Lawmakers want five more constricting snakes added to ban.
A letter was sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday by 18 lawmakers from throughout the United States and Guam to urge the USFWS to add the reticulated python (Python reticulatus), boa constrictor ( Boa constrictor imperator), DeSchauensee's anaconda ( Eunectes deschauenseei), green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) and beni anaconda (Eunectes beniensis) to the list of banned snakes in the United States. According to the letter, USFWS has not acted to ban the five other large constricting snakes that were part of the original nine targeted for restriction.
Photo by Gina Cioli/I-5 Studio
18 lawmakers are urging the USFWS to add the boa constrictor and four other constricting to the list of banned snakes.
“Additionally, these highly adaptable, invasive snakes have severely damaged precious native ecosystems, as we have seen with the Burmese python’s decimation of mammal populations in the Florida Everglades, and the boa constrictor’s displacement of native reptiles in Puerto Rico,” the letter said. “We cannot afford to risk the introduction of additional invasive species that will be expensive and difficult to eradicate.”
The lawmakers who signed the letter are U.S. Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and co-signed by Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, Tony Cardenas, D-Calif., Sam Farr, D-Calif., Lois Frankel, D-Fla., Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., Walter Jones, R-N.C., Jim Moran, D-Va., Patrick Murphy, D-Fla., Pedro Pierluisi, D-P.R., Tom Rooney, R-Fla., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., Gregorio Sablan, D-M.P., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Lamar Smith, R-Texas.
Want to Learn More About the Python Ban?
U.S. Bans Importation And Transportation Of Burmese Pythons, Three Other Snakes
USARK Sues Over Large Snake Ban
On March 23, 2012, the ban on the importation and interstate transportation of the Burmese python, (Python molurus bivittatus) the northern (Python sebae) and southern African rock pythons, (Python natalensis) and the yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus) was put into effect.
The rule prohibits the interstate transport and importation of live snakes, their viable reproductive assets such as sperm and eggs, or any hybrids of the listed snakes. The rule does not restrict the sales of these snakes within a state as long as buyers don't transport the snakes across state lines.
