Posted: March 31, 2008, 5 a.m. EST
Sen. John Bulloch introduced a live sugar glider to the Georgia Senate in March.
Courtesy of Georgia Senate Press Office |
The Georgia state Senate unanimously passed a bill on March 5, 2008 that would allow sugar gliders to be kept as pets in the state of Georgia without a license.
Senate Bill 522 was proposed as an amendment to a current law – Title 27, Chapter 5 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated – requiring a permit to own certain wild animals considered “inherently dangerous” to humans. Animals mentioned in the law include kangaroos, wallabies and opossums.
To exemplify the necessity to pass the bill to legalize pet sugar gliders, a marsupial native to Australia, Sen. John Bulloch (R- Ochlocknee) introduced a friendly face to the Senate. Bulloch pulled a live sugar glider out of his pocket.
“Senate Bill 522 gives us a great opportunity to allow the citizens of Georgia to own a sugar glider as a pet, which is just like owning any other pet,” he said to the Senate. “In 46 states, including all states surrounding Georgia, sugar gliders are permissible as pets in some fashion. It is time for us to become one of them and allow these critters in the homes of Georgians.”
The bill was given a second read in the House on March 11, 2008 and was sent to the House’s Agriculture and Consumer Affairs committee but was not brought up in committee. The senate bill sits in the Senate’s Game, Fish and Parks committee where it awaits review.