‘High-risk’ reptiles might face ban in Florida
Florida wildlife officials are planning to ban owning or breeding six types of pythons, the green anaconda and nine other “high-risk” reptiles. Serpent lovers said it’s nothing less than a state-orchestrated snake-pocalypse targeting their pets and businesses.
Biologists said the scaly subjects of the prohibition wreak ecological mayhem by swallowing native birds, mammals as large as deer, and in the Bumese python’s case, also spread a foreign parasite that chokes native pygmy rattlesnakes to death.
But critics of the proposal said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission lacks science to justify the ban, is biased against their trade, and has much bigger exotic fish and invasive
species to fry than snakes kept by hobbyists.
To Bob Potts, FWC’s new reptile rule reeks of regulatory overreach, verging on — well — cold-blooded.
“FWC is just really throwing us under the bus with this,” said Potts, owner of Herp Hobby Shop in Oldsmar. “It’s completely arbitrary. That’s why we’re all fired up about this.”
The FWC said Burmese pythons and the other 15 exotic species are a significant threat to Florida’s ecology, economy and human health and safety. And it’s not cheap. The FWC and its federal partners spend more than $8 million a year to manage not just the animals but the destruction they cause. Iguanas burrow into and cause extensive damage to seawalls, canal banks, roads and water control structures. And dealing with tegu lizards alone consumes a third of the agency’s budget for managing invasive species.
So at the FWC’s meeting on Thursday, the wildlife commission plans to make final proposed rules that will:
Eliminate commercial breeding and pet ownership of 16 high-risk reptiles to protect Florida’s environment and economy.
● Put these high-risk reptiles on the state’s prohibited species list, limiting possession to permitted facilities engaged in educational exhibition, research or eradication or control activities.
The 16 reptiles include Burmese pythons; reticulated pythons; scrub pythons; Northern African pythons; Southern African Pythons; amethystine pythons; green anacondas; Nile monitor lizards; tegus (all species) and green iguanas.
“The reptile industry as a whole is concerned with broad actions like this because, even though this draft rule might not be directly affecting your pet reptile today, if it passes as currently written, any reptile might be prohibited next,” said Pete Bandre, owner Incredible Pets in Melbourne.