so the plan is to guide these scientist to the snakes the have the snakes killed. why not just say you can only use 20 gauge with #6 shot.

I would like to have a Burmese python for a pet, but I don't have an adequate setup for one. My boa constrictor is about 7 feet long. His cage has a double locking mechanism, and I have specific protocols for handling and feeding him, i.e., he doesn't come out unless there is another adult with me to help in case of trouble. I love snakes, but they can't really be domesticated in the sense of a dog or a cat. I'm not sure why there are any restrictions at all on the taking of non-native species. It seems like that would be the same as shooting released quail or pheasants, but I don't know Florida law. The skin trade has been very hard on pythons and boas in some of the countries where they are native. Allowing commercial exploitation of the resource in Florida could quickly decrease or eradicate the problem and help to relieve some of the pressure on the species in areas where it is not invasive. That sounds too much like sense, though, so the state will spend gobs of money for an ineffectual solution that will probably require the hides of any "euthanized" snakes to be discarded. What a waste! Even as a snake aficionado, I think a nice pair of Tony Llamas (or Justins) look great. I don't have anything against cows either, but the leather uppers don't bother me.

It's unfortunate that it took a child dying to get the state motivated on this. The wild python population has been a growing problem for quite a few years now. What's strange is that the child's death was caused by a pet, not one of the wild ones that they are trying to eradicate.
I've heard talk that the FWC may be considering a public hunt and possibly even a bounty. At this point it's just speculation, but I'm all for it. I haven't tasted python but I'm sure any rattlesnake recipe will do just fine.

I saw one of these snakes in the wild.

....Where it was is a long story...

That thing was 15' long and fast as a rabbit!!!! It was down in a hole quick as a flash.

BTW I doubt Florida will ever wipe out pythons. The critter is too established.

What are they using to euthanize them? No guns or traps? Are they using spears and machetes? Poison darts in blow guns? Capturing them by hand and tossing them in a CO2 gas chamber? The 10 hunters must be wrestlers from the WWE.

There has to be a horror movie or two in the works. Probably something like a plane crash in the Everglades in the middle of a nest of Anacondas and pythons. Throw in a Jaguar or alligator that gets attacked by a giant anaconda just before pouncing on a kid. Most everyone will be saved and the snakes will be annihilated, but the movie will end showing some parent tossing his kid's pet snake into the tall grass.

@Bella

A couple years back, Paul Martin and some Phd from Cornell proposed "reintroducting" a "Pleistocene ecology" to the US by introducing African lions and elephants. I think they missed out on the fact that you can't have a Pleistocene ecology without a Pleistocene climate. Anyhow, I figure that reintroduction would never work because guys like me -- if I ever see an African lion running loose where I hunt or pretty much anywhere outside of a cage or a circus, I'm going to shoot it.

The point is that the Burmese Python is not native to North America. It appears they are thriving. That means they get plenty of prey, children included. The success of these introduced giant tube steaks (gotta love that) tells me that they are winning the competition for food with the predators native to the state of Florida. Go get 'em. The head of a 30' snake would make a cool mount.

i think it should be leagal to kill snakes anyway. they dont realy help anything but kill mice and bugs and we got sprays to kill them so nice buckshot should do it.

I really do feel sorry for you good folks in Florida. Pythons are NOT native wildlife. Pythons kill native wildlife and humans, children included. DUH!!!!
Do your very best to get rid of them. Extermination is a kinder word that euthanize. Who are the politicos trying to appease?
Could give new meaning to "trap-load."

I recall an old ditty:
"Two in the body
One in the head,
Guarantees they're really dead."

Go get 'em.

They will probably make them freeze them to kill them. But that presents the problem and dangers of capture and transportation. Probably will do like the gators, you catch them and the state takes them and gives you a few dollars. At least with the gators you can use one shot to kill them before transporting.

Mark-1,
Your probabaly right, but we have to start somewhere. Put a bounty on them like we did beaver and mink pelts. Some might argue against the importation of these critters saying "it's to late". No its not.

Being from Florida... I think it was a good idea to pass the "euthenization" of the pythons but I think they are going about it the wrong way. I mean why not let them be taken via firearms? Hell, you allow that as well as grant some hunting permits for them, you would be making money and not to mention that a lot more people would be taking a lot more pythons. They are an invasive species and do not need to be maintained... they need to be eliminated.

It is probably a good idea for Florida to get rid of some of the snakes if they have so many. I think that if hunters would be willing to pay to hunt them then why not let them?

Mike that would be the "Pleistocene Rewilding" article in Scientific American a while back. Actually the Pleistocene was Before the ice ages and it is likely that the climate was not too dissimilar from temperate climes today. Now there was some Wildlife, How about those Indricatheres about 18feet high at the shoulder (kind of a cross between a rhino and a girrafe) freikin'Landwhales! Then there were the giant terror birds 10 or 11 feet tall, flightless, fast runners with beaks like foot long bolt cutters and appetites like a wolverine! Whooo, be tough to get a dna sample and clone those critters, most are not only long gone but their entire lines are gone, with no significant living relatives. You are safe from the giant terror chickens at least for now...

How hard can it be to get ride of any species?
Open the season all the time, allow sale of the meat, allow sale of the skin, pay a bounty on each and every one of the buggers.
The state gets license fees (to offset the bounty) hunting gets promoted, we have proof that hunters are a useful resource and we get paid for harvesting an enormous tube steak.
What's not to like?

they need to be hunted but it would be cool if thgey let people hunt them like deer

They are exotics introduced by carelss owners or by accidental escape from breeders/importers. None the less a negative impact on an already fragile ecosystem. They can adapt and expand their range. Do you want a 300 lb constrictor in your garage, in your child tree house or your expensive hunting dogs or your pets kennels? Me personally NO! I say hunt them remove them and do it with out a season. Make their hides into boots, purses, wallets, hat bands etc. Offer bounties and Ban them from import. I love snakes copperheads cottonmouths etc. Exotics I'm not a fan of. Killer bees, Nutria, Norway rats, Snakehead fish, asiatic deer, fire ants, cain toads are all examples of importing exotics gone wrong.

absolutely florida should allow full eradication of pythons and any other nonnative species. a majority of the plants and wildlike in the everglades are nonnative as a result of developement and the different types of peoples that have been through florida dating back centuries. as soon as the nonnative species start overtaking native species and threatening humans they should be removed to restore the original state and ecology of the everglades.