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Green Iguana {Florida Fish & Wildlife}

Margate city commissioners are weighing whether to revise the city’s animal cruelty laws to allow residents to kill iguanas with air or BB guns.

The ordinance, which commissioners are slated to vote on Wednesday, excludes the green reptiles from city protections that designate all of Margate a wildlife sanctuary and aim to protect animals from cruelty and illegal capture.

Commissioners introduced the ordinance following complaints from a group of residents in Paradise Gardens Section 4 – a neighborhood of 385 homes within the 55-and-over community – who attended an April 16 commission seeking permission to kill the creatures.

Iguanas are considered an “invasive species” under Florida wildlife rules. They are believed to have been brought to Florida in the 1960s as part of the illegal pet trade, and aboard ships from Cuba and other Caribbean islands.

John Donohoo, the president of Paradise Gardens Section 4, told commissioners iguanas had been destroying vegetation and damaging the foundations of homes.

“We need to be able to remove and kill these iguanas,” Donohoo said. “Now, an individual can be arrested for killing an iguana in Margate.”

Currently, iguanas are protected under the Margate animal cruelty laws. That means residents typically hire expert trappers to remove the reptiles from their properties, or try to “iguana-proof” their yards and homes.

The new ordinance would give residents the ability to legally kill the creatures with air guns, BB guns, and other ways the city deems humane, according to city records.

Under the law, residents would still be legally barred from using “painful techniques and devices” that cause “physical injury, torment or pain and suffering” to iguanas, including electric prods or shocking devices; shocking spurs; wire tie-downs; chains; whips or bullwhips (excluding riding crops); and bull-hooks or similar devices.

Poisons are illegal for use on iguanas and all other reptiles in Florida by state rule, according to the Florida Fish and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

It’s also illegal to use smoke, gasoline, or chemicals to drive away or kill iguanas, according to the agency.

If passed, Margate’s ordinance would allow residents to kill the reptiles with BB-gun pellets and air guns on private property, with the property owner’s permission. But it would legally bar the use of projectiles that cross over property lines.

The boundary portion of the law would be enforced with penalties, city records show.

According to FFW, there are no laws that dictate how iguanas should be killed other than municipal and state anti-cruelty laws.

Agency officials have said there a number of measures residents can take to make their properties less inviting to iguanas without killing them.

Measures include removing dense thickets, rock piles, and landscape debris; providing nesting areas for iguanas near sea walls using mulch or sand piles to prevent digging activity; destroying iguana eggs by sealing them in plastic bags and disposing of them in the trash; and removing vegetation that iguanas love to eat and replacing them with iguana-resistant plants like citrus, pentas, crotons, and tough, thick-leaved plants.

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Author Profile

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.