I live in South Florida, and go down to the Glades regularly. I have been going almost every 3 weeks for the past few years, and have seen a Burm once. It was just at the beggining of Loop Road. It was a female about 8' long, and was definately a former pet because she never even hissed or attempted to bite me. I took her down to the Everglades Alligator Farm and gave her to a friend that works there who's name is Mario. Any of you all that have been down there probably have seen him before. Now he uses her for the 'Snake Show' and let's people hold her after the show.

Anyway,these Burms are thriving in the Everglades, and are going to impact the environment tremendously. All because of irresponsible Burm owners... This truly frustrates me. It is not only the Burm owners fault though, it is also the pet shops fault. Some kids will go into a pet shop and see a little baby Burm, and beg their parents for it. The parents will go and buy it for them, but the store employess don't even bother telling them the size that these snakes will reach. All these stores just want to sell sell sell, and don't take into consideration what they are ultimately doing to the environment. Then, in a year this 'cute little snake' will be an 8 foot jumbo rat eating Burm, and the owners don't know what to do with it. The pet shop isn't going to take it back, so they just carelessly release it in the Everglades because they think it will be happy in it's 'natural' environment. This is just my 2 cents.



PS-Sorry if some of these sentences don't make sense, it is very late and my mind is shut off.



Thanks

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