RCReptiles.com

[junkopardner]

The beginnings of this started with so many people dumping their snakes all throughout South Florida.

It's a Florida issue, and unfortunately I think Florida is going to have to do something about it.

Just like your momma said; it only takes a couple of bad apples to spoil the whole bunch.

J

[RonCrawford]

[junkopardner]

Ron-

The irony is that Florida has already done something about this. You have to get a permit and microchip the animals (burms, retics, etc) in Florida now.

The problem with this law (that I think only went into effect in Jan) is that the state only went half way with it. What I mean is, they say that it's "illegal" to have a Burmese unless it's registered and micro-chipped, but they didn't do anything that addressed the assembly line breeding and sales of them within the state. You get around Dade county (or even as far up as Ocala) and you can get one about anywhere for 20-30 bucks. So because this problem wasn't addressed, you're still going to have a lot of purchases made by people who don't comply with the registration and micro-chipping. These people are effectively "off the hook" should they decide to dump them in the wild when they get too big and too much to deal with.

So there are no laws governing the "purchase" of these snakes. If they wanted to really do something about the problem, in my opinion, they should have made it law that the snake has to be registered at the time of sale (like a handgun) with a 30 day maximum limit to get the microchip documentation to the State. The point of sale registration would have to be contingent on the 30 days to provide proof of micro-chipping. So, no microchip documentation submitted in the 30 days, then the registration is null and void.

You also have to look at the fact that John Q. Public buys a snake for 30 bucks. Then, the registration is 100 bucks a year, plus the microchip (which is expensive but varies from vet to vet I'm sure), plus the enclosure/set-up. Everyone knows that there are going to be many who simply won't comply with this law. So the risk of even more getting dumped is still there.

Florida is going to have to so something about it, or it's a possibility that this could get bad. The problem with the Burms in the Everglades Park is pretty bad already.

They can't get the toothpaste back in the tube on that one either. But I do think they could do a damn site better than what they did.

Just my thoughts,

J