He knows what happens when people take in creatures they're unable to care for. Vernon Yates of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole has seen his fair share of abused and neglected snakes. Last year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission effectively banned personal ownership of Burmese pythons and seven other constrictors as pets, though it grandfathered in snakes whose owners had obtained $100 annual licenses and implanted them with microchips before July 2010. The boa alone, he said, accounted for as much as 90 percent of the value of the constrictor trade, with rare color morphs developed by breeders fetching upward of $20,000 each. "I think this acknowledges, directly or indirectly, that this is an industry that makes money.'' "We were told over and over again that we were just going to have to sit down and take it,'' he said. "If your boat is leaking, why would you only plug some of the holes?''Ĭritics contend the administration was sold - as Bruce Stein, an associate director of the National Wildlife Federation put it - "a bottle of snake oil'' by a cottage industry that overinflated its economic value and whose products could cost millions of dollars to control if they thrive in the wild like the Burmese python.ĭavid Barker, a Texas-based breeder and python expert who testified against the proposed ban in one congressional hearing, said he was "pretty pleased.'' "The snakes that were excluded pose a serious threat to our already fragile ecosystems and to humans,'' said Peter Jenkins, an attorney for the National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species.
That includes the boa constrictor, one of seven snakes designated by federal scientists as "high-risk'' for spreading in the wild but also the most popular and valuable snake in a market that reptile breeders claim is worth $100 million a year. The White House, after reviewing the proposal for more than a year, opted to put five of the species on hold for further study. They contend the Obama administration watered down a more sweeping proposal that would have declared nine giant constrictors "injurious species,'' bowing to pressure by the pet industry and Republican lawmakers who branded the measure a job-killer based on shaky science. The reaction was less enthusiastic from environmental and animal welfare groups.
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