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A Florida State Senator is proposing a total ban on the importation and possession of non native Reptiles of Concern, which includes most species of pythons. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the proposed ban comes at a time when the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told lawmakers that it may never be able to catch all of the pythons in the everglades.

Carol’s Critters sells between two and five snakes a week.

Jerry Peterson says most buyers have one thing in common.

“Generally, people buy snakes in order to watch them eat,” Peterson said. “Just because, it gives you, I guess, a little bit of a rush to watch something eat another animal.”

But the store could soon be out of the snake business. A year and a half old law requiring registration isn’t working.

Since 2008, when a new python law took effect, only one in ten snake owners has registered their pet.

This State Senate Committee is working on a total ban on new Pythons and other reptiles of concern.

“We don’t want to find a python that’s 16 feet long in our backyard,” Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Broward County, said.

Snake posses have rounded up just 35 of the perhaps hundred thousand pythons in the Everglades. Wildlife managers expect the pace to increase dramatically, but they don’t ever expect to find them all.

“It’s not about getting rid of them, it’s about containing them,” Lt. Col. Jim Brown of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. “I’m not sure that can happen at this point.”

Also on tap is a year round amnesty program for snake owners and a promise that any snakes turned in will be cared for and not killed.

“They’re named. They’re almost like a family member,” Tim Breault with the FWCC said. “[The owners] just want to know they’re getting some sort of permanent care.”

The state fears that if it were to kill the snakes being turned in, owners would prefer to set them loose.

While conceding it could never round up all the snakes in the Everglades, the commission now hopes ot keep the snakes contained south of US 41, which runs along the northern end of the Everglades.