I doubt many of you are aware that a civil lawsuit has been brought against the Natal Parks Board. The Parks Board has been trying to virtually ban the keeping of exotic animal and bird species by members of the public and private institutions.They have tried by means of policy to enforce new draconian measures.
Members of the Animal Interest Alliance have now tired of trying to negotiate and taken the Board to court. The board has been very devious in its handling of the matter,trying to sneak legislation in and not acted according to prescribed procedure.
Most importantly if the proposed legislation gets legislated you can be sure that the other provinces will follow suit.

Personally i don't think it will happen.

A lot of animal keepers who have a lot to lose felt strong enough to put down many thousands of rand and go to court.Tarantula keepers are a small minority compared to for example the birdkeepers who own muti-million rand collections.As a private individual who keeps many different species of animal and bird I am well aware of the constant threat to our interests.As a professional enviromentalist I also well understand the politics and the new threat from animal rights organizations who are infiltrating conservation agencies.The goal of the Animal Rights Activist is that no animal may be kept in captivity.All Provincial conservation policy is controlled by their various in-house scientists and the Parks Board scientist shares the no animal in captivity belief.
All you need to add is the threat to indigenous species because of escape and accidental introductions and you have a valid ecological reason to ban particularily exotic insects and arachnids.
Its something that we all need to be very much aware of.

Thanks Peregrine

You make some very good points.

Is there anyway that we as a Tarantula (and other exotic pets) community can become involved to fight this?
Are there any petitions or forums that we can raise our concerns?

As far as i know, tarantulas are already illegal. Just not enough people to enforce it really.

We need to be carefull about how much we advertise our interests.The more people rush around trying to appease/involve the authorities in our interest the more red flags we raise.Let me give you a simple example if I was interested in how many tarantulas escape potentially into the wild just follow Stalker on the shoutbox. I learned that although,its quite funny to us a 1000 small T's got out by one keeper.
That would get any rabid conservationist frothing at the mouth!!!
The internet is a great tool either way!!!Great for comms and picking up info...Sometimes the kind you don't want floating around in cyberspace.
Unfortunately I dont think that T's and their keepers will have the clout to influence conservation law. The secret to the survival of the keepers of Tarantulas is to fly below radar and not allow all those little conflicts/ego issues that bring the hobby into the limelight.
What actually made me write was I noticed how quick keepers on the forum are to jump on anyone who mentions some new species!! I doubt 50% of the tarantulas in this country came in on some permit.What we dont need is "holier than thou" atitudes......that leads to people informing/complaining to the authorities and it raises flags.
I have no problem and in fact have a firm belief in the protection of genuinely threatened indigenous species.However lets be honest the real issues threatening our indigenous species are habitat destruction,uncontrolled insecticide use,issues which are not really handled by the authorities!!!
Its far easier to ban Tarantulas as a potential threat than address those issues!