A legislative organization that produces no legislation is perceived as a failure. Same with any politician. Remember Kerry getting ripped for his lack of legislation in the sixteen years he served Massachusetts? Maybe it is a noble, mighty struggle to keep things from changing sometimes. And highly under-rated.

There is no way to stop the sensational aspect of the story from the people in the “infotainment” industry that passes as news. Python eats cat- that’s getting air time. Like I mentioned- we have deliberately introduced two hundred pound western cougars into the everglades (never mind that last I looked into it I think it was a total failure). But actually a boring story. Wait until “Cougar eats housecat”. Not boring. Will be on every station. The irresponsibility of this deliberate introduction will be controversial, like the repopulated wolf that kills somebody’s dog, etc. O’Reilly will call them “pinhead” and huff and puff.

In these same neighborhoods with the loose pythons you can find black widow spiders under the lawn chair, coral snakes under the patio stones, pygmy rattlesnakes in the planter, caimans and water moccasins on the golf course and on and on. South Florida is crazy with the things that you see down here. On the tv show Animal Cops they showed a king cobra being removed from a vacant lot. We have monkeys, monitors, man it is really crazy if you think about it. It is wrong to shine the spotlight on the python alone without mentioning these other things that are thriving just as successfully. This is not just because of irresponsible snake keepers. Just imagine the list of plants that have invaded the native vegetation- there is no comparison in numbers, just not such a sensational story.

All the publicity got me to thinking. My real question was why the Burmese and not the boa? Two separate topics, really. Thanks to all who contributed.

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