We get a lot of questions from folks who follow our python hunting work down here in South Florida. Some of them are about gear, some are about the dogs, and some are about how we handle the snakes once we catch them. I figured it was time to sit down and answer some of the ones we get most often. But I’m going to lead with the one that probably deserves the most attention, because it happened this year and it still gets my heart going when I think about it.
Someone asked whether we worry about alligators and venomous snakes when we’re out there. The honest answer is yes, it’s always in the back of my mind. But I’ll tell you what I tell everyone: statistically, we’ve got a higher chance of dying in a car crash on the way to the boat ramp than we do getting taken out by a gator or a moccasin. You can’t let it put you in a bubble. You’ve still got a job to do.
That said, the risk is real. We had a close call this year that I won’t forget.
We were out on a python hunt when my dog Trouble got grabbed by an alligator. The gator took her under the water, into a canal that runs about 20 feet deep. I was at the edge of the island and I had maybe a second to make a decision. I dove in.
I grabbed the alligator blind underwater. My hands found it, but it immediately powered out of my grip. A gator that size, you’re not stopping it. But me getting a hold of it scared it just enough that it dropped Trouble. She floated up to the surface. I grabbed her, swam us both back to shore, and got her up on the bank.
She had a good-sized gash on one side of her ribs and a couple of punctures on the other side. We got her to Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital to check for water in her lungs and broken ribs. Everything came back clear. We got very, very lucky.
The other big questions we get are about the dogs and how we train them. Our whole pack traces back to Otto, our original dog and the foundation of our bloodline. Otto’s son Blue is still working with us. Trouble, who tangled with that gator and lived to tell it, came from Briarwood Kennels. She’s not related to Otto, but we bred her to Blue and they just had a litter. We’ll be keeping a couple from that.
Training the dogs to hunt pythons isn’t as complicated as people think. Once a dog has a solid foundation in scent trailing and catching, all I have to do is point them in the right direction. The hard part is finding a dog that wants to hunt pythons at all. A lot of dogs have a strong instinct to avoid snakes. You’ve got to find the one that’s a little crazy enough to go after them.
People also ask why I catch pythons by hand instead of just shooting them. A few reasons. Catching them alive preserves the skin. It makes sure they don’t get away into the brush. And honestly, it’s the most fun way to do it. I grew up with pet snakes and reptiles, and getting to go out in the Everglades and wrestle something as big as a Burmese python never gets old.
Once I’ve got full control of the snake, I euthanize it before we leave the swamp. You draw a cross from the eyes to the widest part of the jaw, and the intersecting point is where you want to hit. You have to destroy the brain. Just cutting the head off isn’t enough. Florida has humane euthanasia standards, and we follow them every time.
There’s a lot that goes into this work. The dogs, the snakes, the gators, the eggs, all of it. But days like the one where I pulled Trouble out of that canal remind me why we don’t take any of it for granted.
