Support HR669, the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act
If enacted, HR669 would be one of the most important US Policy advances ever toward blocking imports of harmful invasive species.
By giving USFWS the ability to assess the potential risks of each proposed species for import, we can show that we've learned our lesson about giving free reign to all live animal importers, and then having to go through the 4 year process to list the animals as "injurious" after the problem is too large to deal with.
From the current 30,000 Burmese pythons eating everything in the Everglades, to the 2003 monkeypox outbreak from the Gambian pouch rat, to Asian carp that spread from aquaculture farms to the the entire Mississippi River Basin, it's time to speak up for our ecosystems and the economies based on them.
We the undersigned urge you to support H.R. 669, The Non-Native Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act.
This "We Learned Our Lesson" Bill will modernize the Lacey Act and strenthen the regulation of live animal imports, allowing us to prevent the release of harmful animals and diseases. Prevention is the cheapest and safest option to our taxpayers, ecosystems and neighborhoods.
Current backers of H.R. 669 include the Humane Society (US & International), Defenders of Wildlife, Great Lakes United, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Areas Association, National Resources Defence Council, The Nature Conservancy, and Union of Concerned Scientists.
For more information about the impacts of live wildlife trade and international law, please see www.defenders.org/animalimports
To learn more about H.R. 669, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c111:./temp/~c111i3xhvW
