Granting Cash Awards to Hunters Likely to Defeat Eradication Efforts, Says PETA and One of the Participating Government Agencies
For Immediate Release:
January 7, 2013
Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382
Tallahassee, Fla. -- PETA has fired off a letter to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) urging it to remove decapitation as an acceptable means of killing Burmese pythons in a contest dubbed the 2013 Python Challenge, which runs from January 12 through February 10 and includes cash prizes. In the letter, PETA points out that, according to Dr. Clifford Warwick, one of the world's foremost experts in reptilian biology, decapitation—followed by an attempt to destroy the snake's brain, as the challenge recommends—cannot be carried out humanely in the field, leading to prolonged suffering.
The group also points out that turning the python-eradication effort into a bounty hunt—prizes range up to $1,500—defeats its purpose. A report prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey—which is listed among "participating organizations" on the challenge website—concluded that "[b]ounties have never been used successfully with invasive reptiles" and that "any feature that adds value to an invasive species … creates economic pressure to assure the population's continuation."
"This bounty hunt is misguided in the first place, but allowing hunters to decapitate pythons—who remain alive and in agony and who will writhe for an hour even after their heads have been cut off—is despicably cruel," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Many of these animals were once someone's 'pets,' who have since been thrown out like garbage, and the FWC has an obligation to ensure that they don't suffer any more than they already have."
PETA is calling on the commission to limit the recommended method of killing the pythons to immediate destruction of the brain by gunshot or captive-bolt gun. PETA has also requested that the commission remove its endorsement of unspecified "other methods" that will "result in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the … brain," with no further guidance provided. These methods as well as decapitation could result in violations of Florida's cruelty-to-animals statute.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.