Iguanas and Other Invasive Species

In this pint-sized episode of Vegans Talking Shit, Jon remains out enjoying his hockey day, so once again, it's The Tofu Trio minus one. After an awkward introduction needlessly explaining that this is the second half of a single recording split into two different topics, Joey and Vanessa begin discussing iguanas and other invasive species. They chat about the low IQ of iguanas and the bizarre phenomenon of them falling from trees during the rare South Florida cold snap. The conversation turns to the controversial law allowing people to kill iguanas in Florida. Vanessa gets emotional sharing how she tried to save several frozen iguanas near her building only to learn that someone had begun killing them, leading Joey to discuss the irony of labeling a species "invasive" when humans brought them there in the first place. As the show closes, Joey gets a little too excited about his ability to split the recording into two separate topics, resulting in some audible "thinking out loud" about posting dates and voting deadlines. It’s an awkward hello and a fumbled goodbye, but the conversation in between might actually be worth the listen.

Vegans Talking Shit is hosted by Joey Di Girolamo, Jon Missirlian, and Vanessa Silva. Main podcast image artwork by Diego Orellana. Theme song "Flying" by TrackTribe. Visit @veganstalkingshit on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and @vegans.talking.sh on TikTok. Send questions, comments, and topic ideas to veganstalkingshit@gmail.com, and you may get your email read during the show.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hey everybody, welcome to Vegans Talking Shit. I'm Joey.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

I'm Venice.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And this is a little bit of a Frankenstein put together. Uh this is actually uh one episode that's been split in two, but it's not a two-parter. Last week we did our episode about secondhand animal products, and uh we actually went along going into another topic, and that's what this episode is. This episode is about iguanas and other uh invasive species, and uh it's a bit of a depressing one, if I'm being honest. It's a depressing episode, but uh I think we do still keep it light because this is vegan talking shit. This is not Schindler's list, this is vegan talking shit. Uh but before we get into it, I'd like to urge all of you to give us a review on Apple Podcasts, uh Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, however you listen to our podcast, YouTube. Um give us a review. We want to uh expand the podcast. We uh were nominated recently um through Veg News for Best Vegan Podcast. Uh the vote is closed now. Uh, I guess they're tabulating. We'll find out soon whether we won or not. Uh, but yeah, we're trying to grow this little thing of ours. So yeah, give us a review.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Please. Any podcast you can give us a review. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

So before actually, no, I think this is a good place to move on to the actual podcast. So go ahead, enjoy people.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Joey, what happened with our iguanas? I'm so sad about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

What's your opinion about it? So, for who doesn't know, in Florida we have a bunch of iguanas all over the place, they're all over the place, every single different size they have uh in Florida, and people claim that they are invasive animals, so they are not from here. But in the beginning I hated them because I was so scared about them, and after a while I fell in love for them. And unfortunately, when it's too cold for them, they freeze, really freeze, and they do not move at all. But they unfrost, um no, unfreeze. What disfrost? What's the name, Joy?

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Well, you can say unfreeze or you can say defrost. Um, but yeah, what once uh once the little cold snap is over, they are no longer frozen and they're alive.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, guys. And what happened this time was the first time we saw that. I don't know if they did other kind of campaigns about that, but they were promoting people grab these iguanas and taking some fatil facilities to be killed.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

And that broke my heart. I tried saving all that.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Um yeah, it's a it's pretty disturbing. I mean, I like iguanas. I think that for one thing, they're not aggressive at all. I mean, they look a little scary if you've never seen them before. Um Florida is full, full of iguanas. Um, but they're not supposed to be here, like Vanessa said, they're they're an invasive species. Um, but they're stupid, you know, they're the stupidest animals I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

They are they are here for so long. For so long. They're invasive, they're not invasive anymore. They they live here for how long?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah, that's true. You're right. At this point, they've been here so long, they're it's not even fair to say that they're an invasive species, but they love the they love the warm temperatures. Um, I mean it's it's almost like a a meme now, you know. Uh if when especially South Florida, when it gets uh chilly, people here, I mean in South Florida, when the temperature goes down to 70, people start to complain about how cold it is. Um but when it comes to the iguanas, they are you know, they they they don't do well in cold weather. So in the two weeks a year where it gets chilly in South Florida, um, yeah, the iguanas literally freeze. Uh they they start falling from trees, frozen iguanas falling from trees. Yeah, and uh eventually when things warm up again, they're they're no longer frozen and they're alive. But yeah, it's this thing in Florida where they announce that they want you to kill the iguanas, and it's so sad because these are they're they're sweet little animals. I mean, maybe not so little, some are huge, but they're not they're not too bright, they get stuck in chain link fences, they get hit by cars. Um and it's like the you know, the they're the life is of an iguana is tough enough, you know. We don't need people to start collecting and killing them. It's it's just so disturbing, and it's uh I don't know for me.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

This time was pretty bad because like I have I have a defended iguanas from dogs, dog owner, actually, it's not from the dog.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

I remember this, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, the dog the the owner thought the dog attack iguanas, and he was having fun with that, and they didn't realize I thought they I thought they the dog just attacked it, and I just get my flip-flops and screwing the dog for he left the iguana. So yeah, that iguana survived. She has a hole in the belly, was bleeding for a while. I was watching for a while for anybody else uh finished kill. In that time, I discovered that they are not protected because I call um animal rescue center, like uh wildlife, and they told me, Oh, you can call the the police and they show up and just shoot the the animal to stop suffering. Yeah, I was like, what? Yeah, because or if you want, you can bring it here and you eat an us. Like, no, I want to give a chance for this one. And in this park, next to our building, we have like a big park, and then this park uh has just two huge ones, the others all little small, so we know then for when you look down from from our uh balcony and put like the cell phone clothes, you can see then on top of the trees. So these two you always see them. So when I say no, I'm going to give a chance for it. And I was watching like a few hours there. I brought my computer down to keep watching for nobody finish, kill her. And at some point, she went to the tree, she was in into the tree. Next day I went there, checked, she's still there. I was scared if uh she died because she didn't move it, but suddenly she moved it, and the third day I went there to see it. She she started like a moving, and I was like, Oh my gosh, she saved. But this time when I went down, it was early, and it was the day that they supposed to be falling from the trees, and I went down to try hide them because I was already seeing people saying about bringing them over, we're going to kill them. And when I got down, the the lady the cleaning lady looked to me and said, Vanessa, you're not going to believe what happened. A guy was there stabbing them.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

What you didn't tell me this part.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah, I I posted my social media only, I was so revolted. And when I got there, she has like a hole, like uh next to oh Joey. I cannot say because I get what is wrong with that person.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Why would he do that?

SPEAKER_00 8:16

I don't know what's wrong. I don't know how someone can do it because she still has the eyes opening, like she was frozen, she could not react, she could not run, but she had the eyes open, and someone was really stabbing her to die when she was watching that.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

I was I look to the lady like who is the cabron? She's uh she's uh a Latin. Who is the cabron? I'm going to put him in the face. She said, He's not from the building, he's from the other building. I was like, uh it's unbelievable for me, like someone does that. Well, I tried to hide that one. I got her, I put it then in um uh in a like a I cut pieces of uh boxes to put it in on top and hide them uh behind the the the the bush that they have here in the building. I found more two of them uh that was not hurt yet. And I took them there and kept kept watching, but that week was cold for many days. So in that day at 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m. was like the highest temperature. One of them she disfrosts. So I have the video, she's standing with the eyes open and just uh the mouth half open. Yeah, pretty cute. Uh the little one disfrost, and I saw she moving, but I don't know if she I don't know, she probably froze again because for a few days, uh, pretty bad. So in the third day, the the one frozen was there, the other one that opened the mouth was frozen again there, and I had to go to Brazil, and I was like, oh my god, I don't know if they're going to be surviving, and blah blah blah. And when I came back, no, she was there, died. Uh, the one that was stabbed, the other one probably survived because she was not there, she left, and the little one probably survived that's not there, but since then, since I came back from Brazil, I keep walking to the park to see them, and I'm not seeing any iguanas, yeah. So it is very sad, super sad because I like to go to the park to watch them, and uh since I came back, I didn't see any here, and people were loading their trucks with iguanas to deliver to be killed. I just do not know why, even though they're invasive, they eat it like leaves, and they do not eat actually the the the native uh leaves, they like garden garden leaves. Maybe people don't like them because they eat their garden, they immaculate American garden. Maybe that's why, Joey. I don't know, but it's pretty sad to see it. Sometimes they can eat eggs from the birds, but uh for this research I saw, nothing proved that they had any impact because it's when they can find, and it's not always they prefer the leaves. So I don't know why people are so bad with iguanas, maybe because they're not cute animals.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Well, I mean, the irony is that the reason why they're even here, because they don't they didn't migrate here, they're here because people brought them here. People brought them here as pets. It's the same thing with with the snakes that we have. You know, people buy a pet snake, um, and then they realize they don't like the pet snake anymore, they take it to the Everglades. So the Everglades, the Everglades is full of all these invasive species that have been brought here by people, only to them that to then the those creatures are considered invasive species, so then people kill them, and it's just horrible, it's unfair. And the thought of this person stabbing my god, who what kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

I want no, I actually I don't want I don't know if I want to know who it is, yeah. Yeah, because I know myself, I can grab a piece of wood and hit the guy in the head, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

So I have to just be careful because that's a serial killer in the making. I think that that guy is probably a serial killer.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Well, it can be worse. Yeah, when I'm angry, oh don't don't be in front of me. So, anyways, the point is you say about the Everglades, and there's another situation there. The phyton. The what I'm sorry, phyton, phyton, snake, piton, python, the snake, yeah. That's kind of like a little bit different because that one for the research I have done, she's really endangered the entire the entire Everglades because uh she doesn't have a predator, she's eating they are eating everything because they reproduce too much and they are eating all the animals. Uh so is is already making unbalancing the Everglades, and the prospection uh for the next years is getting really, really bad. They are trying to use technology to capt these uh snakes because Everglades in danger because of that.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Wow, so they are making an impact.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

The Python they are, they are making, they are making like some so they started making like some kind of a bunny, mechanic bunny, yeah. That uh to attract them to be able to catch the the snakes, but the crocodile started getting these these fake toys too, yeah, with GPS, with you know, this was like a technology way to try cat cat these these snakes, but it started affecting the the the the alligators, sorry. So the alligators now cannot they they are from there, so they cannot be killed. So it's been like a such a big thing, and they did not find a way yet. They promote some huntings there. I don't know if you have seen that, Joy. They promote uh they pay people if you hunt the the the Python, Python, Python, yeah. Python, they the government pay you. Uh they they make like some season that they give like a big big uh trophies to people who got the biggest one, but it's not enough, they reproduce too fast, so yeah. This is a different situation, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

It is a different situation, but I think there's also an interesting uh uh ecological uh piece of mystery there. I don't know if you saw the footage. I actually did. Uh, there's a case, I don't know if it was in the Everglades, maybe it was in another country for all I know. But I I remember watching the footage of I think it was a python that had swallowed an alligator. Yeah, they are eating the alligators.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

I mean crazy, it's crazy. The little ones, the little alligators is just a snack, but they can get the bigger ones too because they they go around, they suffocated, and after they just swallow, yeah. So they're really making the entire environment in Everglades in danger, so it's a different kind of situation. So I understand that point of quite uh, you know, I don't I feel bad for them still because they still animals and they don't ask for being here, but I can understand that can be something needs to be done. They are trying to destroy the eggs before, you know, but still nothing helping Everglades to get over the the snakes.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Well, and iguanas, I think it's also different because in the case of iguanas, they're everywhere, like you know, the I don't know if they also have the same situation where they reproduce at a rapid rate. Um but iguanas are okay, yeah. That that makes sense. Um, but iguanas are everywhere, but again, iguanas are so sweet and and and dumb.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

And also, Joey, uh, if in many days they are frozen, they they can die too, if it's too many days of cold.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

That I well, I don't know how many days they like how many days do you know how many days it takes for them to so for what I was reading, like uh four days started to be dangerous for them.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Last uh two two or three weeks ago was the entire week very cold. So because sometimes get cold during the night, but during the day get a little bit hot in Florida. We don't used to have this this weather we had a few weeks ago. We have like a few days, not like a few weeks of uh really cold. So if they this free this frost, this frost unfroze, unfroze even they back to life and after froze freeze again, and it's like a it's kind of like a balance they can go through, but if they spend like uh three four days completely freeze, frozen, so they they they can die for natural, you don't need to put them in a gas chamber because I don't know how they kill all uh they counted five thousand iguanas they killed was delivered for them, so I don't know how they kill them. How they kill them?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

I don't know, it can't be pleasant.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

No, so it's kind of like what they did with these 5,000 iguanas, it's horrible, and it they conscious they are conscious, they they they open their eyes, they see you, they they are, they're not function, and it is this make me feel really bad about it, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, yeah, it's it's depressing. I mean, these poor iguanas, and again, they're not brought here, it's not like they migrated over. They're they they I'm sorry, they are brought here um by people. Um, and since they are not exactly pretty animals, they're not koala bears, you know, they're these kind of hideous looking reptiles. I think they're cute, but most people don't think that iguanas are cute. Um, so they just see them as an ugly creature that needs to, you know, like I can tell you that when when I see an iguana, I love it. I think it's fascinating to see this long lizard. Yeah, cute they're cute. Um, but a lot of people don't feel that way. And the fact that they are it's it's literally encouraged in the state of Florida to kill them. That's just disturbing, you know. Um you don't hear that very often. Oh, yeah, just go kill. Even when it comes to hunting deer, you know, when it comes to hunting, there's like there are certain rules, they they have all these laws, like there's hunting season and there's this and that. But what with iguanas, like ah, just kill them, fuck them. You know, it's it's disturbing.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah. Sorry, listeners, if uh this episode was too depressing about uh iguanas and snakes. What's your opinion about it? Give your opinion. Uh, do you think because they're invasive, they should be killed? Uh, because for me it's weird. I I don't get it. For me, it's pretty weird.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah, yeah. All right, so we did something interesting. We basically uh we have one episode that can be split in two, but it's two different topics.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Um uh evasive animals. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Um, so uh let's end it here and then after we'll record, you know, the the separators or whatever. So once again, uh I should say, you know what? Yeah, because now this this is split in two. The first half of the episode will be posted on the last day when people can vote, March 10th. Okay, so the second half, uh, no one can vote anymore. I wonder if we'll find out who won. No, because I think that's in April. Anyway, okay, let's just end it here because I'm talking about so for vegans talking shit. I'm Joey.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

I'm Vanessa.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

And John will come back next week, hopefully. Uh that's it. Bye everyone. Bye, bye, bye.