Iguanas to become “reptiles of concern”?

Published June 27th, 2008

By John Johnston
Managing Editor

Nanci Alexander is serious.  She ‘concerned’ about what has become the scourge of Boca Raton for many – the fleet footed iguana.

District 4 County Commissioner Mary McCarty agrees.

And has in fact requested a resolution from fellow commissioners encouraging the Florida Fish and Wildlife (WFW) commission to include iguanas in a recently passed statewide ordinance as "reptiles of concern.”

Before you reach for the phone – this isn’t a request by McCarty for warm and cuddly iguana treatment, or an entitlement program on behalf of the reptiles.

In fact, adding iguanas to the “reptiles of concern” law actually is the best recent hope for communities that want to at least slow down the rise of the garden eating, and marina befouling lizards.

That’s because those who buy reptiles named on the “concern” list, must also buy a $100 license, and also have the iguana microchipped – the latter aimed at preventing the indiscriminate dropping of iguanas into the wild only to find them in your backyard, or deep diving in your pool, in a few days.

McCarty received the request for adding iguanas to the list from Nanci Anderson, President of Animal Rights Foundation of Florida,
who said in a letter to McCarty:

“Currently, iguanas can be purchased for as little as $10 at pet stores. Adding iguanas to the list of reptiles of' concern would make it more complicated and expensive to purchase these animals, and would discourage impulse purchases.

In April 2006, Boca Raton’s Marine Advisory Board asked the City Council to come up with an “iguana eradication program” to stem the growing population of the big, green, spiky lizards.

The advisory board has done its own interviews with pest control companies – but nothing official has happened.

The Boca Marine Advisory Board is not alone in its concerns

The board of the South Florida Water Management District has asked federal regulators to take a step toward banning imports of large snakes.  Scientists have noted the python explosion for years; calls for bans have also come from some state legislators,

In May 2006, Commissioner McCarty said the county should ban the sale of both large snakes and iguanas – something Boca’s Council and Marine Advisory board supports.

To discourage large snakes from simply being abandoned, others have suggested that large reptile owners should pay a $100 permit fee to own such creatures – a plan subsequently adopted in the reptiles of concern law passed earlier this year, along with requiring microchipping.

McCarty herself told the Boca Raton News that it’s not about wanting to control commerce.

“It has to do with species that are hard to keep once they become adult and full grown. Owners have no choice really but to get rid of them.” 

That’s not news to Boca residents; in particular those who live near or use the city’s marina areas.

Both in the city, and other areas of Palm Beach County, iguanas that can reach six feet in length are multiplying rapidly. Native to Central and South America, the voracious, fleet-footed iguana has no natural enemies in the suburbs of South Florida.

Some may have originally arrived as stowaways on freighters arriving at South Florida ports.  But pet owners and dealers -- shocked at how huge the reptiles had grown -- probably released most, McCarty said.
“The easy way is to just release them outdoors.”

Statewide Ban?

McCarty has in the past suggested a countywide sales ban against large snakes and lizards.

Commissioner Burt Aaronson, however, pointed that a Palm Beach County ban wouldn’t prevent residents from going to either Broward or Martin Counties to buy snakes or lizards.  Therefore, he reasoned, not only would a county ban put pet store owners at a competitive disadvantage, “it wouldn’t solve the problem.”

Aaronson said that the only way to deal with it would be a statewide ban.  Various measures to create such bans have been proposed in the past, but have never gotten out of conference committees.

McCarty pointed out that, and in many cases like the iguana, Florida doesn’t have cold weather to force the animals to move south, or kill off the non-native and threatening plants. Iguanas can’t in fact live on any long-term basis where the temperature is consistently much below 60 degrees.

Something must be done, McCarty said.  “It is having a very bad effect on the balance of nature here in our state and changing and destroying natural native habitat in Florida, especially in the Everglades.”

A microchip and $100 is a step in that direction.