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As It Happens6:32A dead python will get you a free pizza at this this Florida man’s restaurant
As far as Dusty Crum is aware, his Florida restaurant is the only pizza place in the world that accepts invasive Burmese pythons as currency.
It’s his way of supporting the Florida Python Challenge, an annual state-sponsored cull of the invasive species designed to protect native wildlife.
“You get any python, you get a free specialty pizza, large pizza of your choice,” Crum, owner of Wildman’s Pizza, Pasta and Pythons in Everglades City, Fla., told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.
“It’s kind of a thing, you know, especially the local kids. …They catch them. They don’t know what to do with them. They’re hungry. They want pizza.”
‘Snakin’ ain’t easy’
Every summer in the Everglades, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) and the South Florida Water Management District team up to organize the Florida Python Challenge.
Participants sign up and take an online training course on how to find Burmese pythons and kill them ethically, all for the chance to win cash prizes.
The person who brings in the most python carcasses wins $10,000 US.
Crum has his eyes set on the grand prize. An avid hunter, he says he’s out every night, often pulling all-nighters, looking for the populous, yet elusive, snakes.
“Snakin’ ain’t easy,” he said. “It is the right place at the right time. We’re looking for a 10-foot needle in a three-million acre haystack.”
Native to India, China and the Malay Peninsula, Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes in the world.
The average adult Burmese python caught in Florida measures between 1.8 and 2.7 metres, according to the FWCC. The largest one ever caught in the state was 5.4 metres.
Because they’re so big, they have few natural predators. And they’re prolific breeders, too. One female can lay between 50 and 100 eggs at a time.
It’s legal to kill them year-round without a permit in Florida, so long as it’s done humanely.
“Invasive Burmese pythons are one of the most destructive species in America’s Everglades,” FWCC spokesperson Jason Schultz said in an email.
“These invasive snakes threaten our precious native ecosystem by preying upon the wildlife that lives there, including wading birds, mammals, and other reptiles. Their aggressive predation on native wildlife robs panthers, raptors, bobcats, and other native predators of their primary food sources.”
Schultz declined to comment on Crum’s python-for-pizza deal.
Python pizza?
When Crum isn’t slaying snakes, he’s serving slices at Wildman’s, which he calls “the unofficial hub” of the Florida Python Challenge.
“There’s a lot of commotion going on in there right now,” he said. “Everybody meets up there and swaps stories and strategies, and enjoys a good pizza too.”
But Wildman’s isn’t just a pizzeria.
Because Crum hunts year-round, the self-described “swampepreneur” also sells a variety of python products, including snake-skin jewelry and accessories, and actual snake oil.
He’ll also occasionally serve up a snakey slice, peppering his pies with pieces of python sautéed in garlic butter.
“It’s got a gamey flavour,” he said. “It’s good.”
Crum says he says he can’t put python pizza on his official menu because the snake meat is not prepared by a licensed butcher. But he’s known to give it away for free to those curious enough to try.
Still, as far as he’s concerned, it’s not the strangest pizza you can try at Wildman’s.
“I make a Hawaiian pizza with ham, onion and pineapple, and it’s like one of my top sellers,” he said. “Maybe I’ll have to try that one day.… I can’t push myself.”
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