Moving to Washington state

[shivaskeeper]

I'm getting ready to move up to the damp pacific northwest from the sunny south. Can anybody let me know what the local herp laws are or send me some links? I really just need to know about Seattle and the surrounding areas. I keep getting redirected to the WA state Fish and Game site but either what I'm looking for isn't there, or I'm to impatient to actually find it. Thanks in advance.

Greg

[LowerGround]

I live in WA. Local herp laws: Can't own any native species, not even technically supposed to touch them. Bullfrogs are an introduced species, so they are free game for anything.

As for critters, King Co and Seattle have a rule saying no 8ft snakes, venomous, or large monitor lizards such as niles and crocs. No Crocodiles or Snapping turtles, either.

[shivaskeeper]

Thanks for the reply. I just looked on the county map and I'm going to be a littllr further south of Seattle than I thought. Pierce or Thurston county. Just need to find an actual house that I like before I figure out which one.

Greg

[PanamaRed]

Well welcome to Washington.. I hope you don't mind rain..LOL... See you at the show in october.

[shivaskeeper]

Thanks. Should be moving into the house sometime in Oct so I'll figure out how much room I have to put new snakes. Where would the show be in Oct? Not much of a rain loving kind of guy, but what can you do about it.

Greg

[bbailey1392]

I just did the oposite. I moved from Bremerton Wasington to Jacksonville Florida. I miss Washington a lot. Are you moving to Seattle? From what I understand you can't have retics or burms there. You can have them a little north though around Everett and Lake Stevens. Just not in King County. Kitsap County is nice too, but the comute is terrible. Traffic is worse than the rain in western Washington.

[shivaskeeper]

I made it WA fine. Took me 4 days to go the 3020 miles from Augusta, GA to Tacoma, WA. Unfortunantly my family is still in GA waiting fior me to get a house bought and ready to move into. Looks like I'll be in Thurston or Pierce county for sure cause I want to move into the sticks so I have no annoying neighbors but still be within an hour or so of post. What I would like is if anybody could give me a link or any info on restrictions in these on herps in the area. Should be a bit different than King county / Seattle, but I would like to see if I'm going to actually break any laws. Thanks in advance for any help. Also where and when is the show out here in Oct?. I have also notice the traffic here is bad. What's with the drivers being completely unable to pass? I mean they come up behind you, get next to you and them match speed for 3 or 4 miles before they finally get on by you.

Greg

[Rbraczyk]

I was just up on Camano Island, and theres nothing up that far.

Nice state though, just that the west coast isn't for me.

[LowerGround]

yeah, the traffic sucks here :( It's the only thing I hate about this place besides certain sections of each city. There's no online link that I know of, there was one up at the Dept of Fish & Wildlife's page, but they took it down. You'd have to call the state office of DFW to find out.

The show in Oct will be
* October 22nd - 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
* October 23rd - 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

It's in Puyallup. You can see more info up at http://www.beanfarm.com - Giovanni is the guy who puts it on each year. It's a great show, I'll be sharing a table with Talltree again if they go.

[shivaskeeper]

Thanks for the info. I will try to be at the show in Oct but it all depends on when my wife and son get in. If they are getting in town that weekend I probably won't be making it. Is there only one show up here in the area a year, or are there more? Thanks

Greg

[bawlpythonboy]

dude who cares what the law says if they don't know it wont hurt them thats how people in mass do it

[shivaskeeper]

Because I tend to do the right thing and follow the law. What do you do if a guest in your house gets nailed by something that is illegal to keep and needs medical attention? What do you do with the legal attention that is going to follow? What do you do when your homeowners insurance policy gets canceled because of that? What do you do when someone complains about those weird pets you keep and turns you in to the law? In the last 4 years I have had 3 complaints leveled against me with the local and county police just because I own snakes. Not because I had them outside and scared people, or they escaped, or put somebody in danger but just because they were there. This was not even from people who lived on my block. These people had to either get on my lawn and peer in the windows of the snake room or just heard I had them and reported them sight unseen. I know about the complaints because one of the local PD owned a trio of GTP's and a few colubrids. I did the research before I moved in there though, so I knew the local ordinance only prohibited the ownership of local indiginious reptiles. What do you do when some agent from fish and game raids your house cause you have all the big bad illegal animals? Doesn't happen often, but everytime a herper gets busted for some kind of illegal ownership it makes the news and looks bad for the hobby as a whole. Worse than that, it feeds the fire for people who would love to ban all herps as pets and keep them out of private hands. And do you really think they just take the illegal ones out of the house? Do you know what the potential fines and fees could amount to? That's why I want to know what the rules are. So if I do choose to break them I am completely aware of what the consequences will be for me, my family, my pets and my hobby as a whole. Hope thats a good enough reason for you.