Discovery Press Web United States

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(Silver Spring, MD) - Miami is a vacationer's paradise with its beautiful beaches, myriad of outdoor activities and sizzling nightlife. Yet, the city is situated in the center of a giant swamp making it a Garden of Eden for snakes and other overgrown reptiles - many not native to the area. Snakes are everywhere, and the potential for a snake to strike is at an all-time high. One hundred percent of backyards in Miami and throughout South Florida have snakes; you just can't always see them. Not to mention, dangerous alligators, aggressive iguanas and Africanized bees. Beginning Sunday, June 12, at 9 PM (ET/PT) Animal Planet takes to the front lines of this daily combat in SWAMP WARS (w/t)  introducing the only team with the fearlessness and knowledge to battle these vicious and often venomous creatures - Venom One. The Venom One team is an elite group of specially trained fire fighter/paramedics within Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. It's the only emergency response team of its kind, and it currently holds the largest and only anti-venom bank available for public use in the United States. SWAMP WARS (w/t) follows the intensity and urgency of their daily clash with nature as this courageous team takes down killer snakes, rushes against the clock to deliver anti-venoms and ultimately saves lives. 

In each hour of this six episode docu-drama, the Venom One team - led by Chief Al Cruz - fights to capture the most dangerous animals that come out of the Everglades and into suburbia; native species such as the Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake, which carries five to seven times the amount of venom it takes to kill a human, as well as invasive species like the Burmese python. The Venom One team hunts down many of these deadly constrictors including a giant 14-foot python slithering its way down the streets of Miami. A teenage boy's jubilation over a new pet snake, he believes to be a python, turns to terror when he learns it is in fact a venomous Cottonmouth water snake after being bitten. The team must race to get him the anti-venom he needs before the venom attacking his body does irreparable harm. Unafraid of humans, Cottonmouths can turn up anywhere, and a Florida woman finds this out when one jumps out of her toilet one night and strikes her.  In another episode, carnivorous Tegu lizards living on the edge of a Florida City trailer park are taking over. The team must remove these highly aggressive, non-native reptiles before a child loses a finger or a family pet becomes a meal.

SWAMP WARS (w/t) shadows the Venom One team, which consists of Chief Al Cruz, Captain Charles "Chuck" Seifert (a.k.a. Big Country), Captain Jeff Fobb, Lieutenant Scott Mullin, and Lieutenant Lisa Wood, the lone woman on the squad. The team's passion for reptiles and other exotic creatures extends into their personal lives too. In their spare time, each team member takes a bit of their work life home with them and in some cases it's a family affair. Many of them own collections of snakes and other reptiles, go python hunting on the weekends or volunteer with local animal groups.

SWAMP WARS (w/t) is produced for Animal Planet by 2CMedia, Inc.  For 2CMedia, Inc., Chris Sloan and Carla Kaufman Sloan are the executive producers and Calvin Simons is co-executive producer. Erin Wanner is the executive producer for Animal Planet.  Marc Etkind is the vice president for development for Animal Planet.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment.  APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 97 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.

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