Lawmakers seek ban on 5 snake species

E&E News
Jessica Estepa, E&E reporter
January 29, 2014

In a letter sent Monday to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the bipartisan group asked for the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a final rule that would make five kinds of constrictors "injurious" species, effectively banning the importation and interstate transport of those snakes.

The species they want action on are the reticulated python, the DeSchauensee's anaconda, the green anaconda, the Beni anaconda and the boa constrictor.

The letter -- the lead authors of which are House Natural Resources ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) -- notes that 12 people have died since 1990 because of encounters with pet constrictors. Further, the creatures, sometimes released into the wild by their owners, have damaged native ecosystems.

"These snakes pose an unacceptable and preventable risk to the safety of the American people and threaten some of our nation's most treasured natural habitats," the letter reads. It adds, "We cannot afford to risk the introduction of additional invasive species that will be expensive and difficult to eradicate."

The letter comes two years after FWS issued a ban on four other non-native constrictor species, including the Burmese python, which has wreaked havoc on the Florida Everglades (Greenwire, Jan. 17, 2012).

Originally, the agency had considered listing nine snake species as injurious, but it decided to proceed with a ban on four of them: the Burmese python, yellow anaconda, and northern and southern African pythons.

FWS Director Dan Ashe said at the time that the agency would continue to consider restrictions on the other five species -- those mentioned in Monday's letter.

"Two years have passed and FWS has failed to take action on the remaining 70 percent of the trade in large constrictor snakes," the letter reads. "Unless these species are added to the list of injurious species, the trade will continue to threaten the environment as well as public safety."

The agency appreciates the congressional interest, FWS spokeswoman Laury Parramore said yesterday. A final decision on those species is pending.

The other lawmakers who signed the letter are Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), 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.), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Dels. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), Pedro Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico) and Gregorio Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands).

Last month, a reptile trade association filed a lawsuit challenging the original ban, saying Interior had used faulty science when it made its decision (E&ENews PM, Dec. 23, 2013).