Yeah they pay by the lb too. I had heard it was very competitive. There is big money in it, so,naturally lots want the tags. One fella thst lives there and gets tags invites Troy Landrieu and friends to come down and help him fill. Them.
Probably pretty near impossible for outsiders to get many tags- gotta have connections I guess.
It is claimed that the explosion in snakes happened after one of the hurricanes destroyed a snake sanctuary where they were “studying the snakes”.
A friend of mine lost his female Burmese at a lake party near Homestead, in the early ‘80s. I’m pretty sure the pet trade was responsible for a lot of the problem. Same with some of the lizards. There are companies that catch the wild specimens in Florida, and sell them around the world. Knight Anoles, chameleons, tegus, iguanas...