Certainly not defending congress, however you might check your facts. There is far more to the wolf issue than you can glean from reading one blog......

Here is a excerpt from the "Wildlife News" one of the other sides publications in case you are interested in why the wolves were delisted. The administration had no choice in the matter unless they decided to allow a government shut down.

Wildlife News April 14, 2011-
" The House and Senate passed a budget bill which included the rider to delist wolves in Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Utah but leaves the status of wolves in Wyoming unchanged. The rider, attached by Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) and Representative Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), mandates that the Secretary of Interior republish the 2009 delisting rule in the Federal Register within 60 days of passage of the bill and restricts the rule from being challenged in court.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill."

Not defending congress by any means; however you need to check your facts. The delisting was accomplished via a budget rider in May attached by Senators Testor and Simpson....the administration had to sign the bill or the government would have shut down....that is why it happened.

"In the loop" bump. More as we get more on the exact date(s). (Only speculating) but we're thinking the new regulations will "go public" Jan. 1 -- from that point, we're looking at 90 days to take effect.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Thanks for the update! This is very disappointing news.

Sort of on topic observation.

Texas isn't their native range, so we can breed them for profit, seeing how many animals are bred the anti-hunting animal rights types get angry we are killing them all and want to stop it so they can be released in the wild, stopping the hunting will make breeding less or not profitable, mandating wild releases will cost the breeders money instead of making them money, breeders stop breeding the money pit animals, anti-hunting types will demand subsidization of breeders (from their members donations or from the govt.) in order to encourage breeding where no subsidy was needed before.

Or

Someone could set up a non-profit where breeders could donate stock for tax write offs and the non-profit could ship them to Africa or do whatever they want with them.

Also reminds me of how ridiculous our endangered species laws are. Black Faced Impala are endangered in America where exactly NONE of their native range is located, but when my FIL when hunting in Namibia they were shooting them for bait because they were up to their armpits in them.

Welcome to the mess that is USFWS....

If I remember right the EWA was already working with breeders to ship stock to Africa(for at least the Oryx) and that a herd was being established to re-populate areas in Africa where the Oryx used to be. This will most likely come to a screaching halt!

From what I heard, the EWA -after several years of hard work - had the whole thing ready to go to ship Oryx to Libya. Pens created, services setup, the whole she-bang. Then, just before they were going to put them on the boat - the war broke out over there and rebels/government troops leveled the whole facility.

So what are the new regs? Is it going to be a permit system? Hunting still allowed? How many permits and how hard to get?

John,

Hunting oryx, addax & damas will be by permit only going forward (similar to how barasingha, eld's deer, red lechwe, etc are handled/hunted now).

Talking to several ranches that currently apply for the currently permitted species: there is a lot of "red tape" involved in applying for these permits and they can only be used on the specific ranch being applied for (non-transferable).

Of the handful of ranches that choose to go through the permitting system, it generally takes anywhere from 6-12 months to get the permits and the penalties for violations are severe, as they are in direct violation of the Lacey Act (most ranch owners do not want to deal w/ the high level of liability involved).

One realistic fear is that w/ this BRAND NEW permitting system, say there are dozens (or more) ranches that apply in the beginning, the permits (and paperwork) is likely to get "bottle-necked" and cause even longer delays. Not saying that it will (no one knows yet), but there is a real possibility that it may take a year (even 2 years) to get the permits approved and supplied.

Long story made longer, what has been created here is....A MESS!!(<----understatement of the year)

Yeah, and I have heard very few hunting opportunities for the 3 exotics you listed (barasingha, eld's deer, red lechwe). It would suck if oryx and addax hunting opportunities vanished as well.

There's been quite a few great oryx hunt offers posted on the forum in anticipation of the ruling but unfortunately I just can't throw down the money for one of those right now.

I can't imagine that those writing the rules would allow a new permitting system to be so difficult that it would lead to a massive kill off of the oryx here in America. It would reverse all the work ranchers have done in bringing back the species. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I'm hoping the USFW service listened to the breeders and ranchers!

It should come as no surprise, but our inboxes are starting to flood w/ oryx trophy pics! Our buddy CP Wade took this oryx cow w/ his bow this weekend at Porter's Exotics near Flynn. 43 whopping inches!! Congrats to CP on a tremendous animal!

This may sound stupid, but why not call them something besides Oryx etc? I see sheep being called different names. The only way the Feds. could prove different is with DNA samples. You think they have time for all that? They need to be writing more rules and that would be taking time away from that.

That is one tremendous oryx!

Don, It doesn't matter what you call them, all species on the list are very distinctive when pure. ESA regulations typically only applies to pure-breds - sheep can all interbreed, and most of the sheep you see called different names aren't wild species anyway. Addax and Oryx at least hybridize, and I do suspect you'll start to see more hybrids show up as folks mix their herds to avoid the rules.

We've heard of several ranches crossing scimitars w/ gemsbok the past couple of years(creating "scimboks")in attempts to circumvent this ruling.

As far as simply re-naming them, I'm sure MOST would never be caught doing so, but probably not worth the SEVERE penalties IF they ever did DNA test your animals.

They will breed with all the hippotraugus antelope; addax, beisa, fringe eared, gemsbok, roan, sable, and Arabian.

It's Official - Looks like they'll require the same permit process as Barasingha, Elds, Arabian Oryx, and red lechwe:

http://us.vocuspr.com/Newsroom/Query.asp...&Cache=True

Have not seen the exact rule post to the federal register yet. There was some hope they would streamline the permit process at the same time, but it sure doesn't look like it.

The final rule will become effective 90 days after its publication in the Federal Register on April 4, 2012.

Just talked to the service, April 4th is the effective date i.e. on April 4th all harvests or sales will require a permit. Publication in the federal register will be tomorrow. The language was a bit confusint in the announcement.

The FAQs provide some good info. USFWS doesn't have jurisdiction on ownership of the animals in-state, but does have control on take (period), and any movement across state lines. i.e. you can own them instate, but you can't shoot them without permits as I read the response.

Thanks for the clarification. I quoted that out of the news release which is obviously a very poorly worded sentence.

Of ALL sentences in the release to make even the slightest bit unclear, one would think that THIS would not be one of them!! I read it several times and was still so unclear I was about to call Charly Seale at the EWA just to be certain before reporting on it. About the same time, the EWA Alert newsletter hit my inbox:

Exotic Wildlife Association
MEMBERSHIP ALERT

In the Exotic Wildlife Association's effort to keep our membership up
to date concerning the latest information regarding the "Three Species"
(Scimitar Horned Oryx, Addax, and Dama Gazelle) we have received an
advanced copy of the new rule that will be posted by the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service. I have attached the wording of this final
rule with this e-alert. The new rule will take effect 90 days after its
publication in the Federal Registry on January 5, 2012. This means that
those breeders who currently own one or more of the species will have
until APRIL 4, 2012 to obtain permits or legally sell their animals.
This rule will replace the exemption from the provisions of the ESA that
was given to these three species in 2005.

I will be meeting with the USFWS Friday in Dallas to discuss the new
rule and the requirements for possessing, breeding and carrying out day
to day activities managing these three species and will report my
findings to you as quickly as I know exactly what the new requirements
will be and how the USFWS expects to enforce these new regulations.

Please understand the EWA and other associations are still pursuing
legal and legislative remedies that we believe will stop the new
regulations from taking effect.

Charly Seale

Executive Director

Do you know if this legislation affects importing trophies as well?

I just got into hunting and it looks like I won't have the money to get even one of these three animals before the deadline.

RAK,

There will still be hunting opportunities for these 3 species even after the April 4 deadline. Some ranches w/ herds will choose to go through the permitting application process, thus allowing them to continue to offer hunts once they receive their permits.

What you're likely to see though is the cost to hunt oryx, addax, and damas increasing significantly as a direct result of there being fewer options/ranches (not to mention fewer animals) that offer the new permitted hunts.

If you want to one day take one or all of these species, hope is not lost, and you'll still be able to do so down the road... Price tag is just likely to be higher then.

Happy to have you in the "hunting world"!!