Florida's Snake Problem

[John1982]

Florida has become the pet dumping ground of the world. I live and work right next to the Everglades and I have been here on and off for around forty years. At any one time I can go outside and in about ten minutes find five species of animals that don't belong here. When you go fishing you are as likely to catch something from the Amazon as you are a native fish.

I'm sorry to say, the whole world is a dumping ground - there are irresponsible people anywhere you care to visit. It's not just pets either but I'll try to stay somewhat on topic. The soapbox draws me nonetheless, I'm afraid. As for irresponsible animal keepers, just look at feral hog/cat/dog populations across the globe that are destroying flora and fauna at an alarming rate. South Florida happens to have the right climate to allow a great deal of exotics to not just survive but thrive. It's also a popular place for breeding facilities and hurricanes - not a great combination when you consider the ideal habitat of many of these critters is just a flimsy barrier or two away. I think it's a bit unfair to say Florida is the pet dumping ground of the world when pets are dumped just as often everywhere else - though in many of those cases they quietly die off and their remains are scavenged. It would be fair to say that South Florida is one of the few "perfect storm" locations where these exotic animals can create very real issues that need to be handled.

Unfortunately, these reptiles make the perfect poster boy for fear mongering campaigns to add even more restrictive legislature because they are generally feared by the majority already. It takes minimal effort to convince folks that reptiles are bad and adding more restrictions is good, mmkay? In all, this is a Florida problem that should be handled by Florida and not used as propaganda to pass regulations elsewhere. I've personally lived in North Florida for my entire life and have been herping here almost 30 years. Besides some populations of brown anoles and cuban tree frogs - both a fair bit east or south of me - I have never encountered a non native herp in the field here. So, while you can and will find invasives just about anywhere, south florida's climate just happens to provide for a veritable smorgasbord of them.

That said, while I'm generally against regulation for regulation's sake, I am all for accountability. Florida has some good ideas going and while it's not difficult to get a permit to own conditional species, those who do are now required to microchip their animals. The last time I checked, conditional species(afrocks, retics, burmese, etc) had to be microchipped if they were more than 1 inch in diameter. There are exemptions for breeders as long as they sell their babies before they reach 180 days(~6 months) in age. After that, anything over that size needs to be chipped with the pit tag numbers reported to FWC for their records.