For football fans, the biggest day of the year is right around the corner. For pythons in Florida, their days are numbered.
In a grotesque twist on the Super Bowl, Florida wildlife officials and Gov. Ron DeSantis are promoting a spectacle called the Python Challenge Python Bowl, in which participants are encouraged to hunt and kill as many snakes as possible. Footballs made from the doomed snakes' skin will be used during Super Bowl festivities.
When inexperienced and untrained individuals go traipsing through the woods and swamps on a mission to kill, it's akin to sending a quarterback onto the field with no game plan. Neither one will end well.
The python "problem" in Florida is fueled by the exotic pet industry, which encourages a capricious public to buy these animals on a whim. "Must-have" novelty pets tend to be disposed of rather quickly (often abandoned outside to fend for themselves) when the excitement wears off.
Displaced pythons are here through no fault of their own and shouldn't have to suffer for it. Their unique physiology puts them at risk of experiencing a prolonged, agonizing death at the hands of people unequipped to kill them humanely. The contest allows firearms, snake hooks, snake tongs, snake bags and noose poles to be used. Anyone in the state can decapitate a python with a machete at any time _ even though pythons can live for up to an hour after getting their heads chopped off.
There's also the impact on the Everglades to consider. The national park is a delicate ecosystem that provides myriad flora and fauna, including numerous rare and endangered species, with important habitat. Within the park, 47 plant species have been listed as threatened by the state of Florida and 113 as endangered. Yet Gov. DeSantis opened up more than 150 miles of secondary trails within Big Cypress National Park to Python Bowl contestants. Imagine the disruption to native wildlife and the potential for environmental destruction when teams of four-wheelers take over Big Cypress. Drones and dogs are also allowed in some areas.
Pythons are not only beautifully patterned reptiles but also fascinating animals. They're excellent climbers and swimmers. To keep their eggs warm, mother pythons continually contract their muscles to raise their body temperature, and they rarely leave their eggs while incubating them. Pythons hunt using chemical receptors in their tongues and heat sensors along their jaws. Unless threatened, they are docile and shun contact with humans.
It is one thing to recognize an environmental crisis in the Everglades in which humans have released snakes into a habitat that's perfect for them to breed in and then to kill them humanely in order to alleviate the problem. It is another thing entirely, however, to trivialize their deaths and turn their skin into footballs. Killing animals should never be portrayed as fun, and compassionate football fans should be able to enjoy the Super Bowl without having to support cruelty.
