Kevin has many valid points. The truth is that we have many problems with invasive exotics here in Florida and a lot of people are to blame, including Wholesalers. In regards to the Burmese pythons, as much as I would hate to admit it, there is a HUGE problem. They are everywhere. I could go out and catch 3 or 4 a night if I wanted to right now, having the proper permits to do so for State lands. In my theory, Wholesalers are partly to blame and so is the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service along with people who bought them. When I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Burmeses were a scarce snake in contrast to today. Those who bred them made a good amount of money. Then all of a sudden,they started importing them by the thousands and how could a breeder compete against someone selling a baby Burmese for $30. The wholesalers killed the market. Now since the animal is so cheap to aquire and so expensive to maintain, it becomes very hard to get rid of and people let them go in lieu of spending the effort of finding it a home or euthanizing them. Same with the common iguanas. In the 80s the only place you would find feral iguanas is near the airports and where there were wholesalers. Or on the Crandon Park Zoo grounds because the entities that owned it let them go for ignorant reasons. Back then I would get $10 to $15 per baby wholesale. Now I can’t move them for $4 because they are so heavily imported at less than $2 each. If they had some significant value, people would think twice on letting one go in lieu of selling it. This is just a little bit. I can go on and on with different species. Nile Monitors in Ft. Myers, Red Head Agamas, Spinney tailed Iguanas, Boas, Ameivas,…

Everything needs balance! Without balance there will be demise. We as reptile enthusiasts need to stop bickering amongst ourselves and start looking at solutions that will benefit and balance all aspects of our industry while protecting the natural environment and our freedoms. And the way this is done is by regulation and good standards. If we don’t start regulating ourselves, someone who is ignorant about our passions will regulate it for us and take away our rights.

This whole thing is very complicated and we will not be fixing it on this forum. If we need to have a debate then let’s debate! I don’t agree with everything that Kevin wrote and I don’t agree with everything that Tom wrote. But we shouldn’t be bashing each other for our beliefs and then trying to show why we are right because of how much experience we have. No one person knows everything !

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