Lobbyist hisses: Give snakes fair shake

By Frank Cerabino

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 19, 2009



For Andrew Wyatt, a fascination with snakes began when he was the son of an American serviceman stationed in India.



"The snake charmer would come to our street, and the first time I saw a cobra come out of the basket, I was hooked," Wyatt said. "My mother hoped I would outgrow it, but instead it got worse."



Today Wyatt, 45, is a snake lobbyist, a guy who tells federal lawmakers that the bad stuff they've heard about Burmese pythons is probably wrong.



As president of the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers, Wyatt is one of a small group of exotic pet trade enthusiasts trying to soften the proposed legislation that would declare Burmese and African rock pythons "injurious" species and bar them from importation and interstate commerce.



"The story of snakes in the Everglades is taking on a bigger-than-life dimension because people are excitable about snakes," said Wyatt, a python breeder, master falconer and eco-tour operator on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.



"When people go on my tours, the two things they always ask about are snakes and sharks," he said. "They have a morbid fascination with these animals and want to hear horror stories about them to confirm their fears."



Fighting 'bias' against snakes



The real-life horror story of a Central Florida girl who was suffocated in her bed this summer by an improperly kept Burmese python pet has fueled calls to ban these snakes.



U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, citing estimates of tens of thousands of feral pythons in the Everglades, has asked for action before a snake attacks a tourist.



Wyatt doesn't think that's about to happen.



"Since 2006, there have been two people killed by snakes, while there have been 15 people killed just this year by dogs," Wyatt said. "Traditional livestock are much more dangerous to us than snakes, but we have a bias against them."



Wyatt and other snake enthusiasts have already managed to get the smaller and more popular ball python excluded from a bill in the U.S. House aimed at regulating the python trade in America.



Law threatens breeders?



And while the snake enthusiasts are not opposing the importation ban on new snakes, they are lobbying to remove a provision that would ban interstate sales.



"If they get what they want, the law will be worthless," said Peter Jenkins, director of international conservation for Defenders of Wildlife. "Most pythons are captive bred and sold in interstate commerce. And captive-bred snakes are as likely to be released into the wild as imported ones."



The law as written, countered Wyatt, would put snake breeders out of business, turning animals that are sometimes individually sold for thousands of dollars into a worthless investment.



"There's no telling what some of those people might do with those snakes," Wyatt said.



Jenkins scoffs at this:



"They're saying they're going to release them if we don't allow breeders to make a buck off these injurious snakes?"



Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/08/19/a1b_binocol_0819.html



http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/opinionzone/2009/07/12/save-the-snakes-or-ban-them/



http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/opinionzone/2009/07/14/ready-for-a-python-hunt/



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