I’m not a political activist. I used to be a Republican, but was open minded to see Obama; an intelligent, pragmatic gentleman, approach a myriad of problems from a practical angle.

But the lesson here for all of us to consider, whether you like snakes or not, is that every day some politician somewhere, decides he or she knows more than hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people before them. Their only solution is to “say no” and take something away from us, always, always, always, under the guise of doing us a favor, and protecting us. Wake up people.

Yes, I’m bias towards these animals, because I KNOW THEM. They are not what is demonized, nor are they ANY threat that’s been alleged. Just like IRAQ, we are tolerating unreasonable behavior, based on unproven data, to allow our rights, one by one, to be taken away.

Today its Pythons. Tomorrow it’s your daughter’s goldfish. Worse, they’re doing it WITH OUR MONEY.

Didn’t we learn anything from 9-11? Anything?
J. Michael

There is no “upsetting” of the eco system by Pythons. Did a couple hundred, over several years, kill a few rats, birds and other animals “native” to Florida… duh.. yeah. So what? There were an equal number of snakes (or more, no one knows) that were killed by American Alligators and Crocks. Some have been photographed. But in proportions to the vast range of land we’re talking about, and the hundreds of thousands of animals in the Everglades National Park (ENP), this impact is nothing. Worse, whatever it is, it isn’t going to be changed by Mr. Crist and Mr. Nelson, and all their pro bono mercenaries.

Here’s some facts. Fewer than 30 people have been killed by ALL BIG SNAKES around the world, in the last 300 hundred YEARS! This of course does not cover “unreported.” But any statistic will have “unreported” components, so that isn’t relevant.

How many attacks, aside from stupid owners with children, have you heard of from Pythons in Florida? It’s always some stupid owner.

The secret Council that advised the Governor, appointed by him too, I might add—so it’s in their best interest to tell him what he wants to hear—is clandestine. They don’t answer e-mail (I’ve tried), they don’t conduct open discussions, and these seven gurus of wisdom, who are splattered all over the state, from what I can tell, only mingle and gossip and contrive ways to make the Governors policies appear to follow a reaction to something.

In other words, their #1 job, is to find problems, give them a name, then use that as an excuse to move forward on pre-planned policies that otherwise would have had no support. I’ve spent the last two months, studying (as I continue to do for my book) exactly what the impetus of this program was, and where they get their data from.

It keeps coming back to South Florida Water Management, and FL FWC funding. Because the data of harm to the ENP is ludicrous. The list I have of REAL foes to the ENP is endless, and begins with big farming.

I agree with both respondents to my post, and this article on the new proposal of yesterday. It is very easy to get off on a global gripe of all the issues government fails us. I hope that readers will consider that THIS incident is predicated on FALSE and deliberately conjured up information, where the core of it which educated scholars use in advising “the Counsel” comes from ambiguous data.

When I see deliberate falsehoods being used as an instrument to explain a new campaign, I have to wonder what is the REAL mission. That is what all of us should be asking. On the face of it, it seems to be Grant Money and new government programs to hire people for “studies” that do nothing. The only study they have now, is KILL ALL PYTHONS, then open up their stomach and see what it ate. That’s our Florida tax money at work.

Funny thing is, they don’t have a clue what the food it ate means, because they don’t have a mission for quantifying it. Just hire more people, spend more money. KILL.

I agree it’s ridiculous that they use this one incident to now ban an animal that people have had as a pet for years and years.  What about dogs?  How many little kids have they maimed or killed but yet thier is no ban on them.  This is a ludicrous scare tactic.  I think they are just distracting the public (as usual) from the fact that they are raising dmv fees and letting insurance companies raise fees while they cut education money so they can try to look like a hero who wants to protect the public.  If they want to protect me, save me some money and education for the children.

It’s not the snakes that should be banned.. The people who #1, do not keep the animal in a secured cage and #2 the people who do not feed them regularly (snakes need to feed once a week, NOT once a month or whenever you feel like feeding them)... maybe the government should enforce the liscence and microchip orders that have been put in place…how much you wanna bet that snake owner had neither of the two!!

Some powers at large in Tallahassee and Washington better get a grip on all the ramifications of what they obviously don’t understand. Many people see the short term and long term consequences they propose, and it is crossing enough lines in the sand that it will blow up in their face.

This issue has long past being about “snakes” or Pythons, and even saving the public. This is about false information being used to scare the public, so the actions they propose can be justified as being for the public good. We went to war in Iraq (and other places) on similar, ignorance and political manipulation, and it’s reverberating here again, under the pretense of conservation. Our rights are being taken away, and it may be Pythons today, but it will be something else tomorrow for the same proposed reasons stemming the same contorted conclusions, underscored and sold as “for our protection.”

Mr. Crist, Mr. Nelson, do me a favor… don’t protect me anymore. Your price is too high.
—JMM

There are thousands upon thousands of intelligent, God fearing, politically correct, responsible Python owners, breeders, wholesalers, and retailers. These various groups bring in or spend many, many, many millions of dollars per year to Florida. Most of which is Tax revenues. They spend that money in Florida.

If Florida “legislators” were so savy, they would close the loop holes on out of state sales tax to capture the export revenues; call it something else (they’re good at assigning labels).

Beneath these groups is an infrastructure of supplies, from captive raised prey to feed exotics, to cages, medicines and many other small businesses that revolve around the primary group. They pay taxes too. They hire people. The hired people pay taxes.

Shut this down with stupid, thoughtless legislation aimed at fixing something that can’t be fixed, will cause a lot of people to be pissed off. You’ll create a new sub-culture that will thrive, and lose all control over the Everglades.

My #1 Concern, while living here in Florida for 16 years, is that I know first hand that the hysteria driven by the media is initiated by government agencies, self feeding their grant money funding on a cause for solving a problem that does not exist.

Their data is false, exaggerated, out of context and extrapolated from contorted conclusions of hypothetical scenarios. The public is led to believe something dire is ongoing, and these agencies are using lies to fuel fear about an animal that doesn’t deserve it, and a problem for which there is NO evidence of.

I have 25 years studying Pythons and other Boid reptiles. The fact that Governor Crist’s sanctioned killing of these passive animals has only netted 7 or 8 findings, two of which were newly born with their mother, shows how dire this overrunning of our state really is.

Today, our choice in pets is being denied, tomorrow it will be Civil Rights. We cannot afford politicians like Crist and Nelson at any level of service.

I’d like to know what “studies” have been done to the economic effects of Floridians, as well as the State to justify this out of pocket “idea” that these seven commissioners dreamed up. Probably the same studies they did before getting behind the Nazi-like tactics being conducted now under the guise of protecting the Everglades and native species of Florida.

The one I like best though, which reads like a cue card, is the one Crist used today, explaining “this program has been initiated…to look out for the health safety and welfare of the people of Florida, and we’ll do what we need to do to protect them.”

Reminds me of the four police officers who stopped a man for a traffic “check,” then arrested him for Dissorderly Conduct, and in taking him down to the lock up, they stripped him naked, placed hand cuffs and leg cuffs of him and said later, when he had to go to the hospital for injuries inflicted by the police, that they did this to protect him from himself.

More coming