Snakes in the Lobby (or) The Right to Bear Pythons
Everglades battle: Python v. alligator
Who knew that 25-foot-long snakes had their own lobbyists? Is this a great country or what?
The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council and the United States Association of Reptile Keepers have mounted an attack on two bills in Congress that would add Burmese and African Rock pythons to the Lacey Act’s list of “injurious” species that can’t be imported into the country or shipped from state to state.
Large numbers of the snakes are thought to have escaped into the Everglades when Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida in 1992. Some biologists believe pet owners often release pythons into the wild when the animals grow too large. Estimates of their number now run as high as 150,000.
The Humane Society of the United States says at least 12 persons, including five children, have been killed by pythons since 1980, the latest a 2-year-old who was killed by her mother’s boyfriend’s 12-foot Burmese python in July.
“It’s just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to [an Everglades] visitor,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Lobbyists are coiling back, saying the bills would destroy the $3 billion-a-year captive snake industry. They need a bumper sticker slogan. We recommend: “You’ll get my python when you pry it from my cold, dead, badly-compressed body.”
So by this argument, since somewhere around 80 deaths a year are attributed to horses, and there is a fairly large number of non-native horses that were introduced to the wild in the western US… obviously, we need to ban all horse ownership and importation, and eradicate them from the wild. It’s only a matter of time before one of them gets a visitor to Nevada.
That’s quite the match-up: python vs. alligator. I’m planning something of a similar nature next spring. On one side of my garden, I’m going to plant just cantaloupe seeds. On the other side, it will be cucumbers. Then I’ll wait for the battle, enhanced through time-lapse photography. We’ll see which species wins out. Any takers?