Snakes...Pets?
 

8.5-Foot Python Strangles Toddler - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando

Wow, anyone who thinks keeping a Snake for a pet is a good idea, I hope you read this. This is a sad thing, and I hope they hold the father 100% culpable in the death of this child, how can anyone in their right mind keep a python and a Boa constrictor in a house with an infant.???

I'm sure the ACLU will defend the snakes.

While I'm sure the fault lies with the parents, not securing the snakes properly, not he snakes fault thats what they do, I question the word pet when refering to snakes. Dogs, cats, etc. show emotion and love and feeling, how can you even think of a snake the same way? Florida is being overrun by snakes because people buy them and are irresponsible, and just set them free when they get too big.

Yep, and things like this happen...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...neatsgator.jpg

Updated September 5, 2006—Unfortunately for a 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python in Florida's Everglades National Park, eating the enemy seems to have caused the voracious reptile to bust a gut—literally.
Wildlife researchers with the South Florida Natural Resources Center found the dead, headless python in October 2005 after it apparently tried to digest a 6-foot-long (2-meter-long) American alligator. The mostly intact dead gator was found sticking out of a hole in the midsection of the python, and wads of gator skin were found in the snake's gastrointestinal tract.
Clashes between alligators and pythons have been on the rise in the Everglades for the past 20 years. Unwanted pet snakes dumped in the swamp have thrived, and the Asian reptile is now a major competitor in the alligator's native ecosystem.
"Clearly if [pythons] can kill an alligator, they can kill other species," Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, told the Associated Press. "There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons. … This [event] indicates to me it's going to be an even draw."

It was interesting that this ad showed up to the bottom of this thread.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...Untitled-5.jpg

Wild animals belong in the wild.....Duh! They do not belong in somebody's flippin' garage, basement or chained up in the back yard. Personally, I think it absolute stupidity.:mad:


atp

I saw a full documentary on Discovery Channel detailing this phot and whether or not it was a staged photo. Lots of that forsensic evidence presented by experts. In the end - I'm pretty sure the consensus was that it was fake - but it is absolutely true about FL being overrun with large snakes species.

It will be interesting to see what charges, if any, result from this terrible tragedy. Definitely something that shouldn't have happened in any case.

USMCFLYR

At the minimum, eliminate future breeding possibilities.


And I'm not talking about the snakes or gators.





EDIT: And for anyone who may overlook the blindingly obvious, I'm talking about the parents, not the child.

Alittle gene pool cleansing is in order imho.

from the documentary I saw it stated that it was real, what happen was that the snake (anaconda) swallow the alligator, which is known to happen. And the claws ripped him up from the inside.

The photo looks like that because the anaconda had been dead on the water for long and it had bloated causing the carcass to burst like a ballon