Why anyone feels that a python or a rattlesnake is an appropriate pet is beyond me. Wild & deadly animals should not be kept as pets. And if you have one but can no longer care for it, either take it to the SPCA or put it down. It is irresponsible to release it into the community or the wild. The python is not indigenous to Fla and therefore has no natural enemy to control its population. If they can kill alligators, what chance do people have against them? As one posters commented, they should put out a reward for killing them.

Certain segments of our population, which shall remain nameless, seem to like owning large snakes !

Its probaly the same ones who have to drive around in Corvettes

What an assinine statement !!!

As the saying goes, the bigger the snake, the smaller the wood pecker...

Why are they letting these researchers capture these beautiful snakes? They live nowhere else in the USA, they are a severely endangered species. Where are the federal game wardens to arrest these poachers in our national parks? A python is an animal, which means it is part of nature, and anything that is part of nature is automatically and always perfect and in need of protection. Right? Think about that the next time you are about to use "it's natural" as an argument. Nature created bubonic plague and Josef Stalin, as well as whales and baby seals. When you die from something "natural" you're still just as dead.

SAD; Your kidding, right ?

This problem is very easy to solve. The burmese python is native to Southeast Asia. You simply round up massive amounts OF CATS WHO ARE ALSO NATIVE TO SOUTHEAST ASIA ---- AND LET THEM ALL LOOSE IN THE EVERGLADES.

There are 12 cats native to Southeast Asia. They are:

Rusty-Spotted Cat

Flat-headed Cat

Bornean Bay Cat

Iriomote Cat

Leopard Cat

Marbled Cat

Jungle Cat

Fishing Cat

Asiatic Golden Cat

Clouded Leopard

Leopard

Tiger

Releasing these cats into the Everglades will very quickly take care of the python problem. Bon Appetit!

Sad..is that sarcasm?

They are NOT indigenous to that area...they are killing all the OTHER NATURAL animals...

I don't like it that they have to be caught and killed, but they don't belong there.

The reason they are there is MAN...careless, stupid, selfish people that have no sense at all.

God I hope you are kidding...

Yes, I was being sarcastic, it was too easy an opportunity to poke fun at the ridiculous idea that nature has some special magic way of making everything wonderful and perfect. I've seen people dying from overdoses of herbal folk remedies saying in disbelief "it can't be that, it's NATURAL, it can't hurt me!" I know it's not nice to mock morons, but sometimes I just can't help it. My bad.

"People are so stupid?" This statement is obviously cleverly crafted and deserves an extraordinary amount of merit to your on intellect.

To: "b-835713" comparing a rattlesnake to a python is a gross generalization. Keeping a VENOMOUS (not poisonous though I doubt you know the difference between the two) Rattlesnake probably isn't a great idea, I agree. However, owning a python such as Python regius, Morelia spilota, etc. or those that only get to a small and moderate length have no danger to humans what so ever. A burmese python is by far no more dangerous than a doberman, pitbull, or any other large breed of dog.

-"Johhny N", Who are you talking about? I own large snakes and I have my degree in Biology? What is your degree in? Being a bigot, racist, and anti-intellectual?

Airbag, apparently I know more about people who own big snakes than you do ! where did you get your degree? In a cracker jack box ? JACK0@% ! And I have no problem with people who have college degrees , just the ones with useless biology degrees that get paid off the public taxpayer !!

I own 4 of these great snakes and they are no more dangerous than any other large pet.. In fact my misses has more injuries from her rabbits than I've ever had.

Keeping these as pets is great if you can care for them and keep them safe..

The fact of this article is that it's made to confuse you into thinking the Everglades are over-run with large dangerous snakes and gives your government fuel to push through stupid laws restricting trade, keeping and even education of these wonderful creatures.. What utter crap...

So much for the land of the free..!

They probably already do.

overreact much?

You can't legally buy a large snake in Florida without a permit that's very difficult to obtain, and the snake must be microchipped and registed with the State....

Aren't most people in FL living in tin shanties since most got their houses repossed

If they all are already microchipped it seems like it would be easy to find them & then nail them to a tree

So you're blaming pet stores for other peoples incompetence? It isn't the pet stores fault people made poor decisions. Why don't you pull your head outta your arse.

what we need is less regulation on pet shops....its kinda like banking ,oil and gun regulations....we just need less regulation. they are strangling our economy! vote Ron Paul........right PGWP?

We simply need a ban on all imported animals, snakes or other reptiles. No more invasive species. I also like the idea of the bounty, which would help many of the people living in or near the everglades.

We need better regulation at pet shops, most states have laws, but are only enforced if its dogs.
If you ban all imported species, you can kiss 99% of the dog species good bye, since most are not native to the US, almost all fish would be gone, all reptiles gone, etc. If a pet store only carried US native species, it would be a small collection. It would put the pet industry at a stand still, which was a $50 billion dollar industry last year.
Say you get all imported animals banned, what are you gonna do with the banned pets that people already have? Are you gonna take away little Timmys Golden Retriever? The US already has a law on the books about banned species.
Instead of attacking the pet industry, how about going after the irresponsible @!$%#s that get rid of these pets. Toughening the penalties for the laws we already have on the books and actually enforcing them would be a huge step forward. The only real risk you run of importing a banned species to the US is a huge fine, very minimal jail time if any at all.

Sounds like a good idea, of course, PETA will come along and complain.

That actually has been considered, but the problem is that people not familiar with an evasive python or a native snake will kill native ones and drastically bring down that population and further imbalance the ecosystem. Letting a bunch of yahoos with no knowledge of a garter snake from a python with the promise of cash can create more problems rather than solve them. Only a licensed, educated bounty hunter should be allowed to go a-snake-huntin'.

Jerry, get a grip! It doesn't take a genius to tell a python from a garter snake , you dope !

To easy..we must have a study to decide on a study to propose an environmental impact study then find a green mode of transport into the Glades all the while not impact the titmouse's mating season...

All-you-can-eat Everglades python burger served in python pet owner reduction sauce 99¢. Problem solved!

Python molurus breeds well in captivity. For $100 per snake bounty, there might be some people who start breeding them and then collect the bounty on their own snakes. Whether it is pythons or starlings, the introduction of exotic species can have huge impact on native species. For the starling we can thank the American Acclimatization Society which tried to introduce every bird mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.

@ Dale, Thats actually a good points that I did not consider.

Awesome trivia zing Dale. Never heard of the AAS before. Just goes to show you, truth is stranger than fiction, who could make up something like that? Somebody's gonna sound like they can read at the next party <----------- THIS GUY!

what we need is less regulation on pet shops....its kinda like banking ,oil and gun regulations....we just need less regulation. they are strangling our economy! vote Ron Paul........right PGWP?

that gun is so manly! makes me feel like you have some balls! real tough!

Frank,

That would be an incredibly cheap way to fix this. You really don't want to eat the meat from these snakes, because some of the meat in past snakes was found to contain large concentrations of mercury.

I think surrviivor ate too much of that snake tainted with mercury, and it is affecting his or her brain in a negative way. Its getting difficult to tell male from female these days.

The meat also contains a high level of mercury. So I wouldn't eat it. I don't necessarily agree with killing an animal so you can wear it. But your idea is by far the best action that could have been taken.

Even at a bounty level of $5 a snake, there will be people raising them for profit.

Still, if some are captured for breeders, it will reduce the population in the wild (or slow the increase.)

Maybe they can spray some chemical from airplanes - that worked pretty well to control the fire ants. (Hilarity ensues.)

i HATE SNAKES!

HAHAHAHA!

You want to be compassionate, but you don't have the facts. Pythons are not a native species. Civilization in Florida has nothing to do with this species. Pythons don't belong in the Everglades.

People, please educate yourselves before you make such idiotic statements while trying to make yourselves look like some do gooder animal rights activist.

Faho, I couldn't agree with you more. But, it's easier to blame it on the snakes than take responsibility and reduce the human impact on our disappearing wetlands.

Although I do think that something should be done to reduce non-native animal and plant populations. Banning importation of non-native species is a good first step - but a little like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out, in this case.

That's a bogus reason. Look at whitetail deer - more people than ever and more whitetail than ever.

I agree with Faho & Debie_E: The snakes are just an easy scapegoat because many people irrationally fear them. It's only human nature to seek an easy scapegoat to make it look like something major is being done rather than try to actually fix the biggest problems in the form of human impact on the wetlands and the introduction of far more invasive species e.g. cats.

and I guess it was not the snakes that took out the birds on Guam either.

No, you're correct on that one. The brown tree snake did do quite a number on the birds in Guam as was found by legitimate studies rather than ones that were purposely skewed.

we can't find a scapegoat some big snakes ate em all.

um...I blame the pythons...

Alur, I'm far from a "compassionate do-gooder". I've eaten my share of responsibly harvested wildlife; and will continue to do so. Including snake. I'm also a responsible pet owner - and over the course of my life, that has also included several large snakes - including many boas and a rescued reticulated python - who was evil incarnate btw and was eventually put down. No one here has a lock on ALL the facts of this situation. If one of us did, we would be out working on a solution rather than wasting our time here trying to call someone else's observation "an idiotic statement".

But overlooking your lack of tact; what really irks me is the way this story - about a very real problem - gets spun up to sound apocalyptic - just because "big bad scary snakes" are involved. There have been exactly TWO confirmed deaths by constricting reptiles in the US in the last decade. There are more people in the US killed by dogs each month.

Feral cats can wipe out local populations of songbirds across the country. Feral dogs kill deer and other mammals by the thousands across the US every day. Neither dogs nor cats are native to the US either. Will there be an outcry to ban these animals and crucify their owners (and just like most of the comments here - I make no distinction between responsible or irresponsible owners) to protect the environment and save the children? I thought not.

txrbt - not "bogus" per your whitetail reference, just different habitats. Whitetail thrive in an area of mixed woodland (cover) and open, grassy pasture type areas for forage. Like suburbia... More suburbs - more habitat. Florida panthers (and the other declining species mentioned in the story - remember the story?) thrive only in deep woods and wetlands. Which are being drained, filled and encroached upon by more human (and whitetail) habitat. Yes - the snakes are a problem. But not the only problem.

@sad..really? @Faho, I agree with you, but man and animal have not been at ease since we decided to procreate beyond common sense. You would think, in this day and age we would stop allowing animals on the extinct list and stop building around big brown bears and blame them! I think we will not stop evolving, or hurt the balance of nature, if FL chases a lot of big damn snakes and gives them in a nice home in a tourist location of their own! We always tilt one way, and then another. Living in TX, we now have a coyote problem and many of our white tail deer have no food due to drought and over building.

I am all for lock down. Humanly take care of the problem and use common sense. Seems a lot to ask...

Hello world. If you would like to see stupid up close and personal, just come to America, as we have a burgeoning population of Stupid.

Well said, Faho.

Faho, there are several canine and feline species native to North America.

Your statement that dogs and cats are non-native is incorrect. Persian cats and Russian wolfhounds are not native, but your statement was broad.

alur, I agree that it shouldn't be a problem to kill these non-native animals on sight. However, I think that animal rights activists don't object so much to the killing of these snakes but to the practice of nailing them to a tree and skinning them alive. I don't know why this is done(?), but I don't have a problem with folks shooting the snakes as you recommend, and then skinning them.

Debi,

Thats how they keep track of how many are being killed

Damn......I sure hope that you didn't procreate !!!!

Sure did & all my kids are beating the wetlands for these damn snakes. All sorts of things can be made with snake skin

I read an article about this in the LA Times a couple of years ago. They are killing the snakes humanely. They cut a small incision in the head and scramble the brain. Not skinning them alive.

What a joke PETA is anyways!!! Who cares about slithering slimmy snakes anyways, I hate them.. Love all these blogs thow!!! hahahahaha

HaHa, slithering...slimy...you just described peta.

No! 123freedom. That slithering,slimy, totally describes the United States government.

snakes aren't slimy...............not slimmy either

right snakes are not pets . unless you are idiotic..yes thanks idiots.

You're clearly a very intelligent person. Snakes make great pets, but since you don't have one you wouldn't know, yet you are an expert on it? Hmm... go to college.

Jungle Jim 2, how do they taste? Florida can be the first state to offer a Snake McNugget. Just pure snake meat mixed with the other thirty-seven ingredients that are in a McNugget.

Tastes like chicken. At least that's what rattlesnake is like - fishy chicken that is.

They do eat these in other less developed countries.

OK, we have one post about Bachmann, and one about Obama. Is your life so shallow that you have to filter everything through your political system before you excrete it on these boards?

I agree with the bounty of 100.00 for every python brought in.

It would easier and cheaper in the long run to bounty these animals then to let the Govt try to solve the problem. They'll study it for 10 years before they act and then fail miserabley . I almost forgot it was G.Bushes fault.

Actually, I read one post that may have the answer, or at least a solution to the problem of these snakes, even the wild hog problem.

Open hunting, place a bounty on these "invasive" animals. $10.00 a pound for these animals, the meat to go to feed the homeless or prisoners. No bag limit, no "season", just hunt them down, to eradication. the natural animals don't have a chance, the panther, the bob cat, and all the rest deserve their habitat protected.

And the jokes about politicians aside, this really is a serious problem that needs prompt action, and not the men and women in animal control catching one or two at a time, but hunters killing for bounty. Until then, florida will never have these alien creatures under control.

Why not bring a bunch of hogs to Fl & see how the hogs & snakes get along

Gary Schneider-416437, the snakes would eat the hogs. If it's a mammal, they'll eat it.

problem with the cash bounty is some people will just start breeding them to collect the bounties

they already have the hog problem. and the hogs, if they live to get 200lbs or more, there is not a snake big enough to eat them.

swamp people "gitten them dang snakes" heck yeah! I like it.

Your right Bio. Tigers would be a bigger problem.

That's animal cruelty..

I'd pay to see that.

he's pretty bloated

Really? There's no good reason for anyone to have a dog, cat, or any other pet for that matter yet people get all offended when regulations are imposed on those animals despite the fact that they do more damage to the environment (cats) and kill/injure more people in a year than these snakes do in a decade (dogs).

Outlaw....you mean more regulations? Keep that talk up and the GOP will never accept you

Calm down pray....

I have giant pythons as my Home Security System. They don't bark.

Can't we walk and chew gum at the same time, Paul? Your right that there are bigger problems, but someone has to work on the smaller problems. By the way, if the pythons can't find any more wildlife food because they have eaten it all, they will begin hunting small humans.

So I guess it's ok for the pythons to eat other people's kids, wife and pets, just so that it's not your family being eaten? If you are so concerned about feeding the homeless, why don't you go out and kill some of these snakes and donate the meat? While you are at it, kill some feral pigs and donate that meat. But then again, they haven't affected your life, family, livestock or livehood. And it would also involve you actually doing something, which I assume from your post that that is not on your agenda. The "real" problems are ignorant people assuming that everything is everyone else's problem/fault and not doing anything themselves to correct the problem. Just sit back paul and let BO's "change" work for you

when the snakes run out of rabbits I think the homeless problem will just disappear.

pythons eat alligators and alligators eat plenty of people down here I guess the snakes will start with people soon enough

.. I'll take the alligators

alligators eat plenty of people down here

23 people in 40 years. It's a phucking massacre of epic proportions, I tell ya...

Haha, that's a good one.

On a serious note, a slight increase in coyotes, Florida panthers, and other native predators would lead to decreased populations of their prey items, so why would someone discount that result unless they were trying to put the blame on something else in order to cover up something worse?

Funny, cuz isn't the Republican Presidential Circus currently touring that state?