Real Solutions To Iguana Infestation Await, However

Well, they've gone and done it. The Lee County Board of Commissioners, in Fort Meyers, Florida, has voted to levy a special iguana tax on homeowners in and around the unincorporated town of Boca Grande, on Gasparilla Island, where some 10,000 iguanas are wreaking havoc as we speak.

The tax will raise a quite modest sum to help devise an iguana eradication plan, which will then require its own funding source. As it was an islander who years back supposedly discarded two pet iguanas outdoors there, leading to the current state of affairs, perhaps islanders should pay the actual iguana control costs as well, once a real plan is set. But would that be an example of "personal responsibility," or "blame the victim"? Is iguana control a core service of county government? In Florida, the answer may not necessarily be a resounding "no." Animal control is certainly one core mission of local government, and there are all kinds of creatures in Florida, as anyone who's read a Carl Hiaasen novel knows.

According to earlier estimates, it could cost between $50 and $100 per iguana to, ah, "cull" them, on Gasparilla. As regular Rosenblog readers may know, I've offered commissioners and island residents a breathtakingly visionary plan that seeks to utilize the inherent economic value of iguanas to help pay the cost of corralling, maintaining and harvesting the critters.

TECHNORATI TAGS: IGUANA TAX, GASPARILLA ISLAND, BOCA GRANDE, LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA