Heh, not too far from what's going on though. I live near the Glades and the enviro-kooks have a lot of leverage 'round these parts. I'm sure many even kill them without admiting it. After all, one of those could cost a person tens of thousands of dollars. People have been killed for less.
You know what landowners and contractors do when they find gopher tortoises on their property? They put them in a bag and cart them far off, nobody wants them within miles of their property.
I was talking to a "environmental consultant" because we're thinking of building our next place. See, where I live, everyone has to spend several hundred dollars doing "environmental studies" on prospective property (that's before you even buy anything) because if you don't you can really get screwed if the property has this type of soil, or that type of plant. You could incur huge fees (money grab for the compassionate animal loving government), or not be able to build at all. Some people spend lots of money on these surveys before they even find something worth building on.
Anyway, I was talking to this guy at his house when I heard a bird call. He told me what type of bird it was (some sort of crane) and then said "If I found one of those on your property, you'd have a big problem". Even though these stupid birds fly miles each day not seeming to care where houses, cars or anything else man -made is located.
My first thought was that this friggin' joker is not getting one dime of my business. My second thought was what size shot would be good to use for a crane.
Sorry for the long post, but most good jokes (like yours) have basis in reality.
ACK! The above sentence was meant to be added at the end of the gopher tortoise paragraph!
Talk about a fraudian slip! I hope that didn't trigger a "visit". Or yet monitoring under the "Patriot Act".