Are giant tiger land snails illegal in the USA

[snailgirl]

Wow, I heard they get BIG! Are they illegal in the USA?

[Bumblebee]

I don't live in USA myself, but what I have read is that they all are illegal, since people that kept these snails for some reason just let them out in the wildlife, which is something that never ever should be done with animal species from another country, due to the risks.

[kanin]

As far as i know it's legal to own Tiger snails in the USA if you have a permit to own them. If this is true for all states and how difficult it might be to acquire such a permit I dont know. I would also think that it might be very hard to find Achatina achatina in the USA even if you did get a permit to own them.

There are people on here who knows this better than I do who can fill you in.

[Rachel]

as far as I knew you can't even get a permit to keep them, I was told there are not any achatina or archachatina species that can be kept legally in the US. I know there was a woman keeping an achatina fulica recently, and when she was caught she got huge fines. Even if permits can be obtained for any species, they'd probally be expensive, and be at the minimum 18+. The best thing you can do to find out is get in touch with your local SPCA, or governing authority, see what they know or if they can point you in the direction of someone who does. As kanin said, even if you can get a permit, getting one would be difficult if not nigh on impossible, since only other permit holders would have some it'd probally cost a fortune as well. There is a species that looks shell shape wise a lot like an achatina, although not as big, that is legal to keep in at least some states in the US. I'll see if I can find out what its called.

[coyote]

Pretty much any snails that could be considered a GALS is illegal to possess in the US. Sometimes that makes me sad, but when I consider how much they'd eat, I kind of feel relieved.

[snailgirl]

I wish I could find SOME kind of large land snail to keep in the US.

[Bumblebee]

only snail that get quite big and isnt a african one, is helix pomatia, dunno if you got those in the US? They grow to about 10 cm

[aerliss]

It's Canada where a permit is needed, and even then only one species is allowed (can't remember which one but it's probably tigers).

[Dusk]

Yep, it's tigers that are allowed in Canada with a permit. No idea how difficult or costly it might be to get that permit, though I'm pretty sure they're all banned in the US, but whatever part of the government deals with wild and domestic animals will be able to tell you for sure.

[coyote]

I've never heard of any pomatias in the US.

[Rachel]

helix aspersa maxima get bigger than normal ones. are they found there? on the bright side, you guys get cool slugs, the banana slugs are gorgeous

[coyote]

I've yet to see an aspersa maxima. I thought Buster was one, but he was just a really big regular aspersa.

I guess they're around somewhere, I just don't know where. *shrugs*

[snailgirl]

banana slugs are pretty but... i love snails MUCH better! lol!

[danikat]

Finally managed to find something official, and I'm afraid it's bad news.

USDA Regulations
Basically any giant African snail (anything of the genus achatina or archachatina) is completely illigal and all other non-native species require a permit to be imported, transported across state lines or in some cases bred and those permits are only intended for people keeping them for education or research purposes.

Incidentally I think they're dramatically exaggerating the risk to human health (considering they admit later that only snails that have eaten waste from infected rats can carry meningitis), probably to discorage people from keeping them, and the stuff about how much they can eat is about established wild populations. I was able to keep 5 fulica for years mainly on scraps that would otherwise have been thrown out.

[coyote]

From the bureaucratic standpoint, it's much easier for a government agency to issue an across-the-board ban on all species than to start making exceptions for some and not for others, regardless of any actual risk to agriculture or human health.

I heard about one pet GALS who was let loose in Florida, and it cost over $1 million to bring the ensuing population explosion and infestation under control. It's instances like that that make government agencies skittish.

[snailgirl]

poopy oh well i probably dont have room for a GALS anyway lol