NOAA can tell you what they want, that's just their "press release" version I would think. I got a legal interpretation. That interpretation was that one could have valid backing to pin criminal charges on someone who just owned any of the species on the list.
Do you really think that a fish & wildlife dude is going to be able to identify everything properly? Try arguing with one of those guys. I know one personally in our local club. They have vastly over-reaching power and can pretty much do whatever they want and have all the legal backing they need. They literally can walk into your house and confiscate everything if you have one thing that is on their list if someone reports you as having something that is on their list of protected/threatened/endangered species. If you argue with them, they throw the cuffs on you and haul you in with them. One of out local former zoo employees used to get called in occasionally to help ID species and oh boy could he scare you with some of the stories he had. This is no joke, I am dead serious, this policy cannot come to bear.
How many government policies are passed with such over-reaching potential powers that they say "oh but that's not how it will be used", only to have them commonly used without question decades later. This policy has that kind of power. Don't think that it will not be abused.
Read that letter from MASNA. They (ESA) are intentionally using poor information and data that makes the case work to their advantage to push this through.
This is something to definitely freak out about.
Do you really think that a fish & wildlife dude is going to be able to identify everything properly? Try arguing with one of those guys. I know one personally in our local club. They have vastly over-reaching power and can pretty much do whatever they want and have all the legal backing they need. They literally can walk into your house and confiscate everything if you have one thing that is on their list if someone reports you as having something that is on their list of protected/threatened/endangered species. If you argue with them, they throw the cuffs on you and haul you in with them. One of out local former zoo employees used to get called in occasionally to help ID species and oh boy could he scare you with some of the stories he had. This is no joke, I am dead serious, this policy cannot come to bear.
How many government policies are passed with such over-reaching potential powers that they say "oh but that's not how it will be used", only to have them commonly used without question decades later. This policy has that kind of power. Don't think that it will not be abused.
Read that letter from MASNA. They (ESA) are intentionally using poor information and data that makes the case work to their advantage to push this through.
This is something to definitely freak out about.