Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1053356.html

I believe this article clearly demonstrates why this is a political battle we are engaged in to keep and breed reptiles.

There are certain folks in the environmental movement that find animal ownership, wearing fur, eating meat, hunting, etc, reprehensiblee and I believe they are using this issue to press for legislation like HR669 to further their cause. This is the same way they have used the endangered species act as a weapon against the farming, building, and the fishing industries.

There is a clear dichotomy where the very same people are so concerned that man is wiping out so many other species, ie; the cloud leopard, giant turtles, whales, wolves, polar bears and mud-skippers, etc, etc, etc. on the one hand, but they throw their hands up and shout "The sky is falling" when a few dozen Burms are wild in the Florida Everglades?

Would it be so hard to send a bunch of people into the evrglades to capture or kill these burmese pythons? You have many people making a living doing business in the everglades - no? Instead of wasting millions and millions of taxpayers dollars sitting around Washington discussing the matter, all it would require would be to put a $500 or $1000 bounty on each non-native Burmese python caught in the everglades. Problem solved. Instead, certain people want to make it sound like our children arent safe and the killer Burms are taking over Florida to futher their radical adgenda.

Amazing.

''These are not little snakes running around. These are massive, dangerous animals,'' said district spokesman Randy Smith.

How absolutely ridiculous. A burmese python is a "massive, dangerous animal" - what, much like the 16 foot long alligators kept safe in the everglades???? Really, these spokesman need to tone down the language and stop trying to run a smear campaign against large constrictors.

Blah.
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Adam

"I wish I were wise! I wish I were wise from the heart of me, like my serpent!"

There is a problem here in South Florida of Inavasive species. But in all honesty, the stories of Burmese pythons taking over S.Fl are really exaggerated. The truth is behind Hurricane Andrew and the lack of Cleaning up the domestic and exotic animal escapees. Yeah theyre out there. But where? I live and work around the west area of the everglades for years. To this day. Ive never seen one.

With the push of the lacey act and Clean up groups. I beleive we can take some pressure off of the Herp world.
I want to further my research and get together with Herp Societys in my area to see what we can do to clean up the so called "Invasion".

I just feel there is something Us S.floridian Herp owners need to do.
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Chris Berrios
~South Fl Constrictors~