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JOURNAL-NEWS (Hamilton, Ohio) 02 December 05 Man jailed for refusing to tag Ohio native reptiles
Lancaster, Ohio: A man spent three days in the Fairfield County Jail last month for failing to put identification tags on his 10-year-old daughter's pet turtles and snakes.
Terry Wilkins, 51, is the first Ohioan to serve jail time for violating a 2000 state wildlife-preservation law that, among other things, requires owners of Ohio native reptiles to tag them.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says a personal-integrated transponder tag slightly larger than a grain of rice must be inserted under the reptile's skin using a syringe. The chip contains a bar code readable by a hand-held scanner so that the pet's owner can be identified.
Wilkins, owner of a pet store in Columbus, claims the tagging often kills animals, causes them to develop lesions or become infertile.
Wilkins had allowed his daughter to keep eight turtles and four snakes at their home. When a state Wildlife inspector told Wilkins he would have to tag the pets and he refused, he wound up in court.
Fairfield County Municipal Court Judge Patrick Harris sentenced Wilkins to 90 days in jail, suspending all but three days. Wilkins was in jail Nov. 15-17.
Jim Quinlivan, law enforcement administrator for the Division of Wildlife, doesn't agree that tagging animals harms or kills them. On the contrary, he said, transponder tagging is the standard used by collectors, vendors, breeders and regulators for quite some time.
Quinlivan said the law has been beneficial in helping track native Ohio reptiles, curbing illegal collection in the wild and protecting rare species.
For Wilkins' daughter, Keiko, it means she must part with pets she's had since she was a toddler. They will go to a family friend in Florida.
http://www.journal-news.com/local/content/gen/ap/OH_Reptile_Tags.html