[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Wow! Think of all the neat things that can be made for their skins....pool cue cases, wallets, belts, hatbands...the list goes on.

They are now having state hunts for them.. The picture that started this thread is from the hunt.. So yes, that guy was in our woods...

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8116185

Everglades snake hunt gets off to good start
By WILLIE HOWARDCox NewspapersMost-read stories


SOUTHWEST RANCHES, Fla. — Call it the catch of the day.

Reptile experts captured a 9-foot, 8-inch female python Friday in a swath of the Everglades just after meeting with reporters and wildlife officials to discuss the start of the Great Florida Snake Hunt.

Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the hunt for the snakes this week after years of alarm about the spread of the nuisance reptiles in the Everglades — and weeks after a pet python killed a 2-year-old girl.

Friday’s drama followed a news conference in which the snake experts described how hard pythons can be to find in the wild. Then a posse of airboats glided through the Everglades marsh to Brown’s Camp, a tree island west of Fort Lauderdale.

Walking along a boardwalk around a shack house, snake expert Greg Graziani spotted a python under the walkway.

After he grabbed the tail, another snake expert, Shawn Heflick, grabbed its head, getting a scratch on his hand. The snake hunters had not expected to find a python on this trip.

After the snake’s location was noted with a hand-held GPS unit, the python was placed in a pillowcase and transported back to Everglades Holiday Park.

There, Heflick severed its spinal cord with a pocket knife and examined its stomach contents. Those included rat-toe bones and rat fur.

Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the commission will push for an emergency rule that allows hunters to kill pythons with guns if they encounter them while hunting.