Burms and Florida

[Aerries]

I'm really torn on this.

I don't like the many laws about keeping reptiles, that get ever more restrictive. But I think many times the hobbyists themselves are to blame.

Kids will do stupid stuff. That's just genetic. I look around on reptile pages and forums and I'm blown away how many teenagers and very young adults have giants (or hots). Ok, to be fair, some may be able to provide a good home. But realistically, how many of them are going to be able to house (and feed) 16+ foot retics and burms throughout the life of the snake ???

How many of them will be able to do it correctly? How many of them will eventually go off to college, get busy with life, have families with young children, etc ? Yes, you get the rare serious herper that will make it work. And then you will have those that won't take care of them correctly, or get hurt, or get someone else hurt or try to get rid of it. And getting rid of a giant with a possibly nasty temperament because it hasn't been fed right or worked with is NOT easy. Then you will have the ones released into "the wild".

I see those young people have not only one but up to 6 or more of these snakes. All still small and cute of course. What about in 3 years?

The breeders that produce and sell those massive amounts of those giants (huge clutches) can't possibly think there are proper homes for them. Most likely the problems caused by those numbers of unwanted giants will ultimately cause more laws and more restrictions that may just spill over to keeping more manageable species. Already many proposed laws talk about outlawing "constrictors". This isn't fear mongering, its already happening.

Burms are causing real issues in Florida. Its not just the worry about small children, dogs and cats. They are also doing a number on the local wildlife and ecology. I fear the laws will just continue to get stricter.

This is very true, I’m not sure where I saw it but I think it popped up on my google news feed the other day, they just found a burm that was 16ft and had a fawn inside of it, I’ll look it up and post it but yea...it was heavier in mass then itself. White tail if I’m not mistaken. And that’s a SMALL burm in comparison


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[Aerries]

http://www.newsweek.com/florida-burm...ts-deer-827917


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[Aztec4mia]

This is an event that happened back in 2015, it was a small 11ft burm. It was used as an example during a presentation that they claim shows it will out compete the protected Florida panther for food and kill it off. Pythons in Florida have just been a hot topic the last few years, there are plenty other invasive species that have been destroying the Glades that have not been dealt with. As far as the panther, I'm sure the poaching, getting hit by cars, and habitat encroachment have not had a single thing to do with their dwindling numbers.

[Reinz]

Burms are fine in Texas as long as you get a permit, which can be had at any Walmart. It’s done in sporting goods through their hunting license machine.

Same goes for Retics as well.

[Momokahn]

It will only be a matter of time before most exotic snakes become banned by the government. There is nothing more intrusive than our government getting up in private citizens business, but sometimes they are left with no choice. There are so many people that acquire snakes and quickly find out their snake grows up and require as much if not more care and financial obligation than the family dog.

Late last summer, an adult boa constrictor was found here in a pasture in South Central Kansas. Luckily the media didn't catch wind of this story and the snake was found by a person that caught it and turned it in to a local reptile shop. After months of quarantine and tolerating of the snake biting anything within reach, it found a new home of a responsible owner. Now what were the chances of this snake surviving a Kansas winter? Slim to none and slim had just left the building.

Unfortunately, snakes have become more of a fad than a passion. Instead of caring and loving a snake for what they are, it has become more of what new paint job a snake has.

The long time members on this forum have a passion for their snakes and I commend each and everyone of you. At the same time we have all seen the temporary members on this forum that their first post is either "Help, I have no clue", or "I just put down a down payment on a snake I can't afford now or in the future". This is why laws are made against us with more to come in the future.

[artgecko]

It is always a tricky subject when it comes to breeding and selling animals of any type. The more size and danger potential, the more tricky it becomes. It is definitely a difficult job to determine just how much responsibility falls on the seller / breeder vs. the buyer.

Ultimately, IMO, the responsibility falls on the buyer for knowing what they're getting into. That said, I agree that producing giant snakes en-mass is a bad idea. The number of homes that can properly care for these over their entire lifetime has to be very limited. I know that personally, although I own 12 snakes and some other herps, a giant is just not in the cards for me. I don't want to deal with the massive cleanup, feeding bills, or potential danger. I don't necessarily want to take away another person's right to have them though.

If I was ever to keep / breed these, I'd have a hard time selling them without vetting the possible buyers first. Even then, who's going to choose a breeder that wants you to answer a lot of questions, etc. when you can just go to a big name's website and do cash and carry?

I know someone speculated a few years back that the big name breeders were actually selling most of their stock either in Europe or to be used in Asia as meat and skin animals. I'm not sure if anyone actually found any confirmation of that or not, but I could see one of them off-loading the normals or cheaper animals they produce that way.