Alert ***** S373 ******* Alert

[Chuck]

USARK is sending e-mails out so some of you know about this already but for everyone else check it out.

This has been in the work for a while now but it will be the next big fight for our community and we may stand with much less support this time. This one is Aimed directly at us and is short sweet and devastating to all of us. Please read its short, please get mad, and please get involved. The animal you save will be your own!!!!!!!!!






111th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 373
To amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 3, 2009
Mr. NELSON of Florida introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title 18, United States Code, to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. IMPORTATION OR SHIPMENT OF INJURIOUS SPECIES.
Section 42(a)(1) of title 18, United States Code, is amended in the first sentence by inserting `; of the constrictor snake of the species Python genera' after `polymorpha'.

[Jason Bowden]

I guess people won't be able to have pets in the future.
We will all be like robots.
It's just a big slap in the face. I don't know how to express my feelings about our government and most politicians without getting mad. I will say we need to fight this just like the other so say bans.
Anyone with further knowledge of this: please post it.

[Kristian]

"This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee."
Referenced from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-373


"Bill Nelson has sponsored 141 bills since Jan 22, 2001 of which 125 haven't made it out of committee and 5 were successfully enacted."
Referenced from http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=300078 under "Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship"

This is a senator from FL, and there are no co sponsors for the bill. I seriously doubt this one is going anywhere. This stuff happens every day. This is a big political issue in Florida and his job is to address big political issues in Florida.

I'll definitely keep an eye on this one, but this is probably the last you will ever hear of it. If this goes any further, it might be worth writing a letter to your congressmen about. http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm Personal hand written letters that are precise and to the point are most effective.

[neilgolli]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_everglades_pythons



THE EVERGLADES, Florida (Reuters) – The population of Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said Thursday.

Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat.

"They eat things that we care about," said Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park biologist, as he showed a captured, 15-foot (4.6-meter) Burmese python to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was on his first fact-finding mission to the Everglades since the Obama administration took office.

With Snow maintaining a strong grip on its head, the massive snake hissed angrily at Salazar and the other federal officials who gathered around it at a recreation area off Alligator Alley in the vast saw grass prairie. It took two other snake wranglers to control the python's body.

"A snake this size could eat a small deer or a bobcat without too much trouble," Snow told Salazar before the secretary boarded an airboat for a tour of the Everglades.

Everglades biologists have been grappling with the growing python problem for a decade. The snakes are one of the largest species in the world and natives of Southeast Asia, but they found a home to their liking in the Everglades when pet owners started using the wetland as a convenient dumping ground.

"They're fine when they're small but they can live 25 to 30 years. When they get bigger you have to feed them small animals like rabbits, and cleaning up after them, it's like cleaning up after a horse," Snow said. "People don't want big snakes."

TRAPPERS AND HUNTERS

Pythons captured in the Everglades are often killed. Wildlife officials are trying trapping and other eradication methods, and are considering offering bounties to hunters. Scientists are experimenting with ways to lure the snakes into traps, including the use of pheromones -- chemicals that serve as sexual attractants -- as bait.

"They are estimating there are 150,000 of these snakes. They proliferate so quickly," said Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who accompanied Salazar on the airboat tour of the Everglades. "They've already found grown deer, they've found full sized bobcats inside them. It's just a matter of time before one gets the highly endangered Florida panther."

But biologists played down the risk to the panther, the most endangered species in the Everglades. There are believed to be only about 100 left, but they range over a territory of some 2 million acres.

"It would take some awfully unique circumstances for a python and a panther to meet up," said Darrell Land, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist. "And the cats are very wary and they have very quick reaction times."

Pythons are not the only invader troubling the Everglades.

New fish and rodent species have also become pests, and two thriving colonies of the Nile monitor lizard, an Africa native that can grow to 7 feet in length, have established themselves on opposite sides of the state.

Nelson, a Democrat, said the Obama administration had committed $200 million, including $100 million of stimulus money, so far this year to Everglades restoration, a 35-year project valued at $8 billion when it was started nearly a decade ago.

The project is designed to restore natural water flow and native wildlife populations to the shallow, slow-moving river that dominates the interior of southern Florida.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Mohammad Zargham)

[neilgolli]

watch the video on the link. Its nice to know that a 15 burm can easily eat a 12 foot gator

[Chuck]

This amendment is is so focused on pythons and is short and sweet. Plus it would in politicians eyes solve there large constrictors in the everglades problem. We all know the reality of that is quite different, but its low hanging fruit for a politician. They get to say see look what I did, a notch in the political bed post for them . I think to blow this Bill off as not likely to pass would be a big big mistake. At the very least we should stay aware and ready to put our muscle into play if it needs to be there right?

[OzzyBoids]

Yes, this is far from being enacted... but we must mobilize and respond to fight this when the time comes. Everyone must participate.

Donate to USARK, JOIN, Get on the mailing list AND DONT BE COMPLACENT.

Oz

[Styx]

...Is Nelson a member of PETA?

[ChristinaP]

Someone speak in laymen terms for me. What does this mean to people like us who already have these snakes??

[Kristian]

This amendment is is so focused on pythons and is short and sweet. Plus it would in politicians eyes solve there large constrictors in the everglades problem. We all know the reality of that is quite different, but its low hanging fruit for a politician. They get to say see look what I did, a notch in the political bed post for them . I think to blow this Bill off as not likely to pass would be a big big mistake. At the very least we should stay aware and ready to put our muscle into play if it needs to be there right?

I agree 100%. We should keep an eye on this. Spread the word to make people aware that it exists. Right now the odds say this isn't going anywhere, but that doesn't mean it should be blown off. Keep your eyes and ears open and be prepared to move against it, if it picks up any steam.