The Holy Thursday Massacre

The Aftermath of the massacre

 What the Florida fish and Wildlife Conservation commission(FWC) did to Chris Coffee and Bill McAdam's 34 Burmese and Reticulated pythons and the Boa Constrictor named Shirl on the Thursday of April 6th 2023, the day before Good Friday, is horrendous and downright cruel. It very much goes against everything that the FWC and the reptile community must stand for. It displays the absolute lack of professionality and respect for the snakes, illegal or not. 

Chris Coffee and Bill McAdam

On April 29 of 2021, the FWC decided the Burmese and the Reticulated Pythons to be deemed Prohibited Species, where any person that owned the snakes prior to the rule was given a 90 day period where they could liquidate their snakes and relocate them outside of Florida. This was because Burmese and Retics were an invasive species in the wildlife of Florida as they led to the severe declines in Everglade mammal populations and also competed with other animals for food and habitat.

 The residents of Florida can only own the conditional/prohibited species under the condition that they were kept for education, research or eradication, as stated on the FWC guidelines. Chris Coffee had all the Burmese and Reticulated python under the Conditional Species Permit, and had even microchipped all those snakes as per the FWC guidelines. All those Burmese and Retics should have been grandfathered in after the prohibition of the species, but Chris did everything he can to relocate those snakes within the time period. Chris successfully rehomed 120 pythons from his inventory but he could not do so for the 34 other pythons that belonged to him before the deadline.

The FWC subsequently raided Chris Coffee's facility, arrested him and made him a criminal. They arrested him on 72 counts of charges, 2 for each python he still had after the deadline. Chris had previously reached out to the FWC before the deadline for an extension so that he could rehome the rest of his snakes, but a completely blind eye was shown. For seemingly owning his beloved pet snakes, Chris was turned into a criminal and seized of the ownership of the rest of the 34 pythons. He was made into a criminal for having pets which was perfectly legal before the new law was passed and not wanting to kill them in cold blood. After they arrested him, they declared that the snakes will be under the ownership of the FWC but he was required to take care of it himself, and could not euthanize them or sell them. Chris had to take care of the snakes for a year at the facility of McAdam, before they raided him again with 4 FWC officers to dispose of the 'illegal' snakes, on Holy Thursday.

It is important to note that Chris and Bill had found breeders and other reptile keepers outside of Florida to rehome the rest of the pythons, but due to the seizing of ownership of the snakes by the FWC, they were instructed to not sell the pythons. The pythons did not deserve to die as they could've been safely relocated but instead had to be purposefully kept under the facility of Chris himself until they met their demise by the FWC.

Officer smiling after the massacre

The absolute savagery that took place on that Thursday is seemingly unspeakable. Chris coffee had to watch his own beloved pet snakes get killed by a penetrating captive bolt device, which was seemingly the right tool to correctly euthanize a snake. There was nothing humane about the way they killed all the snakes and it was just as horrifying watching it as it would be watching someone's pet cat or a dog get bolt-gun penetrated straight to the head. The sounds of the bolt gun piercing through the skulls of the poor snakes still rings loud in many snake and reptile lovers. One could not imagine what Chris was going through while the massacre was taking place.

It is absolutely insane that a committee centered around the protection and well being of wildlife had no respect for the countless amazing pythons that they killed during that day. No effort what so ever was taken to ensure that instead of outright killing the snakes, they would be instead rehabilitated into a temporary location outside of Florida or into a zoo.

Amidst the killings of the Burmese and Retics, there was a gravid Boa Constrictor in a cage. Chris had informed them multiple times to not kill the snake whatsoever, as a Boa Constrictor is perfectly legal to own anywhere in America. In the care free manner that they were disposing the snakes, one of the FWC officer, without even double checking the name or the species of the snake, pulls the boa constrictor out by the neck and the other officer penetrates the head with a bolt gun.

The petty reaction right after killing the Boa they weren't supposed to kill

We live in a world where "Wildlife Officers" cannot properly distinguish between a Burmese python and a Boa Constrictor. Hell! I don't own a snake but even I could clearly identify the difference between a Burmese and a Boa! And not to mention the Boa, named Shirl was gravid with 34 babies. The officers continued their massacre for 4 hours and to do so they hid Shirl in a far corner of the room so that Chris would not be able to see it and stop their slaughtering. After 4 hours, they broke the news to him...

               Big Shirl(common morph)

They were warned more than 10 times to not kill the boa constrictor. 

As Chris shouted at the FWC officers in anger and disappointment,

"OH MY GOD WHY? I reminded you 10 TIMES!!!"

The pregnant boa, Shirl, was still writhing for about 20 minutes after they improperly struck the head. The poor snake, still in pain, kept writhing for an excruciating amount of time, and they did NOTHING about it, other than just stare at it. Absolutely no care was given to the life of the poor snakes.

Bill McAdams gorgeous boa constrictor was about 8 feet long and was pregnant with 32 babies, which would have been born in about a month, which was known after the necrosis that was documented and uploaded to YouTube. Shirl's babies had a total worth of approximately $100,000 as they contained mainly of rare morphs like Red-dragons and Blood-Albinos.

Red-Dragon baby

Blood Albino Baby

                                

Another thing to point out is that the officers seemingly did not even know how to use the bolt gun properly. You would think that trained FWC officers might know how to use their own equipment but the way they were using the bolt guns on the snakes were barbaric in nature. They can easily be seen taking pleasure in the bloodbath that they were creating in front of Chris and showed no respect to the lives of the poor animals. 

The captive Bolt gun that was used in the 'euthanizing'

All the three FWC officers seemingly had a "no-care" attitude during the entire process of euthanizing the snakes. One of the officers seemingly 'posed' for a photo, after they euthanized a snake with the Captive Bolt Gun stunner.

FWC officer posing with a dead Burmese python

All of these were snakes that were owned and taken care by Chris for years like they were his own children. Anyone who owns reptiles and especially snakes would definitely know what Chris had to go through watching his own pets getting killed brutally. The 34 Burmese and Reticulated pythons, his 10 year old Boa named Shirl and her 34 babies is a painful loss for him that can't be replaced by anything else. All of the FWC officers who worked towards this brutal massacre and all the officers who also turned a blind eye to the requests and alternatives that the reptile owners were suggesting to avoid the unnecessary killings of the pets must be held accountable for their actions. This is definitely NOT what the FWC must stand for.

It's just painful and sad that if the FWC really did care for the reptiles as they say, then all of this could have been avoided if they had listened to Chris' request for an extension of the 90 day time period so that, he could've just safely rehomed the rest of the snakes. But they just HAD to kill the snakes no matter what. The lack of understanding of the reptile community from the FWC is truly a crime in and of itself. The fact that they can just label a reptile keeper a criminal for owning a domestic pet for more than 10 or 20 years which was perfectly fine at the time and then arrest him and kill the snakes is just damn absurd to think about. But as crazy as it sounds, this is the reality. Chris and Bill are passionate people, who loves what they do, by taking care of the domestic snakes in accordance to the law and the guidelines set by the FWC themselves. It is devastating to think that even though you go through so many hoops to do the right thing, you still get brutally punished for it for no reason.

May the 34 Burmese and Reticulated pythons, Big Shirl and her gorgeous 32 babies rest in peace.

Chris Coffee's daughter Caitlyn Coffee has organized a go-fund-me campaign for the emotional damage inflicted by this mass slaughter.

Caitlyn quotes in her go-fund-me page,

"The FWC must be held accountable for their cruel, ruthless, unjustifiable, and careless actions. Help us fight to make a change. All funds will be donated to Chris Coffee and Bill McAdam to help compensate for everything they have lost. These are lives that we cannot bring back. These actions committed by the FWC are irreversible, but they for sure destroyed both Chris's and Bill's lives while also costing many animals' beloved lives. By donating, these funds will also help us with attorney fees in order to hold the state accountable for these acts. We sincerely appreciate all of the love and support given thus far."

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fwc-snake-slaughter

For more information:

FWC officer's bodycam footage breakdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihMZCYbm5h0

Bill McAdam sharing his feelings with Kamp Kenan

https://youtu.be/KWXPknU_vYA?si=qjv_oqZENZSgrPxk

Big Shirl's Necrosis 

https://youtu.be/5Gxkga_ZPas?si=FIWFdE6BI0Cv15PU

USARK reports

https://youtu.be/Rt0GytC4Yqw?si=eR3Pz1_kjcIUQXE1

New England Reptiles video

https://youtu.be/-v6e1Oy7Xhw?si=3BYCaV6iD3PdFnSj