I know this is definitely going to be the least popular opinion here, but honestly, it sounds to me too many people on this site are only thinking of their own wants when it comes to these proposed species bans. These wildlife biologists and environmental managers in the Everglades are trying to save literally MILLIONS of years of nature's work by trying to eradicate several well-established species in a habitat that was not made for them. People only seem to care about their morphs and pets over what trained professionals and scientists are implementing to at least try to decrease the inward gene flow of invasive animals in the everglades. Not trying to crap on anyone's knowledge here, but what makes you think you know better than people who have gone through years of school for this sort of thing? Just because you own some snakes and like having them around, you get upset that there is a bigger picture outside of what you see as fun? Sure, there are some biologists who would side with you in saying that these restrictions are going to be relatively ineffective here, but obviously the vast majority of them believe otherwise if these sort of restrictions are surfacing in legislation and there is an absence of major backlash from the scientific community. You're scolding politicians for listening to trained scientists over people who own snakes as a hobby, do you really blame them?

I frankly am not concerned about who these bans are effecting economically either. If you chose to make breeding and selling these snakes your lively hood, I'm sorry. But this Everglades ordeal is bigger than you or the number of people like you. If placing this ban even only SLIGHTLY benefits the larger picture in the Everglades, it was a good move. I know most people here are responsible pet owners but it only takes a small number to cause significant damage from what the studies have shown. I know you like your pet snakes, but they're pet snakes, and that is exponentially less important than even experimenting with legislation to see if it benefits the Everglades in anyway possible. If you disagree with that, don't even say that you appreciate even YOUR animals, because the Everglades is a haven for biodiversity, and many species like the ones you're desperately trying to cling on to are going to be gone forever very soon. And as for areas outside of the Everglades, it may be true that these large constrictors couldn't be capable of establishing themselves in colder climates, but we have seen them starting to creep farther and farther up North in recent years and no one is thinking of what sort of diseases these things are capable of carrying and releasing on native reptile populations when they come from wild-caught sources.

Many of the arguments I have been seeing on this site in the year I have been here and time I've spent browsing without an account, I have seen very little not based on emotion. Maybe instead of wasting your energy trying to have things they way they were before this Everglades issue, you could spend time proposing a sort of license alternative? The "Holier-than-thou" attitude on this forum is on a level I have never seen in a reptile keeping website, yet no one wants to see the greater picture on this issue that is ACTUALLY important, they just choose to be selfish and waste time fighting over things that aren't actually beneficial to anybody such as wording when someone is making a simple point and such. It is a good thing people here can hide behind their keyboards on this forum, because in front of a scientific board they'd probably be laughed at.