Federal officials say they want to remove all non-native predators from four nature reserves in the Florida Keys using live trapping and euthanization.
After public meetings with animal advocates, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will unveil a 44-page draft plan on how it intends to deal with non-native species such as opossums, armadillos, boa constrictors, Burmese pythons, iguanas and, especially, free-roaming cats, The Miami Herald reported Monday.
Wildlife officials acknowledge it's a contentious issue.
"It's a real controversial thing — some people believe every animal has a right to live," said Anne Morkill, who managed the Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuge Complex that encompasses the Key Deer, Key West, Great White Heron and Crocodile Lake preserves.
Biologists say the non-native predators threaten the natural ecosystem and are "posing a grave danger" to the native species, including 30 protected by the Endangered Species Act and some found nowhere else in the world.
"We don't want to further make it harder for all the critters to make their living by this uncontrolled experiment of nonnative species,'' National Key Deer Refuge biologist Chad Anderson said. "We're just trying to even the natural playing field.
"The native species have been playing the back and forth game for thousands of years. But all within the last 50 years, we've dumped in all these new species that don't have the system of checks and balances, down to the germs and viruses."
Share This Article With Planet Earth
