Last week, a 12-foot-long pet Burmese python snuck into the crib of a 2-year-old Florida girl and killed her.
Now, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has taken to the Senate floor to push a ban on importing the potentially dangerous snakes.
"Sooner or later, a Burmese python will get the endangered Florida panther. Sooner or later, for an unsuspecting tourist in Everglades National Park, there will be an encounter with a human," Nelson said. "Tragically, it took this event of the strangulation by one of these snakes of a child within their own home in the child's crib to bring this to our attention."
In May, Nelson toured the Everglades with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and kicked off the day with a briefing on the troubles the snakes cause for indigenous species. Owners often let the snakes go once they grow too large, and many find themselves in the Everglades.
