Reptile & Amphibian Forums

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12836463?source=rss

Thought a few of you might like to read this if you haven't already.
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If you don't stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them!

Wow, they never seem to stop amazing me. Where is PETA or the ASPCA????? Just because snakes ane not cute and fuzzy doesn't make this right. This is getting really f#%*@! up!!! typical pure B.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah Im pretty pissed about this! It's not the snakes fault it's doing what comes natural trying to survive. I'll stop ranting now.
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Brian Grosart
foreverconstrictors@hotmail.com

http://www.floridacatnews.com/

That's just one quick site I googled. So, it's okay to trap a feral/wild cat have it spayed/neutered, and then release it back into the wild??? How many native species do feral cats kill, daily? Rodents, birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, there's not much a cat won't kill...sometimes just to play with it. The HSUS help, lol, in their own euthanasia training book, their "humane" method for euthanizing a snake is to chop it's head off with a shovel. NO, they didn't think too highly of it when I asked if I could do this to a dog or cat since it's so "humane". Maybe we should go lay out a dogs skin and talk about all the human fatalities there have been in that area. It's not going to matter though because you can't, as they say, fix stupid.

Here's a quote taken from another site-I can't get anything from the HSUS euthansia book unless I buy it. But I know it says it because it was a good "debate" while I was attending a HSUS Euthanasia course.

"Decapitation is an easy way to kill a reptile in that no special equipment or drugs are necessary. Nevertheless, the brain of a decapitated reptile may remain active for up to an hour, so decapitation by itself is inhumane. It may be used if the brain is pithed, or destroyed by the insertion of a probe, immediately afterwards. Some of you may have pithed leopard frogs in high school biology prior to their dissection."

So, chop off a dog or cats head and then ram a probe into the brain. See how fast you get in trouble if you try that!

No doubt there are some Burms and some Boa in the Everglades. But I think it's funny how, people who actually live in the area, and are actively into Boids, say they hardly ever see them. I know people who have lived there for over 20 yrs and have only ever seen a limited few running in wild. Ya gotta wonder where the "anti-exotic" people get their numbers from.

Early America had these sort of chases. They called them witch hunts.
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Sublime Boa Constrictor

Ludicrous.

First of all, using public safety as a concern is idiotic. Given a python has never (and probably never will) attack a tourist, it's infinitely more likely a hunter will die from a freak accident or a lightning strike than a tourist/visitor getting attacked by a python.

The other issue is that if there are 100K pythons there, how is it even possible to make a dent in the population without harming other species of animals in the process of trying to eradicate the pythons?

Great point about PETA and HSUS! Where is their press release condemning this act of barbarism??

>>http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12836463?source=rss
>>
>>Thought a few of you might like to read this if you haven't already.
>>-----
>>If you don't stand behind our troops, please, feel free to stand in front of them!
>>
>>

.. partially agree with them, but...:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532622,00.html?test=latestnews

I hope other organizations publicly blast this proposal as well.

I'm curious to know how they came up with the "estaimated" number of Burmese Pythons in the Everglades? To me, the numbers seem a bit high.

Sure there's adult Burms in the Everglades. Sure they lay large numbers of eggs. Now, provided that all those eggs actually hatch.... How many of them will live to maturity?
I know a LOT of those little baby burms will be added to the "food chain". Some will survive, but for the most part.... a larger portion will be gator food. I think there's other snakes that will eat them as well. Maybe a few birds too.

Anyway, I would think the numbers of Burms in the Everglades is more like..... 30 to 50 thousand. And that's being very optimistic on there reproducing abilities.

So, even if the number is much smaller than they estimate...

There's NO WAY to get them "ALL".

The damage is done and Burms are going to be in the Everglades..... FOREVER!!!

OK,
So what can be done?????

I really don't know, but alligators number..... over a million. Not sure on the exact number, but I know it's high.

I say, if you find a Burm... capture it. No need to kill it. Just capture it and take it out of the Everglades.

I think, in time, the natural preditors that will eat the burms will "even out" their population. I think the number of Burms will remain in check.

Unfortunately, the endangered animals that live in the Everglades may need help. They many not survive until the Burm population "evens out". Of course, it's not the Burms fault they're endangered in the first place. I belive that "HUMANS" caused that. Polution, cutting down trees, moving into their habitat, etc.....

So, if any of these endangered animals become extinct..... Don't blame the Burms. Blame the HUMANS!!!

Anyway, Hunting and Killing the Burmese Pythons in the Everglades is.... for the most part.... POINTLESS!!!!