Clay Davenport
Cerebral Nomad
I can't say I'd disagree with banning the importation of burms, not just in florida, but nationwide. We have a more than adequate captive population to support the needs of the pet industry indefinately.
Something is coming in Florida though. No way around that. There's way too much publicity right now and the lawmakers are going to do something even if it's wrong.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add water managers to the growing list of people who want to put the squeeze on Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
The board of the South Florida Water Management District asked federal regulators this week to take a step toward banning imports of the Asian reptiles, which can grow as large as 26 feet and 200 pounds - and, if one one famous case is an indication, seem to have acquired a taste for gator.
"The whole world saw a photograph several months ago of a large python eating our largest predator, the American alligator," said Dan Thayer, the district manager in charge of controlling noxious species.
That image of a swallowed gator inside a ruptured 13-foot python, first published in October in The Miami Herald, sounded a global alarm about the Everglades' rapidly breeding python population.
But the python's threat to South Florida's ecosystem goes beyond one shocking photograph, Thayer said.
He said district workers are finding wading birds inside the guts of captured pythons, indicating that the invaders are preying on a host of the Everglades' most valuable species.
"Here you have a snake that climbs and swims," he said. "Bird rookeries are at risk."
Soon after the snake photo appeared, pythons became the prime suspects in the disappearances of a turkey and a Siamese cat near Miami.
Scientists have bemoaned the python pandemic for years, blaming it largely on owners who release the snakes when they tire of caring for them.
Calls for bans have come in recent months from some state legislators as well as Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, who last month urged the county to prohibit sales of pythons and iguanas.
The water district's board - chaired by McCarty's husband, Kevin - voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the Burmese python an "injurious" species.
Under a 106-year-old federal law called the Lacey Act, the government then could ban imports of the snakes, except for uses such as research or education.
Bans under the Lacey Act already apply to 17 categories of creatures, including the mongoose, the walking catfish and the Indian wild dog.
In 2002, the wildlife service added the snakehead, a voracious, land-crawling Asian fish that has taken over the Potomac River and other waterways in Maryland and Virginia.
Wildlife service spokeswoman Valerie Fellows said she doesn't know whether her agency will follow the water district's request.
Kevin McCarty suggested dispatching the district's top in-house lobbyists to plead its case to the feds.
"We'll do more than just send them a letter," he said.
Thayer said he expects some opposition from the exotic-reptile industry.
But one longtime reptile dealer said a ban might be a good idea "for the poor snakes' sake," even though he called the pythons no threat to the Everglades.
"They're not breeding in the Everglades," said Ronald Dupont, president of Wild Cargo Pets & Supplies in suburban West Palm Beach, who has worked with pythons and other reptiles for more than 60 years. "They're not eating deer. They're not displacing anything."
Dupont also insisted that pythons don't eat anything in the alligator family, and said the famous snake-vs.-gator photo from the Everglades must have been staged.
Still, he said Florida's rampant development is making it ever more likely that an escaped python will end up getting shot, being run over by a car or eating someone's pet.
He said any ban should apply only to the largest snakes, such as Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons and anacondas, not to smaller pythons that grow only a few feet long.
Dupont and retired Islamorada snake dealer Jim Kavney both said they'd support the less-draconian strategy of requiring permits for people who want to own large pythons.
Requiring a $100 permit would cut down on purchases by irresponsible owners, said Kavney, owner of the company Hiss 'n' Things.
Dupont said he also likes the idea of implanting an identifying chip in pet pythons so that authorities can track down their owners if the snakes end up in the wild.
"If they're going to pay the money and they microchip them and they go through all this, that's a responsible person," Dupont said.
He said he knows there are a lot of irresponsible owners, typically men in their 20s and 30s, who sometimes just leave their unwanted snakes in the oven when they move out of an apartment.
"About once a month, a landlord will come in and say a tenant moved out and there's a snake in the house," he said.
Thayer said he doesn't know whether the feds should ban the snakes outright, or require permits and microchips. But he said the government has to do something.
"There has to be a line drawn on what is a reasonable pet," Thayer said.
Link
Something is coming in Florida though. No way around that. There's way too much publicity right now and the lawmakers are going to do something even if it's wrong.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add water managers to the growing list of people who want to put the squeeze on Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
The board of the South Florida Water Management District asked federal regulators this week to take a step toward banning imports of the Asian reptiles, which can grow as large as 26 feet and 200 pounds - and, if one one famous case is an indication, seem to have acquired a taste for gator.
"The whole world saw a photograph several months ago of a large python eating our largest predator, the American alligator," said Dan Thayer, the district manager in charge of controlling noxious species.
That image of a swallowed gator inside a ruptured 13-foot python, first published in October in The Miami Herald, sounded a global alarm about the Everglades' rapidly breeding python population.
But the python's threat to South Florida's ecosystem goes beyond one shocking photograph, Thayer said.
He said district workers are finding wading birds inside the guts of captured pythons, indicating that the invaders are preying on a host of the Everglades' most valuable species.
"Here you have a snake that climbs and swims," he said. "Bird rookeries are at risk."
Soon after the snake photo appeared, pythons became the prime suspects in the disappearances of a turkey and a Siamese cat near Miami.
Scientists have bemoaned the python pandemic for years, blaming it largely on owners who release the snakes when they tire of caring for them.
Calls for bans have come in recent months from some state legislators as well as Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, who last month urged the county to prohibit sales of pythons and iguanas.
The water district's board - chaired by McCarty's husband, Kevin - voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the Burmese python an "injurious" species.
Under a 106-year-old federal law called the Lacey Act, the government then could ban imports of the snakes, except for uses such as research or education.
Bans under the Lacey Act already apply to 17 categories of creatures, including the mongoose, the walking catfish and the Indian wild dog.
In 2002, the wildlife service added the snakehead, a voracious, land-crawling Asian fish that has taken over the Potomac River and other waterways in Maryland and Virginia.
Wildlife service spokeswoman Valerie Fellows said she doesn't know whether her agency will follow the water district's request.
Kevin McCarty suggested dispatching the district's top in-house lobbyists to plead its case to the feds.
"We'll do more than just send them a letter," he said.
Thayer said he expects some opposition from the exotic-reptile industry.
But one longtime reptile dealer said a ban might be a good idea "for the poor snakes' sake," even though he called the pythons no threat to the Everglades.
"They're not breeding in the Everglades," said Ronald Dupont, president of Wild Cargo Pets & Supplies in suburban West Palm Beach, who has worked with pythons and other reptiles for more than 60 years. "They're not eating deer. They're not displacing anything."
Dupont also insisted that pythons don't eat anything in the alligator family, and said the famous snake-vs.-gator photo from the Everglades must have been staged.
Still, he said Florida's rampant development is making it ever more likely that an escaped python will end up getting shot, being run over by a car or eating someone's pet.
He said any ban should apply only to the largest snakes, such as Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons and anacondas, not to smaller pythons that grow only a few feet long.
Dupont and retired Islamorada snake dealer Jim Kavney both said they'd support the less-draconian strategy of requiring permits for people who want to own large pythons.
Requiring a $100 permit would cut down on purchases by irresponsible owners, said Kavney, owner of the company Hiss 'n' Things.
Dupont said he also likes the idea of implanting an identifying chip in pet pythons so that authorities can track down their owners if the snakes end up in the wild.
"If they're going to pay the money and they microchip them and they go through all this, that's a responsible person," Dupont said.
He said he knows there are a lot of irresponsible owners, typically men in their 20s and 30s, who sometimes just leave their unwanted snakes in the oven when they move out of an apartment.
"About once a month, a landlord will come in and say a tenant moved out and there's a snake in the house," he said.
Thayer said he doesn't know whether the feds should ban the snakes outright, or require permits and microchips. But he said the government has to do something.
"There has to be a line drawn on what is a reasonable pet," Thayer said.
Link
