9 1/2 foot Burmese Python
Last night, I was watching a show on the Burmese Python problem in Everglades National Park. Not only are there tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of them, they are multiplying rapidly and competing with the native animals for food. Their diet is the same as alligators and are native, harmless snakes. That is until these snakes get huge...and they do get huge. They can grow to 20 feet long and weigh several hundred pounds. They can and will eat birds, rabbits, snakes, adult deer and anything else they can catch.
State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades.
The season is open for Burmese and Indian pythons, African rock pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards. Thousands of the nonnative Burmese pythons are believed to be in the region, upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Wildlife officials on Monday trained a group of hunters on how to identify, stalk, capture and remove the reptiles.
The problem is so out of hand that the experts now predict the snakes will expand their territory beyond the Park and eventually into residential areas....where small children and family pets might be on the menu.
So with a problem of staggering proportions on your hands, what might a really good solution be?
First, charge $ 26 for a python or nuisance snake hunting permit.
Second, open the season for just 6 weeks.
This is classic governmental thinking. Here's my solution. First, don't charge anyone anything. Hey,on a 200 lb. snake there is a lot of meat for a family. My dad used to shoot small birds during the Great Depression to feed his family. Second, eliminate the season. Are you saying that if you kill a Burmese Python during the closed season you could get a fine? Where do these wildlife officials come up with this kind of logic?
Maybe we should post them on America's Most Wanted. John Walsh seems to do a good job of helping to track down killers.
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