Florida has been overrun with pythons and handbag designers are trying to take advantage of it. Designers are contacting hunters who are trying to reduce the amount of pythons to use their skins as a part of their handbags.
Six months ago, a New York City designer named Camille Zarsky started contacting the python hunters in Florida to see if any of their catches could be used in her collection of exotic-skin purses. After Zarsky learned that the snakes, first introduced to the Everglades in the nineties 
by pet owners who grew tired of caring for their animals, were being captured by the thousands, she figured she could use the skins for her handbags.
It seems crazy, but the snake problem in Florida is a serious problem. In January, the Florida Wildlife Commission invited 1,500 hunters for a “Python Challenge”, with cash prizes for the biggest catches. No one is sure exactly how many pythons are living and breeding in the wild, but it is estimated that there is between 10,000 and 100,000. Since thousands of snakes were being captured to reduce the population, Zarsky figured she could put the skins to good use.
Zarksy and other designers see this as both an opportunity for their business and to help fix Florida’s python problem. Zarsky plans to use the skins she ordered from her hunter to make handbags exclusively from the material. Snake skin bags are actually trending right now and by giving hunters more incentive to hunt the pythons, it will help alleviate Florida’s problem.
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