Dangerous Snakes-Should Sales Be Banned?

[Kaorte]

You mean like when they assumed that a giant python they found in the first Key of Key West...Just over the bridge...They said something to the effect it crawled all that way from South Florida to there.....I personally don't think any snake would survive a crawl that far on a busy highway. I'm sure it was a dump and run situation.

I think if anything should be banned it should be stupid owners who buy things for the novelty of it or for macho crap.

I don't like this micro chipping stuff. It's known, particularly in cats, to cause sarcomas. I wonder if it would do the same this a snake?

Maybe you tatoo a number on their belly? Or would it just shed off eventually.

Sorry for the mistake of poisonous and venomous.

I have not heard of microchipping causing any problems with reptiles.

It is a shame that you can't ban stupidity :/

[Jay_Bunny]

I have 2 out of 4 of my cats chipped. I would chip all my reptiles if I could afford to do so.

[wolfy-hound]

Pretty much the only way to permanently ID a snake is microchipping.

Everyone is quite correct in that Florida we have a permitting system. It's a very good system. The main problem I see is that you get the microchip at 4 inch in girth, so if a owner gets a baby burmese for example.. it's too small the get microchipped.. so later on.. what makes them get that microchip put in?

People continually forget.. giant pythons were not all taken down to the Everglades and released by bad owners. When you can't get a owner to take the snake down to the humane society.. why does ANYONE believe they would drive all the way down to the southern tip of Florida to release it?

So since the feral population is supposed to have been caused by breeding/holding facilities being destroyed by hurricanes.. how exactly does a permitting system for responsible reptile owners help the Everglades?

Still waiting for the explantion of how the snakes being owned as pets are dangerous too.

[MarkS]

The main question in my mind is who decides what is dangerous? I have a pair of adult albino Burmese pythons. They're proven breeders though I haven't bred them in a number of years. They're not particularly large, but they are a fairly average size and I watch what they eat quite closely to ensure that they're not overweight. (I'd guess that most of the burms I see in peoples collections are obese) And quite frankly, I'd much rather be bitten by one of them then by my neighbors black lab. Sure, it would hurt but it likely wouldn't cause as much damage or require as many stitches.

Yes, in certain circumstances my snakes could be considered dangerous. Heck a bucket of water could be considered dangerous under certain circumstances. This is where education comes in, knowing the proper way to handle and work with the animal goes a LONG way towards mitigating any possible danger. Following just a few rules of safe handling will drop the danger to very nearly zero.

Don't waste your time listening to a bunch of truth twisting politicians or special interest groups who are either badly misinformed or outright lying due to the millions, if not billions of $pecial intere$t$ at $take.