Oregon attempts to make piranhas illegal.
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It all goes back to that incident a few months ago or summer ago, where a single red belly P. nattereri was found by some kid. This kid made it a news story by going public and trying to sell the fish for $400. He also claimed more were in that creek. None of it (to my knowledge) has been proven.
I put a link at OPEFE to the senate bill. I've also got the ball rolling with some friends in the Senate to kill this bill. However, it also takes the public outcry to stamp it out. If the ODFW and/or the political people find themselves on the hot seat it can also help kill it. What also really pisses me off, they want to legalize pacus the one species that has been repeatedly released in the wild. This species was the one in the first place that made piranas illegal in 1970 after it had been misidentified as a pirana. The same problem that's been happening elsewhere.
Here's what I've found out so far:
ODFW had a meeting on Friday May 14, 2004. Roy Elicker, Dep. Dir. for fish and wildlife programs updated and proposed legislative concepts for the 2005 Legislative Sesson. Mr. Elicker proposed changing the language to make the flesh-eating variety of piranha illegal.
The minutes were approved on June 11, 2004.
ODFW had a meeting on Friday May 14, 2004. Roy Elicker, Dep. Dir. for fish and wildlife programs updated and proposed legislative concepts for the 2005 Legislative Sesson. Mr. Elicker proposed changing the language to make the flesh-eating variety of piranha illegal.
The minutes were approved on June 11, 2004.
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that sucks hope that these stupid people get alittle more educated on the topic of p's before cast their votes
I thought they were educated last time I crossed swords with them (1993). Evidently, ODFW is not an agency ready to give up. There not going to get much support from academia and certainly I do have friends in the Senate. So I hope to use all my influence to put a stop to it.
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986 Posts
Darn Pacus. I never trusted them.
I dun see what the argument is for making them illegal. It isn't environmental protection, otherwise they would have made mollies and asian carp illegal as well. It isn't public safety because those of us who have had piranhas all know how skittish they are around humans. Seems like it is just a matter of unfounded fear.
I dun see what the argument is for making them illegal. It isn't environmental protection, otherwise they would have made mollies and asian carp illegal as well. It isn't public safety because those of us who have had piranhas all know how skittish they are around humans. Seems like it is just a matter of unfounded fear.
I think (in my opinion), I made fools out of ODFW back in 93-95) and most of the Senators that supported me have retired or left this year after the law was changed to legalize them in 1995.. So they think the time is right to revisit the statute. Just because these Senators are out of office doesn't mean they can't wield influence. Just by the wording by the dep. director they are after Pygocentrus, which is where the 3 species of true piranas are. Its not a question of fear as much as saving face from the last fight I had with them. They lost 27 to 5!
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1,246 Posts
that really sux i wish people on the planet would worry about more important things other then whats swimming around in a lake jesus fukin christ people really suck,i dunno thats just my comment on this ,,,
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One other MORE IMPORTANT FACT, the State of Oregon is running out of money and can't fund schools, roads or other projects. Yet they can find money to spend on enacting worthless legislation. Perhaps the public should take a deeper look at ODFW budget and see if more money can be scraped off of them to fund schools.
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3,300 Posts
damn taht sucks.... i guess some people just dont have their priorities straight..
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605 Posts
hopefully they will be more attentive than when I wrote to the state senate, asking them to ban studded tires. I sent you a PM Frank...
I received it, thank you. I'll send you a reply in a little while. In the meantime, I'll tell you a little story about my court case (circa 1993) with Judge William Lasswell as the presiding judge. As part of the agreement, ODFW (I'll leave his name out of it for now), assured the judge that the 1 species of true pirana (P. nattereri) would be sent to the Barnhardt Aquarium (this ODFW guy didn't know its proper name; Steinhardt Aquarium) where the fish would live out its life. The judge sided with me that the fish would not be destroyed. So in effect, ODFW made a promise.
The other 2 fish (Serrasalmus) would be kept alive until the judge made his decision of whether or not they would be returned to me. A week later, Lasswell made his decision. The P. nattereri would be sent to Steinhardt to live out its life, the remaining fishes Serrrasalmus would be returned to me. I called the ODFW guy and asked him if the Pygocentrus had already been sent and he said yes (I wanted to see it one more time). He told me that the fish was living happily in its new tank. I asked him who got the fish and he said Frank Glennon, a biologist.
Since I've had contact with Frank before, I called him. Frank told me that he had a man waiting at the San Francisco airprot all day and the fish never arrived and ODFW never called them as for the reason why it didn't show up. Needless to say, Frank was pissed on the manhours lost. I then knew something was very wrong.
I then called this ODFW guy back and demanded to know what happened to the fish. He told me it died as it was being transported to Eugene airport. In otherwords, he lied to me and fabricated a story for the coverup.
I told him, I would not forgive him or ODFW for what they did and he would not hear the last of me. I then went to their department to pick up the 2 Serrasalmus species. I thought they would be dead also, but instead found them in a filthy tank. The ODFW people were tossing in goldfish with bagwater and all. My wife, looked at me and she knew I was hot! So I quickly got my 2 fish out of there. On the way out another ODFW person stopped me and made some comment about the fishes and how they were detrimental to Oregon waters or something like that. By that time, I had made up my mind, this was going to be a fight.
And there you have a small portion of what ignited my fire to fight these people. A lot of the story and information is on OPEFE. But this part of the story is to me, the main catalyst of what drives me.
Here is the Oregon story of the kid who caught a single P. nattereri :
August 14, 2003
Boy catches piranha in Portland-area creek
MILWAUKIE - A young fisherman pulled a red belly piranha out of Johnson Creek in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie.
As Jason McGinnis, 14, pulled the flesh-eating fish out on Wednesday, it bit his finger. Rather than toss the fish back, McGinnis put it in his bathtub. He plans to sell it.
The fish is the same type sold at some Oregon pet stores. Piranhas are illegal in Washington and California, but they're commonly sold in Oregon.
The tropical fish was probably released into the creek by somebody who bought it at a pet store, said Chris Mullin, a salesman at Bell's Tropical Fish in Portland.
Mullin said he's heard of people catching piranhas in the Columbia River.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
What this Chris Mullin did was continue the false story of the Columbia River pirana. It was a pacu and identified as such by Prof. Douglas Markle (OSU) and confirmed by W. L. Fink. ODFW never released that information and instead let the public believe it was a pirana.
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