I will try to briefly and understandably present the procedure for making a certificate of birth in captivity for a tarantula, a document necessary for having a spider of the genus Brachypelma. The genus Brachypelma, i.e. all tarantulas that have Brachypelma in their name, are included in the CITES list Annex B. The whole procedure remains the same for other animals from the CITES annex B list, with some animals it may be different.

"CITES - The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the so-called Washington Convention (CITES) - is an international agreement that has become the basis for the protection of wild animal and plant populations of endangered species, by controlling and restricting international trade in live animals and plants, recognizable parts and derived products, such as leather goods, wooden, musical instruments, bones, shells, seeds, food or medical products. CITES provides different levels of protection for more than 30,000 animal and plant species. The Convention was drawn up in Washington, D.C., on March 3, 1973, and Poland ratified it in 1989." Let's start with the fact that the obligation to have and hand over documents when transferring an animal from the CITES list is regulated by law. The provisions of the Nature Conservation Act refer to the requirements of European Union law in the field of international and internal trade in endangered species. The provisions of the new Nature Conservation Act impose on entities involved in the trade in endangered animals the obligation to have and provide the buyer with documentation confirming the legality of the origin of the specimen. Copies of the original documents must be certified in a strictly defined manner. Violation of this provision (i.e. failure to have or provide documentation) is punishable by arrest or a fine (Article 131 point 1 of the Act on Nature Protection).

Let's assume such an example, we have a female Brachypelma albopilosum, successful copulation, a cocoon and we have young spider veins. In order to sell young spider veins, we must give new buyers along with the spider a certificate of birth in captivity, which proves that the young spiders are not from the catch but come from our breeding. Such a certificate is issued by the District Veterinarian or a person authorized to do so. You should apply for a certificate of birth in captivity for the given spiders to your District Veterinary Inspectorate. It is best to ask in the secretariat who deals with such matters. The application pattern to be submitted should look something like this:

District Veterinary Inspectorate in Andrychów        Andrychów 12.12.2008

Kowalska 3

23-345 Andrychow

Application Please issue a certificate of birth in captivity for Brachypelma albopilosum 200pcs, place of birth niwki on 13.11.2008

Details of the kennel: Jan Kowalsko ul. Opolska 4 23-646 Niwki

signature date

After submitting the application, you must submit a stamp duty of PLN 17. The doctor who will be taking the application will certainly tell you that you have to pay this fee. Only after we make this payment and come again to the Veterinary Inspectorate with confirmation of this payment, the doctor can issue us a certificate. The fee can be made via the Internet to the account of the Municipal Office or at the ticket office. Just go to the cash register to say that you want to pay a fee of PLN 17, provide your data, because the fee must be on our data, the cashier will issue a confirmation of payment and we can immediately go back to the Veterinary Inspectorate. After providing the confirmation of payment, the veterinarian should issue us a certificate. The doctor has the right to check the breeding, he will want to see the young spiders, count them.. However, if there are no objections, the doctor is obliged to issue us with this certificate.

Let's assume that we got a certificate and we can now legally advertise and sell our Brachypelmy. If we are a private person without business activity, the Inspectorate should issue us as many certificates as the pieces of spiders are entered on this certificate, i.e. 200 pcs. However, if we have a business, we will get one certificate and we have to make copies ourselves. This issue is not precisely defined, but it seems to me that it is a good method. So yes, we make more copies of the certificate. We number each certificate sequentially, place a record of compliance with the original and sign this note. And when selling, for example, 1 pc, enter the data of the new owner, enter that 1 pc was sold, enter the date of sale and signature. All this can be written out by hand, below the content of the certificate. If the new owner wants to sell this spider further, he does the same, enters the data of the new owner below or next to it is not important, enters the date and signs. In this way, every Brachypelma has such a thing as a vehicle card in the car. From one piece of paper it is known when and where the spider was born, how many owners it had and how old it is. If, for example, we sell 10 pcs of spiders to one person, you should add to the spiders 10 pieces of certificates numbered consecutively. The numbering must be continuous in our case 0d 1 to 200. It is also important to write down who we sell the spider to and what certificate number we gave to this person. The procedure for numbering certificates allows for quick exoneration in the event of a police check or court hearing. Because the police will check the way of the certificate from the source, i.e. from the Inspectorate. And if someone converts our certificates into another Brachypelma, for example, on boehmei. The police will check in the Inspectorate after a stamp on the certificate whether such a certificate was issued, the Inspectorate will say that it was issued but for another species, then the police will check the breeder, i.e. us. We will say that we sold spiders with certificates and we will show that we have a whole list to whom we issued a certificate of what number. And it will turn out that we are all right. And if one of our clients has processed a certificate, he will now answer for it. He will answer for having a spider without documents. What else is not so terrible. However, forgery of documents issued by the Veterinary Inspectorate, i.e. an official institution, is already a big offense. So I don't advise anyone to do that. The question remains what to do if we bought a spider without a certificate. You can buy a new one of the same spider with a certificate. It is always better to have paper at least for one spider than at all.

I hope that someone will be useful this article and help in obtaining a certificate. If you encounter difficulties while making a certificate, I am happy to help. People in the Inspectorate may have some deficiencies in knowledge on this subject, from this some difficulties may arise, but you should not be discouraged, just explain everything or print laws that say about the obligation to have such a certificate. In Poland, from 1 May, the relevant provisions of Community law are directly applicable - Regulation 338/97 (version updated in Regulation 1497/2003 and Regulation 834/2004); 1808/2001; 776/2004. The list of restricted species can be found in Annexes (A-D) to Regulation 338/97 (version updated in Regulation 1497/2003 http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pl/dd/docs/2003/32003R1497-PL.doc).

Source:

Article 64(1) of the Nature Conservation Act of 16 April 2004 - COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 338/97 - http://srodowisko.ekologia.pl

http://www.salamandra.org.pl

Duties, competences and legal bases of the Veterinary Inspection's activities in the field of trade in endangered species as part of the project Support cooperation between institutions controlling the trade in endangered species of fauna and flora. The workshop was organized for the Veterinary Inspection on September 28, 2005.