I too was only able to watch the last hour of the debate. The representative from Florida and Ms. Lee were both on the attack. It’s difficult to answer questions when the inquisitor is jamming their personal opinions down your throat! When Ms. Lee brought up “abuse issues” I came out of my chair.

The representative to the right of the chair did bring up the point that the ownership of these “big 9” should be decided upon by the States. This put a couple of thoughts in my head. The first being that this is a “Florida Issue.” Not a national issue. I believe that the same representative questioned why Florida had not outlawed these species. That showed me that he was thinking outside of the rhetoric being dispensed by the HSUS. This brought to mind the second thought. Why aren’t we hitting harder at the States right to govern as protected under the Constitution of the United States? I know that the old piece of paper doesn’t mean much to our government, but we may want to enlighten our representatives that we still believe in it and hold them to its standard! Andrew brought up the fact that many States have their own regulations concerning large constrictors, but I don’t think that these folks are listening!

I do agree that Dr. Jacobsen rambled, spinning a few to many yarns. Though he was good intentioned. I think we may be best served by having the Barkers testify against the USGS study. After all they were sourced in this document dozens of times. The Barkers wrote a paper refuting the Florida situation so why not discredit the USGS using their sources of information.

As for the Representative from Florida’s attack on Andrew concerning his not having children living along side the 100K giant snakes in the Everglades. I had to chuckle at her anecdote about seeing Alligators basking in her yard once or twice a year. I’m sure that she let her children run out and pet the pretty Alligators!

On a personal note. I was bitten by a nine foot Retic on the right wrist several years. I removed the snake and cleaned the bite with peroxide and went about my business. A few years prior to that I was bitten on the same forearm by an English Setter. It put me in the hospital for four days! Let them choke on the statistics!

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