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Florida set to declare open season on pythons - 150,000 snakes "out of control" and spreading.
.ksn.com ^ | 7 13 09

Posted on 07/14/2009 9:09:57 AM PDT by dennisw

MIAMI, Florida (NBC) -- Florida is set to declare open season on pythons.

Biologists have officially declared the south Florida python population of more than 150,000 snakes "out of control" and spreading.

The snakes are squeezing out native predators, and that has many worried.

Florida had considered everything from using volunteers to trap them to training beagles to sniff them out.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto wants action.

"We're developing a plan immediately, that we will roll out, that we will allow people who are trained, supervised by us, to go out and hunt pythons and kill them," he said.

The plan would open 750,000 acres of state land to python hunters with permits.

They would be paid a small bounty for each snake.

The problem is state land is closely intertwined with federal land throughout The Everglades, and Everglades National Park where the pythons got their start.

Hunting isn't allowed there, and the borders between state and federal land often aren't marked.

National Park officials vow to use every non-lethal idea to get rid of pythons instead.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: florida; nationalparks; python; wildlife
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To: DoGodine u Rusiji
"So, what’s the penalty for hunting in Federal land without permission?"


"$10 or 10 days."

61 posted on 07/14/2009 9:46:24 AM PDT by Rebelbase (Obama--POtuS.)
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To: caver
"How are they (National Park Officials) going to get rid of them without using lethal methods?"

Let's hope the sit down with them without preconditions

62 posted on 07/14/2009 9:48:19 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: y'all
2004 story - python vs gator, FWC officers shoot pythons on site

Pythons Gone Wild: Freed Pet Snakes Thrive In Everglades

63 posted on 07/14/2009 9:48:25 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: dennisw

“Is there such a thing as python cowboy boots?”

Frank Zappa mentions python boots in his song “Stinkfoot”.


64 posted on 07/14/2009 9:51:35 AM PDT by mickey finn
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To: hoosierham
Are people just losing their minds?

That is the question of the month - based only on personal survey evidence I would say, "Yes, people are losing their minds." Either that or their minds have been misplaced for quite a while, possibly put up on a high shelf and forgotten.
65 posted on 07/14/2009 9:52:53 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We deserve the government we allow.)
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To: stainlessbanner

“The glades is already the largest snake pit (with the possible exception of the Amazon) - cottonmouths and rattlers are everywhere down there.”

I camped all over the state at least once a month during school and a couple of weeks each summer for 7 years when I was a kid in the scouts. Spent plenty of time in the Glades and Big Cypress and only saw one cottonmouth, a couple of coral snakes and several pigmy rattlers. I saw more of the nasty critters in the central portion of the state than in the Southern, including one rattler that was 8’ long with a head as big as grown man’s fist.

Knowing the pythons are out there might cramp my style to do it again. I saw one in 1977 in an undeveloped part of Coral Gables at snapper creek that had been shot and killed and left lying out on the edge of the swamp, it was a good 10’ long.


66 posted on 07/14/2009 9:55:05 AM PDT by Rebelbase (Obama--POtuS.)
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To: WayneS

My dad told me about rat killing day at school. Perhaps once a year (or whenever deemed necessary), the kids would be told to bring in their bats, clubs, and dogs, because it was going to be a rat killing day. Sure enough, they would smoke them out/poison the inside of the school, as the kids stood around the outside perimeter, ready to bash any escapees. Great fun!


67 posted on 07/14/2009 10:07:43 AM PDT by CHATTAB
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To: Rebelbase
I've seen 6+ footers around Kissimmee. If pythons are spreading, I wouldn't want to camp.

Here's a 7footer this guy caught - huge head.


68 posted on 07/14/2009 10:07:56 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
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To: Rebelbase

I saw a story on Discovery Channel that predicted they would become the dominant predator in the Everglades...over the gator.


69 posted on 07/14/2009 10:09:08 AM PDT by arkfreepdom
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To: In veno, veritas

Send in us cajuns. We’ll cook and eat almost anything.


70 posted on 07/14/2009 10:13:13 AM PDT by chemicalman ("There's a sucker born every minute", PTB, "They all voted for Obama", CM.)
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To: dennisw

How does one get a permit??


71 posted on 07/14/2009 10:14:59 AM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine
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To: stainlessbanner

I heard there is a problem with folks letting exotic vipers loose in the Glades, too - cobras and such......

There is no limit to people’s malicious stupidity. It’s bad enough they caused this python problem by releasing pet snakes. Another account says Hurricane Andrew demolished pet stores and reptile breeders thus releasing many pythons into the wild


72 posted on 07/14/2009 10:16:53 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of zombies)
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To: Richard Kimball
Cobras can get up to eighteen feet long, and can lift 1/3rd of their bodies off the ground.

King Cobras get that big. Most other cobra species are considerably smaller but still quite lethal.

Black mambas can get up to 15' long. A big black mamba has the longest strike range of any venemous snake. Given its extremely toxic venom, its speed (both in movement and strike), its aggressiveness, that it almost never dry-bites, and it usually strikes repeatedly, the black mamba is probably the nastest package of snake on earth. It could certainly survive in Florida, although the grasslands and semi-desert areas of Mexico and the American Southwest are more like its typical habitat.

While I'm generally in favor of freedom of actions in most cases, I don't think that just any yahoo should be able to own a lethal snake. I was informed by our local pet store operator that there are no limitations in my community on owning lethal snakes, such as cobras or mambas. He also told me he knows some unethical dealers who don't screen their customers carefully. Unfortunately, almost all of these typically-tropical snakes could survive the summers and early falls in most of the United States and year-round in the southern parts.

73 posted on 07/14/2009 10:18:18 AM PDT by CommerceComet
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

How does one get a permit??....

They just came up with this plan. Give it a month or two. Florida should invite out of state people to come on down and kill few snakes. After some quick training


74 posted on 07/14/2009 10:19:11 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of zombies)
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To: stainlessbanner

I’m as fond of snakes as the next person ... well, probably more ... but enough is enough.


75 posted on 07/14/2009 10:20:23 AM PDT by Tax-chick (In addition to living on the Riviera, the Goths ...)
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To: dennisw
The idea that a non-native, invasive, destructive species should be protected by law is just stupid, whether inside or outside a national park.

(Add that to the long list of stupid things the federal government does.)

76 posted on 07/14/2009 10:24:28 AM PDT by Campion ("President Barack Obama" is an anagram for "An Arab-backed Imposter")
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets
Make sure you read them their Miranda warnings. Then find a country that will accept them. Maybe just release them in Cuba.

Eventually they'll be given "amnesty" as part of a "comprehensive" wildlife management plan.

Finally, after the native species are crowded out, the pythons will raise the flag of Brazil over the Everglades.

77 posted on 07/14/2009 10:28:55 AM PDT by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: hoosierham

UNDERSTANDING THE REPTILIAN MIND
This MAN described to me hardcore reptilian mind control in the form of murderous thoughts and sado-masochistic mental imagery. It is so rare to obtain this ...
www.tearingdownstrongholds.com/mindcontrol-bartley.htm - Cached - Similar -


78 posted on 07/14/2009 10:39:52 AM PDT by dennisw (Free Republic is an island in a sea of zombies)
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To: dennisw

Probably the national park is sheltering them because they are Uighr Pythons.


79 posted on 07/14/2009 10:56:31 AM PDT by lucias_clay (Its times like this I'm glad I'm a whig.)
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To: dennisw
So are the snakes controlling their "owners"?

I think the Florida training should focus on how to identify the unwanted predators,and how to safely kill as many pythons,cobras,etc. as possible.

80 posted on 07/14/2009 10:56:50 AM PDT by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a credit card?)
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