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Release snake owners into the Everglades if they can't account for their Python.

By Steve Lombardi

I took up the suggestion of Bob Mooney, a person who commented on yesterday's post concerning the Burmese Snakes invading the Florida Everglades and looked up Dr. Mazzotti.

Releasing exotic wildlife in Florida is a first-degree misdemeanor with a penalty of up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. It's amazing to me that teachers having sex with an adult high school student is a felon whose name appears on the sexual predator list for ever and people costing us hundreds of millions of dollars each year are allowed to get away Scott free. Why not make them all buy a permit and every year the Conservation Commission can check to see if the owners still have the 'reptiles of concern' and if they don't, then drop the owner off in the Everglades National Park with a two-way radio. When they find their snake they can call in for a boat ride out.

I reviewed the sources below and learned that according to the National Geographic article a 1999 Cornell University study the United States is spending $137 billion a year trying to control the thousands of non-native animals and plant species that have been introduced into the U.S. in the previous decade. I searched but was unable to find any study online. So I'm unable to confirm the Cornell Study. I recall the Bush Administration chanting freedom isn't free; you aren't kidding.

"Some invasive species may be "stowaway" organisms that arrive here inside packing materials, or micro-critters that are dumped from ships' water tanks. But many plants and animals also enter the U.S. as part of the booming trade in exotic pets or food.

Burmese pythons are popular—and legal—pet snakes. In the past five years, the U.S. has imported more than 144,000 Burmese pythons. Hatchlings sell for as little as U.S. $20. But once the cute little baby snakes turn into 15-foot-long (5-meter-long) beasts, some owners may decide to get rid of their pets by dumping them in the forest.

All of the Burmese pythons that we see in the park are a product of the international pet trade," said Skip Snow, a wildlife biologist at Everglades National Park. "

Since the mid-1990's park rangers have captured or killed 68 Burmese pythons in Everglade National Park.

According to Dr. Susan Evans at the University College in London, the Burmese Python is one of the world's largest snakes that like swamps, marshes and grasslands. It can move easily either on the ground, in the water or even in trees.

'Python molurus is one of the world's largest snakes, with records of up to 9.15 m in length. It belongs to the family Boiidae (subfamily Pythoninae) and is distributed across Asia from Pakistan to Indonesia and South China, with two distinct subspecies. P. m. molurus is the Indian python (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka) while P. m. bivittatus is the Burmese python (Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsula Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia and South China).

The Burmese python frequents forests near water bodies, swamps, marshes and grasslands. It can move easily in the trees, on the ground, and in water, and is a nocturnal hunter. It has special heat receptors to locate warm prey. Like other boiids, the Burmese python kills by constriction and suffocation, coiling around the prey and slowly tightening the coils further each time the victim breathes out. It does not crush. Prey animals include a wide range of taxa from small mammals to deer and even leopards.'

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimate's that 99,000 Burmese pythons were imported into the United States between 1996 and 2006, as compared to 17,000 between 1970 and 1995.

Thousands of pythons are also captive bred each year in the U.S. for sale as pets. Burmese pythons sell at reptile trade shows for as little as $20, and at pet stores for $65-80. An inexperienced snake keeper who takes home a 50-centimeter (20-inch) hatchling is, within a year, responsible for a brawny 2.4-meter (eight-foot) predator. Unable to handle their giant snakes, and unable to find new homes for them, some owners illegally release them into the wild. Released and escaped Burmese pythons are now breeding in the wild, and their growing numbers may result in dire consequences for native wildlife and ecosystems in South Florida.

Table 1. Prey species found in the digestive tracts of Burmese pythons collected and examined in Florida (Modified from Snow et al. 2007a).

Mammals

Rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.)

Hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus)

Cotton mouse (Peromyscus gossypinus)

Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Fox squirrel (Sciurus niger)

Domestic cat (Felis catus)

Raccoon (Procyon lotor)

Old world rats (Rattus sp.)

Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana)

Bobcat (Felis rufus)

Round-tailed muskrat (Neofiber alleni)

Rice rat (Oryzomys palustris)

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Key Largo woodrat (Neotoma floridana smalli)

Birds

Pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)

Limpkin (Aramus guarauna)

White ibis (Eudocimus albus)

American coot (Fulica american)

House wren (Troglodytes aedon)

Domestic goose (Anser sp.)

Reptiles

American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)

A partially digested defense lawyer and three partially digested tort reformers. The snakes died during the digestive process.*

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission cover Florida's nonnative species. Nonnative reptiles list includes four kinds of snakes: Javan Filesnake, Common Boa, Burmese Python and the Brahminy Blind Snake.

379.305 Rules and regulations; penalties.--

(1) The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission may prescribe such other rules and regulations as it may deem necessary to prevent the escape of venomous reptiles or reptiles of concern, either in connection of construction of such cages or otherwise to carry out the intent of ss. 379.372-379.374.

(2) A person who knowingly releases a nonnative venomous reptile or reptile of concern to the wild or who through gross negligence allows a nonnative venomous reptile or reptile of concern to escape commits a Level Three violation, punishable as provided in s. 379.4015.

379.4015 Captive wildlife penalties.--

9. Section 379.305, relating to release or escape of nonnative venomous reptiles or reptiles of concern.

(b)1. A person who commits any offense classified as a Level Three violation and who has not been convicted of a Level Three or higher violation within the past 10 years commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

* Sorry I couldn't help myself.

Learn more about the Burmese Python and the Florida Everglades National Park by visiting these sites:

MSNBC - Florida's high-tech attack on unwanted snakes

USA Today - Python-Gator Battle Highlights Problem in Everglades

CNN.com - Predators in Paradise

NationalGeographic.com - Huge Freed Pet Pythons Invade Florida Everglades

Davidson College - Biologist's Surgical Skill Employed to Help Track Unwanted Pythons

CollegeNews.org - Davidson Biologist Tracking Pythons in Florida Everglades

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on June 08, 2009 (boomark / email).