Reptile & Amphibian Forums

anyone read the article about the everglades and all the nile moniters and pythons? just shows how little people care... pretty sad

Everglades?? and what article??

I just read it om HerpNet (Yahoo list). Yes, very sad indeed. Good reason to ban niles, burms, retics and even igs, or at least control the sales much better. Children (or careless adults) by them and release them in the swamps when they get boring or too big. And they breed and outcompete natives. The article is in New York Times.

Hello Ulrik, you're not from Florida are you??
Funny, how you left out the part of the article where it states, that thousands of these animals have escaped during hurricanes.

One hurricane was mentioned, 12 years ago. That really wasn't the main point in the article. But of course that was a very bad thing too. Don't you think it would be a good idea to control the sales of the mentioned animals, after all?

Here is the link, but it requires subscription. Haven't subscribed myself, so I don't know if it works.
Link

Right it mentions Hurricane "Andrew" which I lived through firsthand. It also isn't the only Hurricane thats hit Florida although one of the stronger ones in recent history.

I myself am a native South Floridian. I've been herping and catching snakes here, since I was 2 ft tall. Still do it now at 29. I have never come across any burmese pythons, niles, boas etc. although I have seen some Iguanas.

Just so you know the guy who is exagerrating most everything in this article is a known animal catcher here. Funny how everytime this self promoting whiz catches any non native reptile or a BIG snake out of someones backyard, there's always a media frenzy right outside the persons yard, hmmmm. He also loves to quote for "other" people saying things like "people are scared out of their minds" or " People are terrified of these creatures which are becoming a real problem". catch the drift?

Also how do you know these animals haven't escaped? Maybe they were released by some pet owners that didn't care anymore, but how can you be sure of that? Where are those people to say they let them go? They're just as likely to have escaped from someones home. For you just to take someones word on it or assume, is not being very accurate.

You asked me "Don't you think it would be a good idea to control the sales of the mentioned animals, after all?"
and I say NO, I'll leave that for people like you sitting in Czechoslovakia or wherever, reading some article and basing your decision on that article, without weeding out the info or being able reading between the lines.

I have herd that in Miami , There are Simies Crocodiles and A cobra species that are living in that area of Florida. Russ

There is a skunk ape living here too. Down here that is the name given to the sasquatch (big foot). Does this mean they are here??

Please do not believe everything you hear, or read. I also live here in FL. I have yet to see the large number of reptiles roaming around. What I do see is small pockets where iguanas are now living. I see Bufo marinus running havoc (not released by us in the pet trade mind you). Lets see cuban anoles, knight anoles, some insect species as well. (also not released by pet owners).

It's funny how the Guy in these articles (the trapper) says people let them lose. Did he see them do this? No, so to me thats a false statement. Assumption is a bad word and should be removed from the dictionary.

Another thing when your in a not so good enviroment and your pet get lose. He may make it through summer but as soonas winter hits he is not going to make it. (in most cases)

Now here the weather can support most anything, it gets lose. Guess what it will live on until it dies of old age, road kill, or some other force comes into contact with it to kill it off.

There are already rules and regulations here. You need a license for venomous (fee), license to sell or exhibit (fee), and yes there is even a pet permit (non fee). If at anytime Fish and Game find that you are not keeping the animals in proper conditions as stated under the permits requirments, they will take them from you.

My thoughts is when are people going to take responsability for themselves? Why wait for someone else to come along and take care of it for you?

I actully herd the croc think on a tv show on Ntaionl Geographic Channle, It was a fish and game person and it was onthe Dr Brady Bar Show .

And??? The skunk ape thing was also on T.V. does this make it a fact??

There are caimen here, and other non natives. I cannot say there is not. My post was to get you and others to read between the lines.

As in the statements of there are large numbers, we have caught a number of them in the past years. Ok well why didnt they say the numbers??? why did they not say we caught 10 of them in a year?? It could be 1 in 10 years for all we know from the article.

What havoc are they doing on natives? Looked to me like the burms are merely feeding the gators. LOL

Hey, we must have the northern cousin to the skunk ape up here, the Yeti is what he is called. LOL
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JS

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Yeah I know, I grew up in IL. Bigfoot, sasquatch, yeti, skunk ape. haha

Oh yeah and if you go into WI. travel on bray rd. thats where they always site the werewolf like creature.

Silly humans will believe anything they read or watch on TV. well atleast some will.

Damn werewolf keepers. Yeah always the same story; there family member gets bitten and they think it's cool to have a pet werewolf every full moon, until they realize that they can't provide the care needed and let them loose....should be a ban on them....LOL
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JS

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Another "ban reptiles as pets" statement made without any research or knowledge.
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JS

"It's funny how from simple things, the best things begin."

yeah always nice when someone doesn't even live here, Yet wants to tell me what is going on in my backyard

Ok, I was probably too quick. Sorry for caring about the environment.

BTW, I'm from Denmark, we have an import ban here on red eared sliders, because there are too many of them in the wild here. Set loose by will or escaped. And I really like this ban. Fortunately, they don't breed. I love these animals (kept them for about 25 years), but hate that there are so many of them around that people don't want anymore. I guess this sounds quite familiar.

Oh so Jody is right? So you are not even from here yet you want to impose bans on impulse before reading about the entire situation at hand? Cry me a river..... And don't make assumptions as to what sounds familiar to who when you don't even know who you are speaking at. I don't usually bother even arguing with people like you. I can't change your opinion and you can't change mine. That's all that's to it. I don't feel that any gov't should have the write to tell you what you can and can't own. Especially a gov't that doesn't know a gecko from a snake.
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JS

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Sorry.

I didn't intend to say it sounded familiar to you, but in generel. I just read it all the time, that big reptiles needs new homes because people gets tired of them or can't keep them anymore. It's starting to happen here with ig's too, and we had the big red eared slider boom 15-20 years ago. I just think this is too bad, both for the animals and the environment.

Why would it be so horribly bad to have some control of the sales? As others have mentioned, this story also gives the gov't a good reason to ban them. It happened here with the sliders, and it worked.

Why? simply the fact that they know nothing of the animals. They know nothing of whats going on, they do not even know how many need homes or are out there in the back yard.

So to simply say ok let someone like this run rules over them is silly. They will more then likley take it so far from the context we wont be able to own them at all.

To me that is not the way to go. Thats like saying someone in NY had there dog out and it bit someone. Now they are coming down here to FL to ban that breed. Is that right? Should I be blamed for what someone else did?

I think educating people on what they are buying and taking it into your own hands, is the best bet. So instead of sitting hopinh someone else fixes things for you. Why don't you go out and educate someone and try to help with the situation yourself?

Yep, that's the point. The people making the laws know absolutely nothing about nothing. And the people that say that the laws should be in effect governing the sale/trade/hobby have not had the pleasure of coming into contact with uneducated law makers.
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JS

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Ok, that was at least an explanation, and a reasonably one. I don't think everything should be banned all over the states, because something bad happens at one place. I just think it would be sensible to control the sales of the big species, especially in for example Florida, where it has this bad impact on the environment, or elsewhere where there is a problem with surplus animals. But OK, if the gov't is really that hopeless, I see the problem.

And I actually do a bit to educate people here sometimes, on our local forums. There's a lot of very young people that uses the forums, the hobby is growing quite a bit here. It's good they use the forums to get advice, I think.

BTW, all the big snakes and monitors were banned here in Denmark, about a year ago. And nearly all the venomous snakes. The reasons are they are too dangerous, and too hard to keep for most people, seem from an animal welfare point of view. And I don't think this ban is that bad. Just bothers me a bit I can't keep a komodo dragon in my basement.

But one thing to mention, FL. is not that bad off. The people talking to the media are way ahead of themselves. Like I mentioned don't take advice from a trapper, he benefits from you being scared of the animals, and not wanting them around.

I live here and there are alot of other things trashing the enviroment more so then any non native wildlife could do.

Don't get me wrong I do not condone letting animals lose. But there are other measures you can take rather then a total all out ban.

Yes of course, that's why I think some kind of control would be fine. Sorry for continuing this rant, but now I just read this on rec.pets.herp. It's just so plain sad.
vent - on iguanas

np

i thought there was a reptiles magazine article in the news section about the niles possibley haveing a small breeding population in southern flordia? i could be wrong, but i know i did read about it somewhere last yr.( pretty sure it wasn't online).