# General Topics > General Discussion & News > Press / News Items >  Proposed ban - LAST DAY TO STOP

## John Clare

Today is the last day to make a comment for or against the proposed  regulation (effectively a ban) of the traffic of amphibians between US  states.  If this moves forward, it will effectively end our hobby to all  intents and purposes.  The deadline to comment is 11:59 pm Eastern Time  US at this address:

Regulations.gov

Please make constructive comments.  For example, do not make blanket   statements such as "this would be bad".  Instead, make specific points   and please try to cite references (there are plenty of reasons and   citations in the threads here and here on dendroboard.  Additionally there is a thread going on Caudata.org here).

Please do make a comment.  Aside from the fact that the regulations   could all but eliminate our hobby, the groundswell of informed opinion   is that the regulations will do little to regulate the real culprits in   chytrid spread, and the number of strains and their widespread presence   in the wild in the US are points of history - there is no getting that   cat back in the bag.

Lastly, this is another attempt by a very small but "fashionable" lobby   group (Defenders of Wildlife) to impose their viewpoint on the American   public, curtailing your freedom for their agenda.  Even if you support   the idea of these regulations, the least you can do is check your  facts  prior to just signing off on it - the sad fact is that few of the   pro-ban folks really have much of a clue about the situation, or are   they are pushing their own agenda/reinforcing their own jobs (sadly,   reading the comment by its director, this now describes Amphibian Ark,   an organization for which I've been a long time donor and supporter).

PS: I have not posted my own comment yet but I will before the deadline tonight.

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## John Clare

Here is my submission (I've also attached it as a PDF):




> From: John P. Clare, Founder of Caudata.org.
> To: USFWS
> Subject: Proposed rules Injurious Wildlife Species: Petition To List  All Live Amphibians in Trade as Injurious Unless Free of  Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Document ID FWS-R9-FHC-2009-0093-0001).  
> 
> Dear Sir or Madam:
> 
> I am writing on behalf of the members of Caudata.org.  We are hobbyists  maintaining and breeding amphibians in captivity, predominantly as pets.   We have also funded grants for amphibian conservation research around  the world in partnership with Amphibian Ark.
> 
> -    The origins of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis are currently  uncertain.  There is evidence that the disease may be native to or long  established in the United States (James et al. (2009) PLos Pathogens 5:  p. e1000458 and Longcore et al. (2007) J. of Wildlife Management  71:435-444).  Since its discovery in the late 1990s, several theories  have been presented as to its origin but it is certainly not  unreasonable to suggest the disease may have had some presence in the US  in the long term, as evidenced in the above reference.
> ...

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## John Clare

By the way, as I write, there are just 6 minutes left to submit your comments so if you haven't done it by now, let us hope we've done enough.

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## Kurt

I commented months ago. I pretty much said what you did but without all the details. Testing of amphibians for interstate travel is unrealistic and would ever severely restrict commerce or kill it all together in this group of animals. Enforcing such a regulation would be a nightmare for USF&W, as well as the related state agencies.

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