the florida saga continues.
 

Whiney assed Florida wants to cry about the wild boas and pythons but will not let us collect them legally. Doesn’t mean we don’t do it but we were informed by fish and game that if we were caught in the act of doing it the fines could be close to $200.00. Last year we collected 9 in 1 trip and they were mean as hell for a couple of days but then became as docile as my captives that have never seen the wild. Most of them are still in our collection. We will be back this year and hope to repeat it and would like to see the anacondas and nile monitors we are now hearing about.

Normally any invasive species is not protected. I'm not sure why they are being anal about anyone collecting non-native snakes or lizards!! Maybe because some of the officiers can't tell one species from another, although most are pretty on the ball.
Shakes head. I'd collect ANY non-native snake I came across, and if I couldn't find a responsible home, I'd either keep it or euthanize it. I'm darned sure not going to leave it loose.
Thanks for the link.

I should have been a little more specific. It is totally legal from what we understood to kill them but not take them alive. As to not knowing what fish and game are looking for it is the same here in Oklahoma. I have been inspected and had them (fish and game) ask me what was indigenous to Oklahoma that I kept. Same answer everytime which was nothing. And every trip the malies were horny toads to them.

Released into the wild
 

Ok, was it $200 per snake if you got caught, or $200 each time you get caught? Cause I'm thinking that $200 for 9 snakes might not be a bad investment!
Sad as it is to say, for the 2nd part of your quote, I did not know that is legal to KILL them but not to catch them and keep them ALIVE. How rediculous is that? Sounds like they want to not only do away with the sales/keeping of any of these snakes, but they would just as soon make them extinct? Ok, maybe that's a stretch...but maybe not.

That’s $200.00 per offence plus they confiscate the animals and dispose of them properly (properly to them and us is 2 different things). It’s the same with all invasive species, it’s kinda weird though because I know several wholesalers down there that hire guys to go out and catch the iguanas, burms, chameleons, arachnids, and more to resale them. I was offered an extremely nice salary a few years back to go down there and do just that. It so pisses me off that ff@g wants to cause a huge amount of problems for the rest of the US but they refuse to let me or anyone else go down there and collect litterly hundreds of them if there are that many and legally remove them alive from the state of Florida. I can’t think of the name of the island but there is a guy paid $600.00 a week plus expenses to shoot iguanas with a 22 rifle. He works 9-5 and his only requirement is to be on the job and KILL every iguana he sees. He can not keep any alive for any other purpose but must kill them. The story I watched said he some days killed 20 or more and some days zero. I do agree that the invasive stuff should not be there and is causing problems but the new laws down there are an absolute joke. The foolish people writing the laws and the government voting them in are not intelligent enough to be doing what there doing. Srry for the rant but this is 1 that gets to me. I’ll be back in April and do all I can to help out with the invasive species down there rather it’s legal or not.

Dont EVER apologize for being passionate about what you believe in!
Heck, I live in Florida, although not that far south, but I had NO IDEA those things were going on down there. I don't understand why they want them dead rather than rescuing or re-homing them. It doesn't make any sense to me, either.
You would think, that with all the cats & dogs that are homeless, they would do something about that, but I don't see any legislation on banning them. Cats on the loose cause problems as well, don't they? All the breeding going on & whatnot...they may be 'indigenous' but they are out of control as well.

Feral cats are already here killing, maiming, and torturing our native wildlife. Lets see that problem be fixed before we go after imaginary pythons crossing the southern USA from the everglades! The burms are not going to survive anywhere else in the US except the glades.

Well, there ya go--I hadn't thought of it in that respect, but you're right!

I was told today about the ASPCA " rescuing " cats from the pound & humane society and trucking them up to out of the way places in north Georgia to release them. I guess in their eyes, tossing cats into the woods to become feral and rampage on the wild life is OK as long as the cat isn't put down humanely.