That's because the reptiles apparently looked a lot like pork to federal lawmakers.

Many Mainland lawmakers are skeptical of the federal government's need to protect snakeless Hawai'i from Guam's brown tree snakes, said Mike Yuen, spokesman for Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i.

"It's kind of like beauty in the eye of the beholder," said Yuen.

The money cut from the budget would have funded the use of trained dogs and other methods to keep snakes out of military shipments, vessels and planes leaving Guam.

The mere rumor of one of the snakes having landed in Hawai'i, where any snake spotting makes headlines, prompts a massive mobilization of searchers to capture the elusive creature.

That's because it's believed the introduction of snakes to the Islands' fragile environments could devastate them and have reverberating effects on the local economy.

The snakes, which are native to parts of Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Northern Australia, are connected to the extinction or local extermination of nine native forest birds and two native lizards on Guam. And snakebites account for 1 in 1,200 emergency room visits on the U.S. territory.

Believed to have arrived after World War II hidden in a military cargo ship, the snakes now blanket that U.S. island at a density of 20 snakes per acre in forest areas, according to the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a Honolulu-based partnership of federal, state and private agencies including the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau.

Last year, federal legislators failed to pass two appropriations bills including about $2 million for the snake searching program on Guam.

When federal lawmakers returned to business this year, they took all unpassed funding and put only a core project into a funding resolution designed for easy passage.

Out dropped the brown tree snake funding.

"They don't realize that Hawai'i is a unique ecosystem here, that if you bring in brown tree snakes not only could the birds disappear, but what makes Hawai'i special in terms of the fauna and flora could also be destroyed," Yuen said.

Inouye has written to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Defense Secretary Robert Gates requesting special funds for the program, and is also looking to restore the fund in the 2008 appropriations process, he said.

Without the funding, work searching military cargo and crafts leaving Guam will stop May 31, losing 27 workers, said Christy Martin, spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

"This is like the eleventh hour that they're telling folks about this and the worry is that funding may not become available in time," she said.

Should the 27 workers decide to find other jobs, the program could remain in peril even if funds begin to flow again because it can take up to seven months to train a dog handler, she said.