8-foot-long carnivorous cat-eating lizards are invading Florida

Business Insider via Yahoo News ^ | 4/10/15 | Kevin Loria

[Slings and Arrows]

Kitty ping...well, sort of.

[tet68]

Gila Monsters

As I recall, they do not have fangs but have grooves in
their teeth, this is one reason they do not release
once they bite.

[hinckley buzzard]

All these non-native critters really suck. The imbeciles who buy them and then release them are nothing but vandals. As are the a--holes who sell them.

[BBell]

What is wrong with Florida?? Put a bounty on it’s head and be done with it.

[sheana]

We stayed at Las Hades in Manzanillo Mexico a few times. They have an iguana sanctuary or something there. You can be sitting on a chair by the pool and one or a couple of those huge suckers will come lay under your chair for the shade. They’re all over the pool area. Hubby always laughed but they unnerved me. I couldn’t really fall asleep or relax because when I did I’d wake up and those suckers would be under my chair. Lol

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Leave ‘em alone!

[matt1234]

What a bunch of meatheads.

[JimSEA]

My wife has an inclination to stand up on the table when they come past and she’s the one who should be used to then. They are pretty harmless unless you are a cat or small dog. The main prey is supposedly the rats that swarm restaurants.

[pierrem15]

When are we getting the Rat eating lizards?

[Oztrich Boy]

Alligators aren’t lizards

[Ray76]

Put a bounty on them. 50 bucks for every dead on brought in.

[Baynative]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If they eat cats, they can’t be all-bad.

[Jamestown1630]

I was once at the National Zoo, when they had to treat a monitor (may have been a Komodo) for some health problem it had.

The guys (it took three of them) used special boxes to cover the front part of it, while one grabbed and manipulated the rear. Then the other men got hold of the front, somehow.

At the time, the critter seemed to me to be pretty docile, but the men were very careful anyway. I guess they knew things that I couldn’t perceive; but it was obvious that it was at least a very powerful animal.

-JT

[patriot08]

‘Lizards’ like this, alligators and crocks should all be killed- wiped out. These sobs are good for nothing but destruction.

[LaRueLaDue]

Knew a guy years ago that was a herpitologist at the Oklahoma City zoo. He had many horrifying stories about working with alligators and crocodiles using plywood shields and lassos...

[sheana]

I’m like your wife. I know they’re harmless but they make me nervous. I’d be laying there almost sound asleep and would hear something scrubbing under my chair. I’d jump up and take off and hubby would just laugh. I’d look back and there’d be a couple of them just lounging in the shade of the chair. Lol

[married21]

Florida is just plain scary, in so many ways.

[antidisestablishment]

Yep. We have a breeding population of Tegu Lizards near Tampa. There are numerous invasive species that people have introduced all over the state.

Florida has always been a bit of a freak show, but we may be able to bring back the carnival sideshow attractions from the 50s if this keeps up.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

If there were any real Floridians left down there the problem wouldn't need government intervention.

In the old Florida there would be bands of small boys roaming around looking for stuff to capture.

They would be so dedicated to community safety that they would even forego treasured days in class as they battled these monsters.