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EricWI
at Mon Aug 10 19:12:54 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by EricWI ]
TALLAHASSEE - Lawmakers may force the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to ban sales of Burmese pythons and other dangerous reptiles if the agency fails to act on its own.
Officials at the state wildlife agency are now weighing the prospect of banning the sale and trafficking of exotic pets on the state's list of Reptiles of Concern. The list includes four species of python as well as the green anaconda and Nile monitor.
But the proposed ban remains only in the discussion phase and would not take effect until 2010 at the earliest.
That's not good enough for state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, who plans to file legislation this week that would prevent the sale and importation of such animals for private ownership.
"We're turning off the spigot," said Sobel, D-Hollywood. "Sometimes it takes the Fish and Wildlife Commission a little too long to jump on an issue. They may have information we don't have; on the other hand, sometimes an issue is so outrageous that you can't just sit back and say, let's weigh the positives and negatives. Sometimes you have to act. "
Concerns about dangerous reptiles spiked in June after a captive Burmese python in Sumter County escaped its terrarium and killed a sleeping toddler. Gov. Charlie Crist called for a statewide Burmese python hunt, which has resulted so far in the capture of at least six of the snakes.
With tens of thousands of pythons loose in the Everglades and surrounding areas, the hunt is "too little, too late," said Jennifer Hobgood, Florida director of the Humane Society of the United States. "It's really incongruous to send people to hunt these snakes without stopping the influx of them into the state."
Monday, Hobgood wrote to Fish and Wildlife Commission Chairman Rodney L. Barreto urging a ban on all "reptiles of concern" in Florida. Banning one species is not enough, she wrote, because the trade in exotic animals simply shifts to another species.
She noted a decline in Burmese python importation that has coincided with increased trade in anacondas. "These snakes can be deadly, and the discovery of an anaconda in Florida's Big Cypress Swamp in 2004 highlighted concerns about their invasive potential."
Wildlife commission spokeswoman Pat Behnke said the prospect of a ban is "complicated." Among the concerns: how to treat legal pet owners who have gone through the state's permitting process. Florida currently requires a $100 annual permit to own a reptile of concern.
Even if the state grandfathers in existing pet owners, banning animals could cause pet shop owners, breeders and importers to kill or dump large numbers of them into the wild, warned Marshall Meyers, CEO and general counsel of the Washington, D.C.-based Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council.
Meyers said a ban would undermine the permitting system the state has established for responsible pet ownership. But Hobgood noted that the Sumter County python owner lacked the proper permit. The case illustrates, she said, that the current system is "inadequate."
Rather than ban animals outright, the state could boost the penalties for illegal ownership, Meyers suggested. "If the penalty is severe enough, it's amazing how people will come into compliance."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/10/florida-lawmakers-could-force-ban-burmese-pythons/c_2/#comments
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 Florida lawmakers could force ban - EricWI, Mon Aug 10 19:12:54 2009
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