Posted on 09/01/2013 7:53:48 PM PDT by Doogle
Edited on 09/01/2013 8:00:35 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Florida officials seeking to eradicate a species of giant snails that is invading the state are training Labrador retrievers to help in the fight.
Reuters reports state agriculture authorities are engulfed in an aggressive extermination campaign to snuff out an invasion of Giant African Land Snails, one of the world's most destructive invasive species. Since the campaign started, authorities have collected 128,000 of the snails.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
"smells like slick snail poop"
ping
“The species has no natural enemies”
Except maybe for the French. Break out the garlic butter!
Could we train those snails to eat all the foreclosed houses? “No skin off my back!”
So how did these really LARGE critters end up on our shores???
Probably the way zebra mussels got to the Great Lakes- crew of a cargo ship dumped the bilge water.
They were being eradicated back in Africa, so they asked for asylum.
Believe it or not, there is a shortage of houses on the market in South Florida.
hadn’t thought of that....but with current administration.....
//Florida officials seeking to eradicate a species of giant snails that is invading the state are training Labrador retrievers to help in the fight.//
Only in Florida ping.
This is among the limited set of citizen actions which I actually want the government to regulate. If irresponsible pet owners are going to subject neighbors to escaped chimps, tigers, mountain lions and the like, and turn Florida and the rest of the US into a second home for anacondas, Burmese pythons, African rock pythons, Nile monitor lizards, Caimans, and now really big snails - then pet ownership of exotic species in private homes should be banned and they should only be acquired by zoos qualified to house these animals and ensure that they don’t escape into the wild or some neighbor’s backyard.
Time for a muzzle rub.
My springer spaniels do not know how to retrieve giant snails, but they are highly trained bacon retrievers.
According to another article on the subject:
“It’s thought that the invasion began with the smuggling of a few snails into Florida by a man who practices a traditional African religion. He reportedly convinced some followers to drink the snails’ juices. They became violently ill.”
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