Catching a 17 ft Python. Everglades FL

[Budi]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/14/us/17-foot-python-caught-in-florida-trnd/index.html

Seventeen-foot python put up a fierce fight before being captured in Florida Everglades
By Alicia Lee, CNN

Mike Kimmel's no rookie to the python-hunting game. He's captured hundreds of the snakes, which usually measure up to 10 feet long.

But as soon he set eyes upon his latest catch, he knew it would be one to remember.

Kimmel, owner of Martin County Trapping & Wildlife Rescue, had gone out into the Florida Everglades last week hoping to catch a giant Burmese python.

SNIP
The largest python captured in Florida was 18 feet, 8 inches long, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The pythons began turning up in the Everglades in the 1980s, most likely abandoned by pet owners when they got too big to handle. Some may have escaped from a breeding facility destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Now wildlife officials estimate there might be as many as 100,000 pythons living in the Everglades. The snakes kill indigenous animals including racoons, otters, birds and even alligators.

***Kimmel plans to sell the snake's skin on his website. He said he will also receive a payment from Florida's Python Action Team, which pays people to remove the invasive species.

"I was proud that I came out on top and I knew that I was going to get a good paycheck out of it," Kimmel said. "But most of all, a snake that size can really get to anything, so I was thrilled to get this dangerous predator out of the ecosystem."

[missingthebigdog]

1. I have questions.

I don't want to get into a debate here about why the State sees the need to eradicate these animals, but can we talk about how this was done?

If the point is eradication, why not just kill the snake when he found it? Why wrestle it, risking serious injury or death? And why continue to torture it by dragging it through the woods?

[Budi]

2. Good & fair questions.

I've read that eradication has to take place to preserve the eco balance of animal life in the glades.

Because Pythons are not part of the natural habitat & brought in from neglectful pet owners etc, they pose a danger to basically any animal life that exists there.
They grow to such threatening lengths that other natural species face extinction. They reproduce in high numbers as well.
Basically they grow that big cuz their eating up natural species that provide a natural eco-balance in the glades.

Its not the snake's fault. They just do what they're supposed to do. And that's a problem.

I don't think they have a predator in the glades, except maybe gators & now hunters

It is the fault of neglectful & lazy owners of 'cool pets'.

[missingthebigdog]

5. Oh, I have read the reasons for eradication.

I don't necessarily agree with them, but I have read them.

My issue is with the inhumane way that this particular "hunter" dealt with this snake. There was simply no reason to torture her other than so he could film it. The State doesn't pay extra for live pythons.

[Budi]

8. Oh yes. Agree with you totally. Notice how he grabbed his phone for a pic while his arm was bleedin

Couldn't miss a good shot of his tough guy snake hunter image!
Bet it was posted to instagram before he stood up.

Difficult to watch the handling of the Python...agree.

[Kali]

3. entertainment and you tube views

[Budi]

4. And a hefty paycheck.

Its hard to watch the treatment of the Python who is just existing where it was put, but that bite on the hunter's arm was kinda a personal rah rah.! moment.
Ya know.

[Kali]

7. for me it was hard to watch some dumbass try so hard to get bit

yeah, big snake but not venomous and not particularly dangerous. shoot it or chop it's head off, don't try to drag it out by the tail

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Well, that was amazing, and not easy to watch. Snakes scare the s**t out of me!!

Are the hunters not allowed to shoot the snake?

That would have certainly simplified the hunt, and possibly avoided that very dangerous arterial bite.

[Budi]

9. Same here. Guess when you're being paid for the drama, the humane ...

& practical methods don't quite do it.

I thought of Trump Jr. Killing the African animals.

& ya, snakes are creepy creatures.