Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just saw this article on another forum and thought I'd put the link here for you all. Looks like good news... A bunch of pythons in the Everglades died this past winter. Hopefully this will help discredit the USGS report that says snakes are going to run rampant all over the country if we don't ban them. Here's the link:

www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/23/1544133/cold-didnt-halt-pythons-invasion.html

Paul D

Never seen a "pulsing mating ball" of Burmese! Sometimes I don't know what's worse, the article or the comments afterward!

I doubt we'll ever win over the hardliners, but I think it's important to try and show ordinary people that are simply ignorant about reptiles that most herpers are responsible pet owners. I wish more people could see snakes through our eyes rather than as terrifying creatures that are going to overrun our country and eat little kids as they play in their yards I don't ever expect most people to love snakes as much as I do, but I'd really like for them to learn to be more tolerant.

Paul D

>> Hopefully this will help discredit the USGS report that says snakes are going to run rampant all over the country if we don't ban them.
>>Paul D

In a normal world, yes, this would be the end of all the nonsense. In the bizarro world of agenda-driven "science", though, it's just another issue they have to spin correctly. They already are trying to spin it. Just look at the headline of the article. They've already concluded:
1) the pythons have not been "halted"
2) the "survival rate" is much higher in the "field" since about 60 of the 99 pythons they spotted were alive.

Basing the survival rate on the number of snakes "spotted" is either incompetent or dishonest. Undoubtedly a large number of dead pythons would have been eaten by scavengers, one can't ignore that. And of course there was no mention of the health of any of the surviving pythons, either for the one monitored python or any of the pythons in the "field." For all we know, 90% of the survivors could have terminal respiratory infections.

Sorry to sound negative, but I've been following this issue long enough to see that logic, reason and common sense are not part of the equation for those pushing the agenda of banning our pets. If it were, the USGS report never would have been published in the first place.