My name is Charlie and I’m in first grade.

I learned in school that lion fish living near the Florida beaches are hunted and killed because they are “invasive.” I asked how they got there if they’re invasive, and I learned that they are sold as pets in aquarium stores, and then their owners release them when they are done with them. 

Then I learned that this is what happens to so many different kinds of animals, and that the governor every year tells people to go hunt the pythons in the Everglades, but doesn’t do anything to stop them from being brought into the Everglades in the first place. 

Invasive animals have been shown to harm the ecosystem, which is why they’re allowed to be hunted and fished, but that doesn’t solve the problem, and it is unfair to the animals that didn’t do anything wrong.

This petition is to ban the sale of non-native “invasive” animals as pets, so they stop being released into the local ocean and wilderness that isn’t their home.