Dozens of caged pythons and one pet boa constrictor named Big Shirl were killed by Florida wildlife officers last week in what some reptile enthusiasts say was an overreach of authority in euthanizing the pythons and a mistake in the death of the boa.
Bill McAdam, whose Broward County warehouse is where the snakes lived, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers came on Thursday to kill 34 Burmese and reticulated pythons with a bolt gun that is supposed to deliver immediate and lethal blows to the snakes’ heads.
Pythons, a damaging invasive species that eat almost anything and have overrun the Everglades, were added to a list of prohibited species by FWC commissioners in February 2021. Commercial breeders were given about five months to get rid of their animals.
But boa constrictors such as Big Shirl, who McAdam owned for more than a decade, are not on the 2021 list of prohibited species. In a video posted to YouTube by the Florida division of the United States Association of Reptile Keepers, an officer puts his hands to his head in apparent disbelief and another officer’s jaw drops open when they realize they had just killed the boa, which was pregnant.
A request to the FWC for the incident report of the Thursday event was not met by early evening Monday.
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“Oh my God! Why?” a man can be heard yelling in the background of the video when officers say the “boa is dead.”
“It was a mistake,” someone says.
“How? I reminded you 10 times!” a voice exclaims.
An autopsy on Big Shirl found she was pregnant with 32 babies, according to a spokesman for the reptile keepers group. McAdams estimates the babies were worth about $3,500 each.
“I raised that boa since it was a baby,” McAdam said. “I went ballistic when I found out. I told them you guys are going to pay for this.”
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Curt Harbsmeier, an attorney and legal advisor to the reptile group, said Thursday’s incident was a culmination of events that began after the February 2021 rule change was approved.
He said commercial breeder and Broward County resident Chris Coffee, whose pythons were the ones killed Thursday, had more than 100 snakes to relocate after the rule change. About 120 were sent to new homes out of state but he was unable to find homes for the 34 in the Broward warehouse.
Coffee was issued 72 citations for possession of a prohibited species without a permit last year or in 2021, according to Harbsmeier.
McAdam, the warehouse owner, said the legal case against Coffee, who couldn’t be reached Monday, was resolved in March. McAdam said Coffee was at the warehouse on Thursday.
“First and foremost, why now?” said Harbsmeier. “Why did they have to go in there now. They call it euthanize, I call it a slaughter. There was blood all over.”
Under the 2021 rule change, tegus and green iguanas were grandfathered in as pets and could be kept for their lifetime by owners who had to follow upgraded requirements for enclosures. But it’s not clear in FWC rules online if the newly-prohibited snakes could be kept as pets.
“For reptile keepers, these animals are just like dogs or cats to many people,” said Daniel Parker, director of media for the United States Association of Reptile Keepers, Florida. “We love them and cherish them. They are not just disposable.”
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Several animal rights groups supported the 2021 rule change, which also prohibited green anacondas and Nile monitors, because of the damage the reptiles do to native wildlife.
Elise Bennett, Florida director of the Center for Biological Diversity, didn’t know anything about the Thursday python killing, but said her group supported the rule change to control the invasive species spread and keep them from inhumane conditions.
“Most of these exotic, invasive species are here by no fault of their own,” Bennett said. “It’s heartbreaking and unfortunate when they have to pay the price for humans’ thoughtless actions.”
Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida’s environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.
