Brooklyn woman finds 7-foot python in her toilet

[ScriptOhio]

An even worse python story:

Officials: Escaped pet python strangled Fla. child

OXFORD, Fla. ? A pet Burmese python measuring more than 8 feet long broke out of a terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom Wednesday at a central Florida home, authorities said. Shaiunna Hare was already dead when paramedics arrived at about 10 a.m., Lt. Bobby Caruthers of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office said.
Charles Jason Darnell, the snake's owner and the boyfriend of Shaiunna's mother, discovered the snake missing from its terrarium and went to the girl's room, where he found it on the girl and bite marks on her head, Caruthers said. Darnell, 32, stabbed the snake until he was able to pry the child away.
"The baby's dead!" a sobbing caller from the house screamed to a 911 dispatcher in a recording. "Our stupid snake got out in the middle of the night and strangled the baby."
Authorities did not identify the caller and removed the person's name from the recording.
"She got out of the cage last night and got into the baby's crib and strangled her to death," the caller said.
Authorities removed the snake from the home Wednesday afternoon after obtaining a search warrant. Once outside the small, tan home, bordered by cow pastures, the snake was placed in a bag then inside a dog crate. The snake was still alive.
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The Humane Society of the United States said including Wednesday's death, at least 12 people have been killed in the U.S. by pet pythons since 1980, including five children.
Burmese pythons are not native to Florida, but they easily survive in the state and can reach a length of 26 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds.

Entire article: Officials: Escaped pet python strangled Fla. child - Yahoo! News

 

[Jake]

A 16-foot python swallows a family's dog on Monday night in Kuranda, Australia.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.
The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.
Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.
"It actively stalked the dog for a number of days," Douglas said.
"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added.
"They should have called me then, but (the snake) got away and three or four days later, I was called and went around and removed it" after the dog had been killed, Douglas said.
By the time Douglas arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its hind legs and tail.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=908kaidxfMM]YouTube - Snake Eats Pet Dog[/ame]

 

[BrutusMaximus]

Why do people own those things???? Snakes are evil, nasty creatures, that should be put to death.

 

[Dryden]

Why do people own those things???? Snakes are evil, nasty creatures, that should be put to death.

"I hate snakes, Jacques!! I hate 'em!!!"

 

[cincibuck]

A 16-foot python swallows a family's dog on Monday night in Kuranda, Australia.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.
The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.

A terrier/chi-wa-wa? They may not see the gift in this right now, but removing a useless dog like that is the best thing that could happen to get those kids started down the long road to recovery.

 

[Gatorubet]

Everglades Python Problem

Florida’s Everglades National Park receives over a million visitors a year that come to see the park’s prolific wildlife,
including 36 endangered species. According to National Parks Service biologists, the natural habitat of the Everglades is
now being threatened by a growing population of Burmese pythons. These monstrous constrictor snakes are native to
Southeast Asia and arrived in the U.S. as tiny, cute (if snakes can be considered cute), baby python pets. Plenty of
these pets have been released into the wild by owners who didn’t realize that pythons never stop growing. A full size
Burmese python can be as large as 20 feet long and weigh 250 pounds.


The Everglades National Park and surrounding areas provide the perfect habitat for the pythons to breed. Some
estimates claim that there may be more than 100,000 pythons living in the Everglades and preying on endangered wildlife
species, pets, and anything else they can catch.

This is half the size of a full grown adult. Watch as snook fishermen start coming up missing on the weekends.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Python Hunt Under Way in Fla. Everglades

Permit Holders Allowed to Euthanize Snakes in Effort to Wipe Out Growing Non-native Population


(CBS/AP) A program to eradicate pythons from the Florida Everglades is beginning.

Friday is the first day herpetology experts with a permit will be allowed to search for and euthanize the pythons, which are not native to the Everglades.

The number of pythons in South Florida has exploded over the past decade as pet owners released their snakes when they grew too large, reports CBS station WFOR in Miami. It's unclear how many pythons are prowling in the wild across South Florida, but state wildlife officials estimate there are at least tens of thousands.

Permit holders are required to provide a photo and the location of each captured python. Wildlife officials will then study that information as well as the snake's size and stomach contents. They hope to learn more about the spread of the species. The initial program runs through Oct. 31.

Officials had previously said that about 10 hunters would have a permit. They will not be able to use firearms or traps to catch the pythons.

Commission spokeswoman Pat Behnke says state officials are concerned the problem will continue to grow and they want to prevent pythons from traveling any farther north, WFOR reports.

"They reproduce 50 to 100 eggs when they lay the eggs. They have the ability to withstand different temperatures so there's a possibility they could move north. So now is the time to get started on this and try to prevent it before it becomes even a bigger problem," explained Behnke.

The first phase of the python hunting program will last about three months.

"We are asking them when they do find the pythons that they must destroy them and then we ask that they collect data for us: location, weight, stomach contents and so on, so we can start compiling a database," explained Behnke.

After the first phase, state officials will look at the results and consider expanding the hunt to include more trappers. The hunters will not get a bounty for killing pythons, but they will be able to sell the skin and meat, WFOR reports.

Entire article: Python Hunt Under Way in Fla. Everglades - CBS News

Anybody wanting to buy some python meat?

 

[DontHateOState]

Do they really want to be successful or are they just screwing around? I mean, there are upwards of 100,000 Pythons who lay 50 to 100 eggs and have the ability to withstand cold temperatures. So Man responds with ten hunters who are not allowed to use firearms or traps. Sounds fair.

 

[Gatorubet]

Do they really want to be successful or are they just screwing around? I mean, there are upwards of 100,000 Pythons who lay 50 to 100 eggs and have the ability to withstand cold temperatures. So Man responds with ten hunters who are not allowed to use firearms or traps. Sounds fair.

If things get bad we will let Tebow have one weekend and the use of his bare hands, and that will be the end of that problem.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Mom awoken by cat finds python wrapped around 2-year-old daughter


Zara and Tess Guthrie (left); Tex Tillis with the python

An Australian woman was awoken by her hissing cat early Sunday to find a python wrapped around the arm of her 2-year-old daughter.
Tess Guthrie, a 22-year-old from Lismore, New South Wales, said the 6-foot python was wrapped three times around her daughter's arm.
"I thought I was having a nightmare," Guthrie told a local television news station. "It was only because the cat was hissing that I woke up and saw the snake with its body wrapped around my daughter Zara?s arm."
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Of course, snake invasions are nothing new down under.
Last month, a 3-year-old Australian boy escaped injury after a collection of eggs he had found in his Queensland yard and stashed in his bedroom closet "hatched into a slithering tangle of deadly snakes."
Also in December, a childcare center in Darwin was forced to be shut down before Christmas because of a snake infestation. According to ABC Australia, snake catchers who were called in when a baby python was spotted found a nest with 23 baby pythons and 41 hatched eggs inside a wall.

Entire article: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/python-baby-mom-wrapped-cat-175346395.html

 

[Mac]

That is why I will never visit or live in Australia

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

That is why I will never visit or live in Australia

Hyperbole much? I supposed you'd never go to Florida because of the "alligator infestation". I went to southwestern Australia in Dec 2009 for 10 days and didn't see a single snake, and I was staying in a rural coastal town next to a forest and a bird sanctuary. I'm also going back to Australia in June (Cairns, in the NE corner of the continent), and I highly doubt I'll see anything threatening or dangerous.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

I'm also going back to Australia in June (Cairns, in the NE corner of the continent), and I highly doubt I'll see anything threatening or dangerous.

If you don't you're not trying hard enough.

I saw an 8' tiger shark in AUS. Yeah, they aren't joking with all the "no swimming" warnings on the east side of Frasier Island - 75 Mile Beach.

Mili: If you're diving or snorkling, keep your eyes peeled for one of these little buggers:

:p

 

[Buckeye513]

Hyperbole much? I supposed you'd never go to Florida because of the "alligator infestation". I went to southwestern Australia in Dec 2009 for 10 days and didn't see a single snake, and I was staying in a rural coastal town next to a forest and a bird sanctuary. I'm also going back to Australia in June (Cairns, in the NE corner of the continent), and I highly doubt I'll see anything threatening or dangerous.

I would never go to Florida because of the python infestation. Also, the heat and the Floridians.

 

[jwinslow]

I supposed you'd never live in Florida because of the "gator infestation".

among other reasons.