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Snakes as pets can have unexpected impact

It isn’t always the ramifications of a decision that prompt it to be looked back on as a good or bad choice. Often, perhaps more often, it is the law of unintended consequences.

According to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, “The law of unintended consequences, often cited but rarely defined, is that actions of people – and especially of government – always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it.”

Examples abound in economics, but it applies universally. Humans simply aren’t always the best at “gaming” out decision, understanding all of the variables in an environment (sociological or environmental) and how that will result in changes that were unintended and not necessarily as welcome as the predicted outcome.

Such as could happen should the City of Minot move ahead with a plan to permit some types of snakes to be kept as pets in town. Note the word could. Minot Daily News is neither taking a position on this topic nor asserting that there will be unintended consequences.

The problem is not that those who like to keep snakes as pets are any more or less responsible than those of us who have cats and dogs as our animal family members. There’s good and there’s bad. Plenty of cat and dog owners are less than responsible for their pets too. An example of unintended consequences that correlates with pet ownership would be the cat colonies in some parts of town, and which many consider nuisances.

Closer to the issue of snakes, one can look far, far to the south and the Florida Everglades. This beautiful, pristine national treasure has been inundated with snakes and its ecology forever changed. Snakes – pythons mostly – initially brought in as pets were subsequently released by their original owners (either because they got too big or the owner simply changed his mind) into the Florida wilds, multiplied dramatically and now challenge the alpha animals in the ecology (think alligators and crocodiles). Hundreds of stories have been written about it and the state has yet to find a way to address the challenge – or even determine how hazardous the situation is. Predicting the future ramifications is virtually impossible, but there have already been some and there will most certanly be more. This is more than an academic study, when 15-foot pythons show up in the yard of a West Miami home.

Now, the odds that the species of snakes Minot is giving thought to permitting in town limits, will end up free, reproducing and changing the entire environment of our region of North Dakota rather remote, to say the least. North Dakota winters aren’t really cozy for snakes. But what happens if ample snakes are freed, that first cold day hits and someone’s former pet is going to be looking for somewhere warm to curl up.

Snakes as pets pose no more threat to the public than a dog, in the right owners’ hands. However, the city is encouraged to keep the law of unintended consequences in mind.

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