*Graphic* This is disturbing, but please read... (Patreon)

FWC stands for Florida Wildlife commission and they committed an atrocity this week.

I've only watched part of this video because I personally cannot handle seeing it, but I have spent all afternoon researching this story because it does not simply affect reptile keepers, but all of us in the state of Florida that house exotics and makes me fear for my animals. This story involves a breeder, but whether you agree with breeding animals or not it does not take away from the fact that INNOCENT animals were unnecessarily killed. Animals that this man identified as his pets, that he had raised from babies, that he cared for everyday. This man followed all of FWC's requests including sending them a breakdown of every animal he owned which ended up being used against him as a checklist for which animals to kill, which were then photographed like trophies and discarded into a trashcan as if they were garbage.

A brief backstory: "Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Law Enforcement Officers showed up unannounced at a reptile facility in West Palm Beach and slaughtered 34 pythons and one pregnant boa constrictor. The pet Boa constrictor was misidentified as a python and, according to its owner Bill McAdam, executed via "nail gun to the head" by four FWC officers. The FWC officers also killed 29 Reticulated pythons and five Burmese pythons owned by Chris Coffee. Under prior directive from FWC, Coffee was forced to maintain the snakes in captivity for over a year since an arbitrary deadline had passed to rehome the animals.

Coffee had a large collection of both Reticulated and Burmese pythons, which were possessed legally with a "Conditional Species Permit," before FWC made that permit obsolete by passing "Prohibited Species" rules in 2021. Therefore, his animals should have been grandfathered in and exempt from the new regulations. Nonetheless, after the rules banning the snakes were passed, Coffee chose to rehome 120 of his pythons, but he was unable to disperse all of his collection before an arbitrary FWC deadline. In an effort to remain on good terms with FWC, Coffee notified FWC in good faith about a year ago that he was having difficulties rehoming his animals in the short amount of time allowed by FWC. He asked FWC for more time, believing that he had no choice.

FWC responded by raiding Coffee's facility, arresting him, and issuing him two charges for each Reticulated and Burmese python possessed, for a total of 72 criminal charges. However, rather than seize the animals, FWC officers told Coffee that he had to continue to keep the snakes in captivity and that he could not rehome or euthanize them or he would be arrested again.

Coffee's pythons were maintained at the facility of Bill McAdam with FWC's full knowledge of their whereabouts for approximately a year, until FWC's raid and subsequent massacre on Thursday, April 7, 2023. On that date, coinciding with the observance of Passover and Holy Thursday, FWC officers the facility, alleging that they had a report of an escaped Reticulated python in the area.

The officers said that they wanted to check to see if it was one of Coffee's snakes that had escaped. This turned out to not be the real reason for their visit. After Coffee allowed them into the facility, the officers began pulling snakes out of their enclosures and killing them, with what Coffee described as a sort of nail gun, on the floor of McAdam's facility. The device used to kill the snakes was likely a device called a "penetrating captive bolt gun." The FWC officers spent around four hours killing snakes, firing multiple shots to the heads of some snakes when it appeared that the first shots failed to kill them. When it was all done, they had killed 29 Reticulated pythons and five Burmese pythons, in addition to the misidentified Boa constrictor. The reptile community is calling this event the “Holy Thursday Massacre.”"- USARK FL

This event is important to pay attention to because these animals were captive bred. Burmese and Reticulated Pythons have been deemed an invasive species by FWC, but his animals were never introduced to Florida wildlife and the owner was working with FWC to the best of his ability to get them out of the state. The animals were in regulated enclosures with locks and he had not had any escape in the time he had owned them. He was within his rights and even if FWC could not extend his deadline those animals could have been exported by the state instead of euthanized.

FWC has demonized these snakes and other reptiles claiming they are wreaking havoc on Florida's native wildlife, but the Chairman of FWC Rodney Barreto is the President & CEO of Barreto Group, Inc., a diversified company specializing in corporate and public affairs consulting, real estate investment and development.

THEY ARE NOT DEMONIZING THE COMPANIES PLOWING 1000'S OF ACRES FOR DEVELOPMENT WHERE FLORIDA WILDLIFE RESIDES.

Right now it's snakes and iguanas, but FWC has become more and more radical over the last few years and I no longer have faith that at some point they won't come after people like myself keeping captive wildlife, rehabbers who have non-releasable animals, and eventually outlaw smaller "exotic" pets like rabbits, ferrets, chinchillas, and some species of birds.

This brings me no joy to write. I have worked closely with our FWC officer who I have a phone call scheduled with tomorrow morning to discuss his thoughts on the matter and what he feels can be expected for keepers moving forward. He's someone I trust and I have trusted the commission for quite some time, but as more stories like this come to light it's become difficult to place faith in a group that could ultimately destroy my little family.

I would like to spread the word of this story more on my other social platforms, but I would like to get more information and hear your feedback first. Are any of you also Florida residents? What are your thoughts?  

Please consider going to this link for more of this story and unfortunately others like it: https://www.usarkfl.net/news/13162309

"USARK Florida is also calling on Governor DeSantis to hold FWC accountable by asking for the resignation of the FWC employee who gave the unjust order for these snakes to be brutally killed without cause. Further, USARK Florida respectfully requests that the Governor replace current staff leadership with new leadership, capable of focusing agency resources on Florida’s true wildlife issues, including but not limited to excessive mortality of wild Manatees, Florida panthers, Gopher tortoises, and Diamondback terrapins, as well as address water and habitat quality issues caused by FWC's extensive herbicide spraying program.

Furthermore, we ask that FWC suspend its seizure and killing of animals as well as prosecution of animal owners for "Prohibited Species," until USARK Florida's lawsuit challenging the validity and constitutionality of these draconian rules is resolved. FWC Commissioners and staff promised that animal owners would be able to continue to keep their pets, which has proven over and over to not be true." -USARK FL