Bricknell source for Portland Press Herald piece on permitted exotic pets
The Portland Press Herald interviewed University of Maine professor of aquaculture Ian Bricknell for an article about a Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife task force that is reviewing and rewriting the list of exotic pets permitted in Maine. The committee is considering whether to ban some pets currently on the list in order to protect the integrity of the native species in Maine, according to the article. Bricknell, who has hundreds of lizards and amphibians at his home for education and research, is worried he won’t be able to keep all of them. For instance, he said while there are 11 geckos on the state’s current list of permissible lizards, there are only four on the draft list. “One of my major concerns is there are no scientists on the committee that have any significant experience with lower vertebrates,” he said in the article. “I don’t think it’s fair to restrict people from what they can own as pets because the (people on the committee) don’t understand them. That’s a little problematic.”