Joseph Wasilewski, Desiree Dov, Mario Aldecoa with a captured 13-foot Burmese python. Photo: Wick Beavers
Thanks to some irresponsible pet owners releasing their snakes in the wild, thousands of 10-foot Burmese pythons roam the Florida Everglades, wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. To help control the situation, the local Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission declared an open season on the giant pythons. For 6 weeks, all you need is a hunting license to kill yourself some snakes.
Catherine Skipp of The Daily Beast went to catch her first "Burm," as the Burmese python is lovingly called by those who hunt it, in the first ever Great Python Hunt:
No sooner does he have the snake in hand than another sound distracts him; he spies a second, smaller python heading for the water about 20 feet away. “Here, hold this,” he barks, handing me the back end of the writhing monster. Fobb runs off to try to capture its companion. But I dare not watch him go, focusing instead on the gift he’s just given me: a shovel-headed constrictor that suddenly seems all mouth, as it stretches its jaws wide, exposing soft, white gums that I know from careful research conceal 100 teeth in four rows. They’re now pointing toward my throat, and lunging straight at me.
Link - Thanks Brian Ries!
Oh Whacking Day!
Our hallowed snake skull-cracking day!
I don't really like seeing animals hunted for sport or for their skins, but at the same time I don't like seeing the balance of nature being upset by invasive species.
Perhaps there should be some laws surrounding what kinds of snakes can be kept or bred in these parts of the world? Or any kind of pet for that matter. Be it dogs, cats, monkeys or reptiles, if you can easily breed it and chuck it outside when you're tired of it we will always have problems like this.