Being a wildlife photographer for many years now, I have seen first hand what the Florida birds and alligators do to snakes...including 4'- 6' black racers, indigos, rattlesnakes, and rat snakes. When birds like we have here know there is food around they constantly are in that area hunting, waiting, and preying on all kinds of animals including fish, frogs, snakes, other small birds, and all kinds of other food items. Burmese pythons don't stand a chance of reproducing quick enough to make a difference to the Eco-System with all of the predators we have around. I have seen a upwards of a hundred herons and egrets in a single spot feeding on fish, tadpoles, and frogs. I have seen many herons, egrets, hawks, and osprey leave their nests with babies in them only to return with snakes to feed their babies and themselves. The reason that only a low double digit number of Burmese were captured over months and months of hunting by 14 professional hunters is simple...there really aren't that many out there.

HSUS donates so much money to the right people that politicians have no choice but to back what they say, no matter how absurd it is...that's called 'politics'.

Does it make sense to ban the tiny and harmless anthill python because there are Burmese Pythons in the Everglades? NO

Does it make sense to force thousands and thousands of individuals and families out of business and into bankruptcy because there are Burmese Pythons in the everglades? NO

Does it make sense to say that 'if' there is such a thing as global warming and it continues that Burmese Pythons will will for some reason leave the Everglades and consume 2/3 of the country? NO

Does it make sense for a political 'FRIEND' of HSUS to come up with unverified and false statements about Burmese Pythons in an attempt to have the industry shout down...just like HSUS wants it to be? If the money is right...YES


Real scientists and real biologists conduct studies all of the time to count wildlife and in most cases they have nothing to gain or loose from their findings. If there are 130,000 Burmese in the Everglades why aren't the professionals finding any numbers? If they are supposedly not looking in the areas where most of them are...why aren't they? We have airboats and helicopters that can land on water...what's the holdup with larger numbers?

I know the Everglades is a large but if there were 130,000 birds there don't you think we would find more than 36 in 4 months if we were looking for them?

What do politicians and state officials have to gain if they convince others the Everglades is overrun with the 'Houdini Phase' Burmese Python and they shut down the industry as we know it? Multi-million dollar government grants? Seed money? Votes? Kudos?

If HSUS and the politicians really cared about the Everglades they would take some of millions and millions that HSUS donates every year and they would have the largest Burmese Everglades hunt ever and they would make a conservative effort to do something about the existing Burmese...not take away some 7 year old kids pet spotted python. Hundreds of airboats and copters every day for a month or so...is there a problem? Heck we did it in Iraq and there are probably more Burmese there than what we were actually looking for.

Will PETA, HSUS, and the politicians that they financially support back the senseless slaughter of millions and millions of animals?

If the ban goes into effect what do they really think is going to happen to the millions of pythons and boas that are currently in collections? Does anyone really think that a guy with 100's of burmese and retics is going to be able to afford to keep them as pets when he can't sell them to anybody? It will never happen. Who is going to want to buy them? They can't go across state lines, they can't be exported, they don't make freezers large enough to kill all of them, I'll give you one guess what I think will happen with millions of pythons and boas...
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

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