TAMPA - Vernon Yates agrees that not everyone should be allowed to have a tiger chained to a tree in the front yard or a 30-foot snake inside the house.
But the Pinellas County wildlife expert said it's wrong for the state to ban all people from owning certain kinds of pythons and other exotics.
"I think they are making a new class of criminal,'' said Yates, who is from Seminole. "To me it's one of our rights as citizens that we are losing.''
Yates was reacting to the Florida Senate passage last week of a measure that would ban the possession of what it calls "reptiles of concern'' including the Indian or Burmese python, reticulated python, African rock python, scrub python, green anaconda and the Nile monitor.
The measure, sponsored by Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, passed 35-0 in the Senate. It still has not been up for a vote in the House.
"It's wrong to ban any animal,'' said Yates, who frequently is called on to capture snakes and other wildlife in the Tampa Bay area. "Tell me one thing that we have banned that has worked. Banning is not going to work, all you are going to do is shove stuff underground. They will still be there.''
The bill provides an exception for any person who is currently licensed to continue to own a current pet for the remainder of its life. The ban does not apply to traveling wildlife exhibitors or zoological facilities.
Gary Foster is one person, however, who does not agree with Yates.
"Those are all large and dangerous reptiles that nobody should possess anyway,'' said Foster, who owns Foster's Exotic Pet Center in Tarpon Springs. "They belong in a zoo. There is no reason for anyone to have those in a home.''
Foster does not sell any of the reptiles on the proposed banned list.
"I would agree it's a good law,'' he said.
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