While I disagree with the majority of anti-snake sentiment, the Burmese issue in Florida is legitimate. There are always people with every type of pet that are bad owners and resort to letting them free in the wild- ranging from cats and dogs to fish and reptiles.
The Burmese angle is a bit more serious than smaller pets, which for the most part are typically far less dangerous to the ecosystem and humans. A snake in the umpteen foot margin is exponentially more powerful than a 9-10 footer, which still requires multiple people to control if necessary. While domestication is a great thing, it speaks nothing for those breeding in the wild. Admittedly, given the right circumstances any type of medium sized animal has the potential of injuring someone. When animals get to a certain size however, accidents that would normally cause injury can be fatal.
A 100-200 pound apex predator comprised of pure muscle should require a potential owner to have at least attended a few safety courses, where they work with snakes of comparable size. This would hopefully weed out a large percentage of non-commited ownership.
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