Python hunting season is now open in the Florida Everglades. And the machismo is flowing:
A man who helped kill a Burmese python in front of journalists at a Hallandale Beach processing plant broke the rules governing the hunting of the non-native snakes in the Everglades, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Josh Zarmati, a Miami snake breeder, was one of several licensed snake dealers allowed by the state to kill pythons in the Everglades. But under the rules, he was required to either kill the python where it was found or bring it to a veterinarian or research facility, said Scott Hardin, the agency’s exotic species coordinator.
Instead, Zarmati brought two pythons last week to All American Gator in Hallandale Beach and held one down while the company’s president, Brian Wood, whacked off its head with a hatchet. The top four inches of the snake continued to writhe, the mouth opening and closing, until Wood smashed it several times with the hatchet’s blunt end. An account appeared in Wednesday’s Sun-Sentinel.
Mr. Zarmati mentions that killing the snakes in front of news photographers is taboo for fear of reaction from extremist groups like PETA. But ironically, PETA seems to defend Zarmati and Wood’s actions and in fact, illustrates that PETA is not only an expert on killing dogs and cats – it knows how to kill pythons too:
Stephanie Bell, cruelty case manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the most humane method is lethal injection, but if that is impractical in the field it is best to first stun the snake and then decapitate it or to decapitate it and immediately pithe it, that is, scramble its brain with a metal tool.
She said Wood did the right thing by whacking it on the head to put it out of its misery.
File under New Things I Learned Today and Things I Could Live Without Knowing
How nice. They’re such civilized people, those PETA folks.
They need to give up the whole ‘Animal Rights’ facade and admit they’re nothing more than a death cult — killing animals to ‘save’ them from having to suffer by being contaminated by human contact!
I do hope they revoked his license for this violation of the rules?
I have killed more than a few rattlesnakes that came into my yard and endangered my dogs. I use a branch lopper to cut off their heads. They are dead at that point but there is a lot of reflex wiggling, especially the head. And yeah, Peta, no freaking way am I going to pith the head on a venomous snake. One of you Peta members who would like to volunteer can come out and do it for me if you’d like. I am also not going to volunteer to hold down a large python while a vet tries to find a vein to stick.
After I thought “ick” – my next thought was “I hope they didn’t waste the meat.”