‘We have an iguana problem,’ South Florida senator says. His bill aims to solve it.
On a cold January day where Floridians pondered whether the state’s invasive and pervasive green iguanas would freeze and fall from the sky, a bill was introduced that aims to stop the “chicken of the trees” from proliferating.
The bill, which got its first hearing Tuesday, adds green iguanas to the list of species that cannot be kept as pets or sold in pet shops across the state.
In addition to green iguanas, the bill also applies to black and white tegus, another nonnative lizard variety largely found in Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties.
The Senate Environment and Natural Resources committee voted 4-0 on the bill, which still has two committee stops before it goes to a floor vote.
Bill sponsor Sen. Gary Farmer, a Lighthouse Point Democrat, said the bill will hopefully help solve what he calls the “iguana problem” he sees in his hometown, which is largely built near canals. He pointed out billboards and trucks he sees in his community that advertise iguana removal.
“We have an iguana problem in the state of Florida,” Farmer said. “If we want to eradicate them, we shouldn’t be allowing their commercial sale.”
The House version, filed by Sunrise Democrat Dan Daley, has not yet been heard.
Farmer filed a similar bill last year, which died after its first committee stop.
Green iguanas, which were first found in Miami-Dade in the mid-1960s and later spotted in Collier, Lee, Monroe, Palm Beach and Broward counties around the late 1990s, can grow to over five feet in length and weigh up to 17 pounds.
While iguanas are not aggressive and don’t hurt people or pets, complaints about the invasive reptiles had become so prevalent that Florida wildlife managers last year even gave the green light for Floridians to “humanely kill green iguanas on their own property whenever possible.”
And the iguanas aren’t just pests. They are menaces to the state’s fragile environment. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, green iguanas cause damage to infrastructure by digging burrows that erode and collapse sidewalks, seawalls and canal banks. And they wreak havoc on foliage.
There are more than 500 nonnative species documented in Florida and while not all of them pose threats, many of them do.
Like the Burmese python that invaded the Everglades, iguanas were probably kept as pets and escaped or were released when they got too large.
Pythons are no longer legal for commercial sale in Florida.
This story was originally published January 21, 2020 at 5:52 PM.