A two-year-old Florida girl was killed by a Burmese python who escaped from an aquarium in her home. Thousands of escaped or released pythons are now living in the Everglades, and are becoming the dominant predator in the ecosystem. These former “pets” can grow more than 20 feet long, weigh 200 pounds, and swallow an entire leopard.
Congress needs to pass legislation to ban the importation
and interstate commerce of large constricting snakes to protect
our communities, our ecosystem, and the snakes themselves.
It’s for these reasons that Congress is advancing legislation—pushed by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Reps. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and others—to ban the importation and interstate commerce of some pythons as pets. The House Judiciary Committee has approved the legislation, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee takes it up tomorrow morning.
But as currently crafted, the policy reform is incomplete. If only certain species of pythons are covered, the trade will simply shift to other large constricting snakes that also pose a threat. The U.S. Geological Survey published a 300-page report in October indicating that nine species of large pythons, anacondas, and boa constrictors threaten our natural resources. Of the nine large constrictor snakes studied, five were shown to pose a high risk to the health of the ecosystem, including the Burmese python, northern African python, southern African python, yellow anaconda, and boa constrictor. The remaining four large constrictors—the reticulated python, green anaconda, Beni or Bolivian anaconda, and DeSchauensee’s anaconda—were shown to pose a medium risk. When you add in the threat to humans, and the suffering that the snakes themselves endure in the trade, then the case for a trade ban for all of these snakes is overwhelming.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar recently visited the Everglades, and has been pushing Congress to include all nine species in its legislation. “The threat posed by the Burmese python and other large constrictor snakes is evident,” he said. “The Burmese python population estimate is now in the thousands—putting at risk a variety of threatened and endangered species and harming the Everglades ecosystem.”
We are grateful to Secretary Salazar and his staff for advancing a science-based recommendation to prohibit the trade in dangerous snakes before the damage becomes irreversible, and to Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) for considering the bill tomorrow. We are hopeful that the committee leadership and bill sponsors will support including all nine species, getting ahead of the problem and not chasing the next new fad in the trade. Please contact your lawmakers and urge them to support S. 373 and H.R. 2811, but only if they cover the nine species of large constricting snakes.
