The USA Today interviewed Michelle about a month ago for an article about the proposed rule change. The article finally came out yesterday. They repeated most of the things that we've heard before, but at least they included some of her statements at the bottom of the article.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat...t-snakes_N.htm

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
A federal plan to block giant constrictor snakes in the Florida Everglades from slithering into other states has snake sellers hissing that it will hurt business and won't work.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to ban the importation and interstate transportation of nine types of non-poisonous pythons, boas and anacondas, which can grow as thick as telephone poles and up to 25 feet long. Boas and Burmese pythons meant for the pet trade have escaped or been released by their owners and invaded the delicate South Florida ecosystem, where they thrive on wildlife.

Other snake species on the list would pose a threat if released, says Paul Souza, a field supervisor with the Fish and Wildlife Service in South Florida.

There have been no known attacks on people in the wild, but in July, a pet python escaped its enclosure in Oxford, Fla., and strangled a 2-year-old girl. Pythons in the Everglades have been found with endangered Key Largo woodrats in their bellies; only 200 of the half-pound rodents survive in the wild, Souza says.

"A wide range of species would be prey to a snake of this size, which is a top predator and has no natural predator of its own," Souza says. The proposed ban "can play a role if we can help prevent a breeding population of snakes from becoming established in the first place."

The Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comments at www.regulations.gov until Tuesday.

Andrew Wyatt, president of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers, says the proposal comes too late — a breeding population is established in the Everglades — and would hurt hundreds of thousands of owners of an estimated 2 million pythons in almost every state.

Owners pay $400 to $1,000 and up for a snake. "It would make your animals virtually valueless overnight," Wyatt says.

The U.S. Geological Survey says wild pythons, "presumably the result of released pets," could spread as far north as Virginia and threaten wildlife from the bayous of Louisiana to the San Francisco Bay.

Many of the 67 endangered species in the Everglades, including the Key Largo cotton mouse, key deer and wood stork, could be food for Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia.

"We already have seen wood storks in the stomachs of Burmese pythons," Souza says.

The Humane Society of the United States which opposes the possession of wildlife as pets, has supported a ban since it was first proposed in 2006.

"These giant snakes … people get them when they're small and don't know what they're in for," says Beth Preiss of the Humane Society. "They're very good escape artists — particularly if not well-fed. I think it can lead to tragedy."

Once a breeding population is established, "it's nearly impossible to eradicate," says Pat Behnke of Florida's Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Based on genetic testing, most of the Everglades pythons are believed to be descendants of 900 snakes released from a warehouse by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Behnke says.

She doubts the tropical animals could spread too far north.

"I don't think they can survive Tallahassee," Behnke says.

The commission has deputized hunters to exterminate the invaders. It offered a class, "Pythons 101," to teach them how.

Michael Cole, who holds a state python hunting permit and helped teach the class, says two days of subfreezing temperatures last winter proved the snakes can't survive outside South Florida. "Somewhere between 70% and 90% of them are dead," Cole says.

Michelle Pearson of Colorado Springs breeds exotic strains of pythons in colors and patterns not found in nature and sells them at trade shows and over the Internet. She says the proposed rule would devalue the $50,000 investment she has made in her business, Art in Scales, because she would be able to sell only to customers in Colorado, where the market is small.

"This is not a national problem. This is a South Florida issue," Pearson says. "I like the fact they want to conserve (wildlife), but not at the expense of families and businesses."
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Randy and Michelle
Art In Scales
(719) 439-4199
info@artinscales.com

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