Crichlow by phone. The decision has been made to introduce legislation so that snakes and rodents are bought under council control to the same extent that cats and dogs already are.

Councillor Crichlow said a law will be drafted in the next few weeks, and will then be advertised for public input. The law will state that in suburban areas, a maximum of 4 snakes and 4 rodents will be allowed per household.

Yes, you read it right... FOUR! I don't know where, when, or how this draft law will be advertised, but all I can suggest is that all Queensland members keep their eyes and ears open for it, and be ready to comment in writing.

 

[JunglePython]

this needs to be stopped. If Gold Coast council pass this then it will only be a short time before Brisbane does.

Petition time people!

 

[spottedpython]

if this does happen everyone who wants to own reptiles will have to move which means less money for there council and goverment and then they will think again and probably allow reptiles back in cause most of the people who own reptiles are in qld and if they move away from qld the council there would think maybe we did the wrong thing and they might allow reptiles back in so they don't lose the money just my thought

 

[Mel]

...I don't know that there is too many of us...

According to Councillor Crichlow, QPWS informed her that there are approximately 5000 licences on issue at present in the state of Qld. According to my own contact with QPWS, around 800 of those are in SE Qld (between Beenleigh and NSW border), many of which would be in suburban areas, not to even mention Brisbane.

I dread to think how far this could go.

 

[Fuscus]

Her Web page
http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_std.asp?PID=356

NOTE : that photo must be at least 29 years old

 

[Nome]

I think we should all get in and write letters. Would email or snail mail be preferable? Maybe snail mail, so they just don't press delete? Or both !

 

[spottedpython]

they have a phone number there maybe ringing her would be better and writing an email to her

 

[phantom]

Mel im in rural so this doesnt affect me at the moment,but if its past what is stopping it going all over the state including rural,and by the way besides me who else does'nt keep there snakes in enclosures,its not as if we let our snakes roam the streets like cats and dogs do.maybe all the Qld ppl should get togetherand go see this person with our snakes .
Whats the chances of TT doing a story on behalf of all the ppl out there that own reps ,even if its only to educate ppl