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Another "Modest Proposal" from the right for handling the "excess burden"... Let the snakes eat 'em.
Don't send the homeless - send animal-rights activists. After all, they ar the ones who keep insisting that animals must be treated the same as humans, if not better.
More wildlife was affected in the Everglades by the aggressive water "management" or rather mismanagement policies in Florida over the decades, than a few pythons loose. No one seems to scream and rant about that issue...I guess it is not too sensational to write headlines about greedy farmers in Florida who took acres of water from normal drainage and turned the Everglades into a virtual desert, eliminating and descimating animal habitat. That is the real crime, and completely changed the landscape of the Everglades. But no one cares about that virtual environmental rape. Let's just blame pythons for all of the problems.
Of course the farms and big sugar around Okeechobee has had a major impact on the glades and has been extensively written about. The 'glades was not, is not, a virtual desert before the pythons but, the pythons are not "a few pythons loose". It is a compounding problems and we have to start somewhere. At one point in recent time, Florida was going to buy out the sugar interests and the whole deal was probably interconnected with greed, corruption and politics but, where do you start ? Yes, there is/was mismanagement of water. I don't know all the answers but I know poopooing the invasive species is not the answer. There are very few lakes left in Florida that is not covered up with hydrilla. That is an invasive specie of water grass that clogs up boat motors and the waterways. Yes, I understand the fish like it but, what about swimmers, recreational boaters ?
Florida is a breeding ground for anything that comes along because of the lax laws and temperate climate. Most humans are a bad enemy of old Mother Nature, JMO.
eta: don't forget we had to stop the killing of plume birds in the 'glades before whole specie were decimated to extinction. they still haven't completely recovered.
Toyman - the Feds introduced non-native alligators into the Tennessee River a few decades ago - now we have a thriving (and expanding) population. Turns out they tolerate cold winter weather after all. No natural predators and now we've got 12-14 foot gators that are illegal to shoot. Thanks Feds!
The state of Florida, in its infinite wisdom, decided that one has to have a permit and a season to hunt pythons.
They are all the way up here in Central Florida, we saw one not long ago.
Poor thing died from fright!
Very interesting, thanks for the info.
Question kshe, do people who live in Florida consider this python/anaconda issue to be a national disgrace and something to be ashamed of?
They took two captured "birthed" American wild pythons that were found in Florida to North Carolina.
The put them in an enclosure over the winter, exposed to the elements.
No one suspected they would survive. The winter was particularly harsh (I believe this was two or three years ago).
They survived.
Pythons have been found with alligators in their bellies. Their numbers are increasing. They aren't going away, and it won't be just Florida.
I saw that same program but I can't remember what channel it was on and can't find it with google. I think it may have been Nature or Nat Geo. People are in denial.
shameful? maybe. shortsighted and stupid, certainly.
which president created the evironmental protection agency?
Yes, shameful. The GOP outlook on the environment is absolutely shameful. They backpedaled on environmental issues as only true hyoocrites are want to do.
which president created the evironmental protection agency?
Whichever one it was, the GOP is doing one helluva job trying to corrupt and dismantle it.
More wildlife was affected in the Everglades by the aggressive water "management" or rather mismanagement policies in Florida over the decades, than a few pythons loose. No one seems to scream and rant about that issue...I guess it is not too sensational to write headlines about greedy farmers in Florida who took acres of water from normal drainage and turned the Everglades into a virtual desert, eliminating and descimating animal habitat. That is the real crime, and completely changed the landscape of the Everglades. But no one cares about that virtual environmental rape. Let's just blame pythons for all of the problems.
The issue seems to be that the pythons are eating everything in site.
One of the links I perused discussed a python eating a 6 foot alligator.
Apparently all smaller species are being eaten.
Pythons can have 54 progeny at a time.
Why do we have Burmese pythons being imported?
I can't bring cheese from Europe into the US. The cheese is processed.
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