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SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale) 22 December 06 State wants tough restrictions on owning exotic snakes such as pythons (David Fleshler)
With giant snakes battling alligators in the Everglades, the state wildlife commission has proposed sharp restrictions on the owners of Burmese pythons and four other non-native reptiles, including a requirement to implant their slithery pets with computer identification chips.
Florida's hot and wet climate has made the state a congenial home for species from Africa, Asia and South America let loose by their owners after they become too big or too high maintenance. A breeding population of Burmese pythons has been discovered in Everglades National Park, where the constrictors have been killing native birds, mammals and, in one notorious incident, an alligator. Elsewhere in the state, trappers routinely catch pythons and other large non-native snakes.
The new rules would limit sales of constricting snakes that grow to at least 12 feet, specifically Burmese pythons, reticulated pythons, African rock pythons, amethystine or scrub pythons and green anacondas. The rules would also restrict sales of Nile monitors, carnivorous lizards that can grow up to six feet and already have established a breeding population in the Cape Coral area on Florida's Gulf coast, where they menace burrowing owls and gopher tortoises.
At the moment, anyone can walk into a pet shop and walk out with a python. Under the new rules, buyers would have to be 18 years old, complete a questionnaire, apply for a state permit, submit a plan for keeping the animal secure in case of a hurricane or other disaster, and have the reptile implanted with a computer chip.
The rules would go into effect Jan. 1, 2008. They would be retroactive, although owners would have until July 1 to comply with the chip requirement.
Commonly used to help return lost dogs, cats and birds, the computer chip identifying the reptile's owner would be implanted by a vet. If wildlife officials caught the snake in the wild, they could check the chip, find the owner and charge him or her with a second-degree misdemeanor for allowing the non-native animal to get loose, said Capt. John West of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The maximum penalty would be a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.
Assuming -- and hoping -- that many owners of the big snakes will find these rules too onerous, the state plans to set up amnesty programs that would allow people to drop off unwanted reptiles at sites yet to be determined, no questions asked.
"We don't know how many are out there," said West. "We have a suspicion it's a high number. We're hoping a lot of people will say they don't want to do this and turn them in."
The exotic pet industry is big business in Florida, with an annual convention in Daytona Beach that draws thousands of buyers and sellers from around the world.
Pet dealers, bruised from all the publicity about pythons invading the Everglades and gobbling up native species, watched warily as the state drafted the new rules, but many support them.
"I personally think our industry has had a lot of bad media with the alligator and the Burmese python picture from the Everglades," said Stacey Siegel, co-owner of Ben Siegel Reptiles of Deerfield Beach, referring to a famous 2004 photograph that showed the two species in a marsh at Everglades National Park.
But she supports the restrictions because she thinks they will reassure people that exotic snakes can continue to be sold without endangering the public.
"People who choose to keep these animals do have to be responsible," she said. "I think taking these steps will give the general public that has a fear of reptiles a little peace of mind."
Each year, she sells about 200 Burmese pythons, at prices ranging from $65 for one with conventional coloring and markings to up to $250 for unusual ones such as green or albino pythons. She sells fewer than 100 reticulated pythons, and even fewer African rock pythons and green anacondas.
"They're really magnificent creatures," said Siegel, who had a Burmese python as a pet. "She was very tame and very nice. I had her for a long time, and she died of old age."
The restrictions would have to be approved by the wildlife commission, a seven-member board appointed by the governor. The commission initially will consider the proposals at a Feb. 7-8 meeting in West Destin.
Marcus Cantos, a Fort Myers reptile dealer who represents the state's reptile industry in dealings with the commission, said he was concerned that some of the snakes would be too small to be safely implanted with a computer chip. He said he suspects pythons came to Everglades National Park not through illegal releases, but because of the vast damage caused in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed the homes of many snake owners, allowing their pets to escape into the wild. West acknowledged the commission had no proof that the snakes had been illegally released.
And Cantos said the new rules wouldn't prevent people from smuggling in pythons from out of state or buying them over the Internet. But he said he supports the regulations in general, saying owners and the industry need to be responsible, and he understands the wildlife commission feels compelled to act.
"There's a lot of pressure on the state," he said. "We can't have our state look like a Wild West jungle for tourists."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-creptiles22dec22,0,3195554.story?coll=sfla-news-sfla

WESH (Winter Park, Florida) 26 December 06 State Looks To Crack Down On Large Snakes
Tallahassee, Fla: Giant snakes on the loose around the Sunshine State are prompting Florida officials to take a hard look at revamping the rules for reptiles.
Proposals include restricting sales and requiring permits for some large reptiles and even microchips for pet pythons, WESH 2 News reported.
Huge snakes have been rounded up around the state after they were dumped by owners who apparently didn’t want to deal with them any more.
Pet store owner Carol Hoover said the problem has gotten so bad that she decided to stop selling the larger reptiles. She said people just seemed to be buying them on a whim with no thought to what they're getting themselves into.
"Within a year, they could be 18 feet and really need their own room," Hoover said. "Most cages that even we carry and can get are not designed to hold a snake like that."
Legislation intended to regulate large snake sales went nowhere at the Capitol this year, so now wildlife officials are looking at statewide restrictions.
Under proposed rules, buyers would have to be at least 18 years old and have a state permit to buy pythons or anacondas, which can grow to 12 feet or more.
Capt. Linda Harrison of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said they also want buyers to insert microchips in the snakes.
"That way if the animal got loose, it's a means of determining the identification of who owns that animal and a means of tracing that animal back to the owner," she said.
Part of the state’s new plan includes an amnesty program where pet owners who may have bit off more than they can chew can turn in a snake that’s gotten too big -- no questions asked.
The state said it doesn't want to interfere with businesses or responsible pet owners, but state officials also don’t want giant snakes prowling the underbrush.
A final public hearing on the proposed rules is slated for February.
The next exotic pet amnesty day, where you can legally turn in an unwanted exotic pet, is scheduled for March 24 at Crest Lake Park in Clearwater.
If the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission decides to adopt the proposed reptile rules at its February meeting, the new rules would go into effect in January 2008.
The rules would apply retroactively to all owners of animals on the "reptiles of concern" list.
http://www.wesh.com/news/10611289/detail.html

ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 26 December 06 A Florida crackdown targets exotic reptiles - Invaders like the Burmese python are a threat to the ecosystem, and owners would get rules. (Craig Pittman)
It was the shot seen 'round the world.
When Everglades National Park biologist Skip Snow saw the intertwined carcasses of an alligator and a Burmese python, apparently locked in a struggle that was fatal to them both, he took a picture that wound up making global news.
That photo from September 2005 did more than stimulate watercooler discussions.
It spurred state officials to confront Florida's ongoing invasion by exotic reptiles, a problem reptile experts say first cropped up after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida 14 years ago.
Now, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is considering new rules that would, for the first time, require anyone who bought a "reptile of concern" to get a permit and meet certain conditions for cages. Owners also would have to implant a high-tech identification tag in snakes of more than 2 feet in diameter. That way, if it got loose state officials would know whom to hold responsible.
In addition, the wildlife commission plans in March to sponsor an "Exotic Pet Amnesty Day" in Clearwater as a way to persuade Tampa Bay area pet owners to turn in their unwanted snakes and other critters, no questions asked, instead of turning them loose in the wild.
State officials hope their efforts will mark an end to the current anything-goes trade in pythons, which can grow to more than 20 feet long.
"We can still have the reptile trade, but everyone is going to be held to a greater level of accountability," said Gene Bessette, a longtime snake dealer from the Gainesville area.
But efforts to halt the proliferation of pythons already have hit several rough spots.
A bill that would have allowed the state to charge $100 for a python permit stalled in the Legislature this year. Unless lawmakers change their minds, the proposed permits for pythons won't cost anything. That raises the question of how the state would pay for the wildlife officers who would be needed to enforce the new requirements.
The state's first attempt at an Exotic Pet Amnesty Day, held in Orlando last spring, drew only six people. They turned in a gecko, some turtles and a cockatiel - but no snakes. Part of the problem, explained the wildlife commission's Scott Hardin: "Unbeknownst to us there was a large reptile expo going on virtually next door."
Florida has been a magnet for exotic wildlife for 500 years. The Spanish explorers turned loose hogs whose feral descendants leave a path of destruction across ranches and state parks all over the state.
Now, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa are all major portals for exotic plants and wildlife that are sold across the country, Hardin said. And when anything exotic gets free, whether it's iguanas in Boca Grande or Gambian rats in the Keys, Florida's tropical climate ensures it's likely to thrive.
These days hundreds of exotics infest Florida, from feral goats to walking catfish. Starting in the 1970s, state officials began listing the species they didn't want anyone to own. And it became illegal to turn any nonnative species loose in the wild.
But that didn't stop the practice of dumping exotic wildlife in the woods, Hardin said, because it's so difficult to prosecute anyone.
"We have to be there and watch the release and then recapture the animal," said Hardin, the state's exotic species coordinator.
Big snakes have been a particular problem, he said, because they're so easy to obtain, but people who buy them on impulse often don't know what they are getting into.
"Without a permit and without signing anything, you can go buy a young Burmese python for $20," he said. "But within a year it's going to be 6 feet long and in two years it's 12 feet long, and now instead of eating mice, it's eating rabbits. And you only have $20 invested in it, so it's disposable."
Pythons were first seen slithering through the Everglades in the 1980s. But the first time it became clear how big of a problem this could be was after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992, said Bessette, the snake dealer.
Hundreds of people who owned exotic wildlife -- not just snakes but water buffalo and monkeys -- saw their homes, cages and everything else blown away by the storm, he said. Some of the wildlife was rounded up, but many animals got away.
That alerted reptile dealers and state officials to the potential problem of having many huge snakes roaming a delicate ecosystem, Bessette said.
But no one did anything about it, he said, until Snow's photo of the gator-vs.-python encounter hit the newspapers and airwaves -- along with the news that more than 200 pythons had been captured at the national park over the previous decade.
"That spurred a lot of interest by the public in where the pythons came from," said Capt. John West of the wildlife commission.
The state convened a group that included West, Bessette, several veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitation experts, Hillsborough County's animal control director and representatives from Ringling Brothers, Disney's Animal Kingdom and the Humane Society. They came up with the proposed rules, which will be voted on by the wildlife commission in February.
Bessette said reptile dealers are willing to go along with the new rules because they want to avoid further bad publicity such as Snow's photo.
However, buyers accustomed to the state's previous laissez-faire attitude would likely find the proposed regulations revolutionary. They would have paperwork to fill out, and there would be inspectors showing up at their door to check their snakes.
When state Rep. Ralph Poppell, R-Titusville, proposed a bill this year to regulate the purchase and sale of big snakes, it sparked a rebellion among reptile collectors. They circulated a petition that said snakes aren't as big a problem as feral cats and therefore, "We do not need more laws."
The bill died in committee, leaving the wildlife commission with no way to charge for the permits and inspections that the new rules would require.
"Quite frankly we don't have the people to inspect every reptile of concern in the state," said Col. Julie Jones, who heads up the wildlife commission's law enforcement division.
So at least at first, they would not, she said. Instead, they would "inspect upon complaint." In other words, if no one reported a problem, no wildlife officer would call.
After all, she said, at this point the agency doesn't even know how many permits would be needed because "we have no idea how many of these things are out there."
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/26/State/A_Florida_crackdown_t.shtml