Managing the Problem IS the Problem

The Python Challenge

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission touts the month-long contest as a way to raise public awareness about the threat the exotic constrictors pose to native wildlife in the Everglades and potentially put a dent in their population. Scientists estimate that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of the once-popular pets now live in the wild

Why not just put a bounty on the snakes? It doesn't have to be large, just enough so people can put some food on the table doing us the favor of ridding the Everglades of an alien species. Open season all year - we're not trying to manage the population, we want them all gone. Believe me, we can hunt a species to extinction if we put our minds to it, it wouldn't be the first time. In this case it would be the right thing to do. Instead, we have:

Increasing public awareness about Burmese pythons and how this invasive species is a threat to the Everglades ecosystem, including native wildlife, is the goal of the 2013 Python Challenge.

Here we have the typical government reaction to a problem - manage the problem so it always exists and government bureaucrats always have a job while bitching about how terrible the problem is. It's enough to make you scream.