FWC News - FWC orders amnesty program for reptiles of concern
FWC orders amnesty program for reptiles of concern
December 10, 2009
Contact: Patricia Behnke, 850-251-2130
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) directed staff Thursday to implement an executive order immediately that will allow reptiles of concern to be turned over to authorized reptile of concern permit holders with no questions asked.
"We must enact an amnesty program immediately," said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. "Florida must be a leader and send the right message to our partners and to the reptile industry."
Barreto made his recommendation to the rest of the Commission after receiving reports by FWC division directors from Habitat and Species Conservation and Law Enforcement on reptiles of concern at the meeting in Clewiston on Thursday. The rest of the Commission unanimously endorsed his suggestion.
"We must make the program easy for licensed folks to accept these snakes," said FWC Vice Chair Kathy Barco. "It needs to be as easy for them to take the reptile of concern as it is for those with the reptiles to walk in and turn it over."
Barreto further said he would craft a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on behalf of the Commission requesting additional funds to help continue the state's effort to manage and control nonnatives in Florida.
"The Burmese python has become the poster child for a much bigger issue," said Tim Breault, the FWC's director of Habitat and Species Conservation. "Nonnatives are the real issue here, and it calls for full engagement with federal leadership."
During Breault's presentation, he broke the issue of nonnative species regulation and management into four major components:
* international movement and trade,
* captive breeding outside of native range,
* risk assessment and
* eradication or control.
He suggested the Commission reach out to federal partners.
"My biggest fear is what's going to be the next Burmese python if we don't do something now," Breault said.
Col. Jim Brown, director of the Division of Law Enforcement, told the Commission that sales of reptiles have decreased since 2008.
"Sales have gone down to a trickle because of the regulations the FWC and the Florida legislature passed in 2008," Brown said. "But it is still extremely important to prevent further release of these nonnative species into the wild."
Brown told the Commission a reptile of concern technical assistance group had been formed and will continue to meet. The group supports the idea of amnesty and supports further actions, such as continuing the hunting program on state-managed lands in South Florida. The Commission directed Brown to draft rules, with the assistance of the technical assistance group, to bring back to the February meeting in Apalachicola.
"Eradication of reptiles of concern from the wild is prohibitively costly and ecologically impossible," Breault said. "But unrelenting control is feasible."
Barreto directed staff to continue work with the reptile industry, zoos and all partners.
"Do whatever it takes to control this problem," he said.
Anyone who holds a reptile of concern license will be eligible to be an amnesty facility once the executive order is issued, in approximately two or three weeks.
