Do you think people should be allowed to own certain snake species?

Also, and Fishbone should correct me if I'm wrong, but is it not a rule that if you are to find a wild burmese python in the Everglades you are to kill on sight (if that is possible)? Last place I heard that rule was in the documentary done on the prehistoric Titanoboa (which I would highly recommend watching, it was pretty cool), and I'm not sure when that was made but I know it was in the last couple of years as the Titanoboa exhibit is currently still traveling the USA.

I have really hard time with the theory that the pythons were being tested to see if they were trainable. Not that someone wouldn't ever try it or that such research is totally garbage, because I find the extent of a snake's memory/intelligence a fascinating topic; but figuring out how to train animals never trained before does not strike me as something the army would risk doing in a high-pressure wartime situation.

The smugglers and hurricane make a lot of sense.

Also, on the count of people making long trips to release pets, in a way it almost makes sense that even an irresponsible person would do so, and certainly someone who was trying to be sneaky, smugglers included. The Everglades are a place where the snakes will blend in much better with the local fauna than in your typical city block; in a place where they would have to do unusual things to survive, they would be much more easily seen. A person desperate to unload a pet they suddenly don't want and can't care for might either not know the laws pertaining to it OR they might figure that if it's going to be in the wild, it may as well be in its habitat; perhaps no malicious intent to kill it or else they would have just killed it. And I don't know about you but if I was trying to get rid of an animal, I would want to put it in a place where it isn't likely to want to come back.