FOX News- Pythons, Politics & Death of the American Dream

In a time of growing unemployment and economic uncertainty look at what our government is spending their time and our taxpayer dollars on. There is a bill in the US Senate and a companion in the US House that together embody the worst in American politics. Senate Bill 373/ House Bill 2811 aka ‘The Python Ban’ are politically driven bills designed to use the sensation surrounding feral Burmese Pythons in the Everglades, parlay it into billions of dollars in Everglades restoration funds, and serve as election payback to extreme special interests groups invested in ending the lucrative trade in high quality captive bred reptiles worldwide. The Burmese Python has been the focus because of its ability to fire the imagination of the general public generating fear and misunderstanding. Quite simply, feral cats, feral hogs and water flow problems (real problems for the Everglades) don’t generate the interest that the sensational prospect of a giant snake in the Everglades does. See the article in the December issue of Playboy Magazine entitled ‘The Great South Florida Python Scare’ by Pat Jordan.

If passed as written these bills will destroy thousands of jobs bankrupting scores of American families. These bills have been characterized as stopping the import of pythons in order to address invasive species issues, but the bills propose a listing on the Lacey Act that carries more far reaching implications. The listing would also stop the export and trade in high quality captive bred reptiles produced in the US for over 30 years. There are already over 4 million boas and pythons currently in captivity in the US representing a 3 billion dollar annual trade. Their value would be reduced to zero over night with the passage of S373. S373 offers no compensation for these animals and makes absolutely no provision for their disposition.

The science has been “cherry picked” to support a predetermined end by using Burmese Pythons in the Everglades as a poster child for a movement to shut down the trade of Reptiles in the United States. A recent report from the USGS on large constricting snakes has been used as justification to stop the trade in 9 species of snakes. The report has been characterized by an independent panel of scientists from University of Florida, Texas A&M, Arizona State University and even the National Geographic Society as “unscientific” and “not a suitable basis for policy or regulation changes”; yet it has been characterized by the new Deputy Secretary of USFWS as justification for adding 9 species to the Injurious Wildlife list of the Lacey Act, a designation formerly reserved for only the most dangerous of invasive species. The Reptile Industry is getting railroaded at taxpayer expense by ambitious politicians, poor science and powerful special interest groups. The proposed bills will do little to address actual problems and will wreck a vital part of the economy.

In a recent letter to the Senate EPW Committee the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region, opposes S. 373. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, “if enacted in its current form, this legislation would adversely impact tens of thousands of businesses”.

S373 passed out of the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works on Thursday December 10, 2009. It will likely be voted on by the full Senate in January 2010.

If you have questions contact:

Andrew Wyatt
President
United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK)
president@usark.org
252-207-1041