Florida's Lt. Gov. Joins Python Hunt In Everglades

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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) — Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez Cantera should probably hang onto his day job.

On Monday, he joined up with nearly two dozen hunters paid by the state and they went looking for Burmese pythons in the Everglades.

And they got one too.

South Florida Water Management District spokesman Randy Smith says Lopez Cantera and hunter Tom Rahill brought in a 15-foot-4-inch python. It was the 96th python caught by the district's hunters since March 25th.

Rahill leads the "Swamp Apes" program taking veterans on hunts to remove invasive animals from the Everglades. He took Lopez Cantera hunting along a canal in western Miami-Dade County.

The district is paying $8.10 an hour in a python-killing pilot program ending June 1. Florida's wildlife agency also is hiring contractors to remove pythons from specific areas.