BOCA RATON NEWS (Florida) 27 August 07 New law eyed as iguana aid (John Johnston)
County commissioners have learned from County Legislative Affairs Director Todd Bonlarron that HB 2766 was approved during the last session. The bill prohibits unlawful capture, keeping, possession, transportation, or exhibit of certain venomous reptiles.
Of greater interest to Boca Raton residents, however, is that the bill requires by Dec. 31, 2007 that a list of such reptiles be compiled – and that list shall include “reptiles of concern, including venomous, non-venomous, native, nonnative, or other reptiles, which require additional regulation for capture, possession, transportation, or exhibition due to their nature, habits, status, or potential to negatively impact the environment, ecology, or humans.”
Bonlarron speculated this would like find “iguanas and large snakes” included on the list.
Which will please Commissioner Mary McCarty.
And what will truly please her is that the new law requires that for any “person, firm, or corporation” to “capture, keep, possess or exhibit” any reptile on the list – that person, firm or corporation must also obtain a special permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
That’s right – individuals in the Florida will now need a special permit to own, possess or keep a large snake, iguana -- venomous or otherwise.
Pet owners and dealers -- shocked at how huge the reptiles have grown -- probably released most of those now found in various parts of the county – and in large numbers in some areas, including south eastern Boca Raton.
“The easy way is to just release them outdoors,” McCarty says of how the fleet footed iguanas have literally grown to become a problem.
McCarty has proposed a countywide sales ban of both iguanas and large snakes. Doing so would make the county a leader in a state where both animal and plant non-native species issues are growing daily, she says.
Commissioner Burt Aaronson, however, says that a Palm Beach County ban wouldn’t prevent residents from going to either Broward or Martin Counties to buy snakes or lizards.
Therefore, he reasons, not only would a county ban put pet store owners at a competitive disadvantage, “it wouldn’t solve the problem.”
Aaronson says that the only way to deal with it would be a statewide ban. Various measures to create such bans have been proposed in the past, but have never gotten out of conference committees.
McCarty points out that, and in many cases like the iguana, Florida doesn’t have cold weather to force the animals to move south, or kill off the non-native and threatening plants. Iguanas can’t in fact live on any long-term basis where the temperature is consistently much below 60 degrees.
”Something must be done,” McCarty says. HB 2766 is seen by many as a step in that direction.
New law eyed as iguana aid