Page 7 - Boca ViewPointe - April '23

April 2023 Viewpointe, Page 7
We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us–Still

or…you better find a way to python’s best defense is amazing camouflage and the fact taken now at a dangerous, angry moving target. Also, they
Did I say unseeable? Yup. Man’s best sense is sight. The
are cold-blooded animals and don’t die like warm-blooded
fix stupid that they don’t move much. Eight-five percent of their lives ones. You can hack a python in half, and you’ll still have to
are spent motionless. They stake out a territory near where worry about its parts for a few hours. ‘sort of like the cut up
By William A. Gralnick animals wander for food and drink and hide, or climb a tree, brooms in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
curling up in the crook of its branches, waiting to drop their Finally, the state must be smart for the dumb people.
I don’t know who is hundreds of pound bodies on their stunned prey. Importing Burmese Pythons should be illegal with
more mindless. Category In an experiment, a two-football field area was walled crippling fines and jail time for the evaders. So too should
one is the people who off. It had pools of water, forest area, and open ground. A owning one be illegal. A buy-back program should be
bought a Burmese python gaggle of people was let loose for two hours. The total take? established for python owners like is in place in many
as a pet, a snake that One snake. Almost all the snakes were hiding under water! states for gun owners. Pet shops that sell mice and rats
reaches 20 feet in length and can weigh over 300 pounds. Hiding under the water as some have done in the water traps should be made to have the buyer sign a statement stating
Category two is the consumer who realizes the snake can of your golf course. the animals are not food for a python and stating the
kill his family and decides to dump it into the Everglades. Scientists have come up with another tactic, one which penalties if they are found to be.
You’re not from Florida? Keep reading, friend. has some environmentalists up in arms. They are catching Unless we treat this like an emergency, South Georgia
A recent article about this invasive species in the Fort possums and fitting them with a tracking device. Snake eats and Louisiana’s bayous will be next. And if, as it appears
Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reads like the plot line of a Stephen possum, technology locates snake. Hunter kills snake. Much can happen with some cold-blooded creatures like birds,
King novel: monster with no known predators in the US of better numbers than the hunt; not so great for the possum. this cold-blooded killer begins to adapt to climate change,
A is breeding and spreading like rabbits. It is wiping out And that’s about all we’ve got. For the moment then, coastal Georgia, South, and North Carolina could have these
local animal life along with pets and at some point a child the suggestions are staring us in the face. Make the undesirables as permanent residents.
or two. The promo for the book would carry a picture from a hunting season longer. Raise the bounty on snake kills. ‘best think about that one…at least from my perspective.
few months back showing a python that killed and ingested Give the “Lone Rangers” better training. Train and license
an 8-foot alligator. What to do, oh what to do? more professionals. Columnist and author Bill Gralnick was born and
As the Brits would say, “’tis a sticky wicket!” And Behind door number two is to start captive breeding raised in Brooklyn, NY. He is writing a three-part
indeed it is. Many of the mother’s clutch of 50 eggs survive programs for small animals. We need more possums. Rabbits humorous memoir. The first is “The War of the Itchy
past childhood then there’s nothing to stop them. Until shall would work. Even wild hogs. Fit them with the tracker Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn.” Just published
we say puberty, other large snakes, hawks, and eagles pray device and track the signal. It is an option that makes one’s is the sequel, “George Washington Didn’t Sleep Here.”
on them but apparently not fast enough. No animal with fur skin crawl, except for the wild hogs. If not, soon enough the Both are available on Amazon. You can find his writing
or feathers is safe. The endangered Key Deer, the size of a python will find that baby horses and baby cows provide at https://www.williamgralnickauthor.com. 
large dog, the endangered wood stork, and even the White wonderful meals. Now the beast is out of the ecological chain
Tail Deer are disappearing. and into the food chain. Bad for us all. Attention
A first thought would be what is the natural predator Should this stimulate you to hitch up and go hunting think
of these monsters where they come from? One is the King of this little advisory seen so often on television: “Don’t try Boca Pointe
Cobra. I don’t think importation of them is a great solution. this at home.” Pythons are unimaginatively strong. While
So, what else? not poisonous, they have wicked, large fangs that cause deep Residents!
One tactic being used in south Florida is the python puncture wounds. These fill with an anti-coagulant. If it bites
hunt. We all know that Florida is a strange place in many you, you can bleed for hours and without prompt and proper
ways. One way is that we have platoons of professional treatment you can get an infection that will kill you. Flatten All Your Boxes!
python hunters who are joined by a bunch of nuts who And they don’t just die. Experts warn that the only way Our recycling trucks do not pick up your
think tramping around amongst billions of mosquitoes, to instantly kill a python is to smash its skull. That piece of cardboard boxes if they are not flattened. Instead,
alligators, panthers, and bobcats looking for an almost an a 20-foot, or even 15-foot snake is quite small. And one shot they go to trash and are burned with regular refuse....
unseeable snake in the dead of night, and getting prizes won’t do it. Nor do I mean pistol shot. You have to club it to lost revenue for residents of Boca Pointe. 
for their killings, is fun. death. If you shoot it, the shot has to be a head shot, a shot

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