What an accurate estimation of the number of Large Python Owners in the US

There a debate on another forum I'm active on has a people saying that very few people own large snakes, and so a python ban is okay.
I can't find anything on google.

So...this other forum says a ban on everyone's rights is okay because it doesn't impact them specifically?! Or, should I say, YET?

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

So...this other forum says a ban on everyone's rights is okay because it doesn't impact them specifically?! Or, should I say, YET?

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pretty much
People fear and hate what they don't understand.

Oh geeze. TONS of people own large snakes. Just think of it like this... If the big snake breeders that breed the most of the large snakes like Bob Clark with his retics and burms, The Retic Ranch, and many others. Not to mention the countless boa breeders. All of which produce and sell hundreds of these animals a year... There are still many local breeders working with burms even though the laws are tighter on them now too.

No ban is ok. Any ban, no matter how insignificant it may seem to one person, may be a dream down the tubes for another. Each new ban on anything simply opens the door for other bans. That has been painfully obvious with most of the states trying to ban ALL reptiles as pets ever since the burm ban went into effect. USARK has been working their butts off to help the little guy just keep lizards and frogs, as well as all the other reptiles. Monkey see monkey do.

NO ban is ok. I guess the people on this other forum don't know that the HSUS is actually against ALL pet ownership, ALL farming, and ALL consumption of meat or animal products. And that they are the financial and political leaders behind all the ban nonsense.

You can't tell one person that they can keep their pets and then tell another that they can't just because you don't like their pet, or you believe less people own that type of pet. The only reason the general public can't grasp just how big the reptile hobby is, is because they are not a part of it. Hundreds of thousands of reptiles owners seems to be a lot to me..

A locked door is secure, everything is safe.
once you unlock that tiny lock, anything can get through.

You US herp keepers have just had your lock picked.

No kidding : (. What's really sad is the number of reptile keepers that don't see it that way. I have heard a lot of, it doesn't effect me so it's ok.

Not a good attitude to have ever.

While I have some strong opinions about WHO should own large snakes (only people who know what they're getting into and are prepared for the commitment), I think outright banning them is flat stupid. It remains ridiculous that they decided to "solve" a Florida problem with a federal law, especially long after the cat was out of the bag anyway with regard to the Everglades.

No ban is ok, these politicians don't even care about facts. All they want is to get a law passed with their names on it, to achieve political fame. Look at the facts on what happened in Florida, it doesn't make sense at all but laws were still passed.

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Originally Posted by Navy

There a debate on another forum I'm active on has a people saying that very few people own large snakes, and so a python ban is okay.
I can't find anything on google.

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According to USARK's economic summary of the reptile industry submitted submitted to the Office of Management and Budget regarding the USFWS proposed rule change to add 9 species of constrictor snake to the Injurious Wildlife Listing of the Lacey Act, there are approximately "2 million breeding age animals valued at $800,000,000:
http://usark.org/wp-content/uploads/...0Testimony.pdf

According to HSUS' own statistics, there have been "13 people have been killed in the U.S. by pet pythons -- which are also constrictors -- since 1980."
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/10...#ixzz1zo1ed1PC

13 fatalities/30 years= An average of 0.43 deaths per year.

There are roughly 70 million dogs kept in the United States, and an average of ~35 dog related fatalities EVERY year.

Dogs- 35/70 Million x 100 =0.00005%
Constrictors- 0.4/2 Million x 100= 0.00002%

So, even while it may be true there are far more dogs kept in captivity than large snakes, one is, based on these percentages of verified statistics, still over twice as likely to be fatally injured by a dog than by a large snake...