Poor Snake. Warning: this article may be upsetting to some readers.

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=9718863&nav=15MUCBSd

Dan Ball reporting

A Las Vegas toddler was pulled from the jaws of an 18-foot-long, 300 lb snake.

"That was the only thing I was thinking was I need to try and save this kid's life," neighbor Marlo Vinson said. Vinson was the first neighbor in the apartment complex to try and help the toddler's mother free him from the snake's grasp.

"That's when I saw the 3-year-old on his knees with the snake constricted around him," Metro's Sergeant Steve Custer explained. "I've been a police officer for 36 years and I've never seen anything like this ever."

Custer was one of the first officers on scene. "It's the biggest thing I've ever seen, with a big old head and it's angry and it's hissing."

The toddler's mother told Metro that while she was in the bathroom, her son entered the bedroom where the snake was being kept. "The snake bit him, right here like in the armpit," said Custer. "

The boy's mother stabbed the giant 325 pound python 17 times until it released him. Moments later, police arrived. "So we're thinking maybe it's dead, so we crack the door and look in there... oh, here's this big old snake," explained Custer.

The half a dozen officers decided to wait for animal control. "We're trying to get that little hook on the snake and finally we get it on there and then the fight is on," Custer continued. "It was incredible, we were rolling around on the bed on the floor back and forth every body has a piece of the snake."

"They grab you and then they pull you into the coils and coil you," Jim Tracy, manager at Pet Kingdom, said. "Every time you breathe in, they constrict harder and harder until you can't breathe."

All constrictors are non-venomous snakes, but they will bite their prey and hold on until they can get wrapped around and suffocate their meal.

Tracy says that most snake attacks are caused by people just not paying attention. "The snake is the victim because it paid the price for people's negligence."

Because of its injuries, animal control was forced to put the tiger python down. At this time, authorities are still deciding whether or not to file child endangerment charges against the 3-year-old's mother.

$10 says this stupid cunt will get away with it. :sbx

If a toddler can get access to a snake like that, the snake's owner should be shot.

Yes, if a big snake grabs a kid you've got to do whatever it takes to keep it from killing the kid. That's a given.

However, it's the owner's fault that it happened in the first place. By allowing a child to be endangered by the snake you're endangering the snake. It's like this: The snake is perfectly safe from harm as long as it isn't put into a situation where we have to pick between the snake's life and a human's. The snake doesn't have any real choice in whether or not it attacks someone. It's a big predatory computer. If you give it "time to eat" data, it outputs the same thing every time. They're not evil, they're not nice, they're not friendly, they're not mean. They're just a snake.

I have a snake and it is hands-down the tamest snake I've ever seen. I would not make the mistake of thinking that because my snake behaves gently that it in any way "likes" me. She doesn't have an opinion. As long as I don't look, smell, or act like food and I don't look, act, or smell like danger she doesn't see me as much more than a big warm climbing tree. If she ever bites me it's not because she's angry or mean or evil. It's because something I did triggered a pre-programmed switch in her head that told her it was absolutely necessary to bite.



It's not the snake's fault that the kid got attacked. Unfortunately there's not a lot of options to get a snake that big off its prey without harming it. But the snake's owner should absolutely be held personally responsible for every single aspect of that attack.

What an idiotic mother. Yet another innocent animal "has to be put down" because humans did something stupid. Maybe people should think twice about keeping wild animals as pets in the first place. Poor snake...

That poor snake. It sounded like a beautiful animal. No kids allowed in our house. Not even my darling darling tedious as hell darling nephews (the ones who tried to climb the bookcases). Fuck 'em. I'm not going to put away my easily accessible knife block or bubble-wrap my small artworks on display because of some brats.

I can think of no legitimate reason or excuse that a 3 y/o child should have access to an over 300 lb snake, not to mention it doesn't sound very well contained and could have put many other lives in danger. I hope that she gets child endangerment charges placed against her at the very least, cruelty to animal charges for the poor snake having to have been stabbed so many times, and if applicable a charge for having an animal of that type housed improperly in an urban area in the first place. To have had that snake kept in an area easily accesible by that boy shows a depraved indifference to human life and she deserves to be prosecuted for something, but we all know that she won't be. Now, had a neighbor allowed that same exact snake to slither down a communal hall and it went for the child, HE would have been arrested and charged with a legal pad full of various offenses. He would have no doubt been fined too in addition to facing criminal prosecution.

Yeah, I can see doing what you have to do when a kyd is in a situation like that.

I blame this one on the moo. A wild animal should not be in a situation where it may possibly do harm. A wild animal may mistake an action as aggression and act accordingly, namely defend itself. At the very least, the cage or terrarium should have a locking top to make sure the snake stays where he is supposed to be. Also, parunts with wild pets need to make it clear that they are to stay well clear of the (in this case, a snake) the pet and not to touch it under any circumstances.

I hope she gets hit with child endangerment and any other charges the police think might stick. Realistically, though, the cunt will get away with it.

How come the broad keeps such a giant monster in the house where she also has her own pups?

I am an animal lover, and we have many, many cats, dogs, chickens, horses and other assorted critters on our farm in rural Northwestern Washington State. For the life of me, I cannot imagine why any fucking idiot would keep an 18 foot, 300+ pound snake in their house. WTF were these shitbags thinking? Either they are the fucking dumbest people on the planet or they were hoping for a retroactive abortion on their brat. Either way, they endangered its life by keeping the snake and allowing the brat to have access to it. Not one mention of a duhd, and I would bet the bitch is cohabbing with her fuck of the week. The snake needs to be in the zoo and the moo needs to be put in prison.

Pity. Would have been more interesting if moo had run down to the store 'for just a minute, shitleigh will be all right'. Come back and just find a lump in the snake.

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

I'd also like to add that herpers like myself (people who are reptile enthusiasts) get pretty livid when we hear about anyone who has a large snake like that in their house. Almost every time it's some moron who thinks the spare bedroom is a nice home for a big snake.

A 300lb snake isn't as big as your mind imagines it to be... they're incredibly dense and so they weigh a lot more than they look like they would. They are essentially pure muscle which makes them unbelievably powerful. The rule of thumb for handling large snakes is 1 person per 2-3 feet of snake. An 18 foot snake requires 6-9 people to properly handle safely.

Clearly this was not how this snake was handled.

Another point proving the snake was improperly housed: a normal bedroom doesn't contain a snake. Interior doors are hollow. A snake that size could simply push its nose through the door if it wanted to. Same goes for the windows, of course. A proper enclosure for a snake that size is expensive.



All too often we see people who think a reticulated or burmese python (or other very large snake) would make "cool" pet - or worse, that the size the snake gets is determined by how much you feed it. Those snakes grow very quickly (this snake could easily be as young as 3-4 years) and the only thing you stunt by withholding food is the snakes pleasant demeanor. Starve a python at your own risk.

That's actually what I'd bet happened here. A full snake is difficult to provoke a feeding response from. An 18 foot "pet snake" is going to start scaring even the dumbest owner so I'd be surprised if they weren't trying the whole "let's feed it less so it doesn't get bigger" myth.

Stupidity on stupidity upon stupidity.
1. A bedroom isn't the right climate for a snake - there is no way these people had proper temperature and humidity gradients available for proper health.
2. A proper enclosure for a snake is escape proof for the snake's safety. Snakes are masters of escape to the degree that they would make Houdini look like an infant.
3. Mixing children and snakes is more dangerous than mixing children and guns. Both should be protected from each other.
4. A healthy, properly cared for, and fully-fed snake - of any size - is as safe as a snake can be (which is not to be confused with it actually being safe). This snake was almost certainly none of those things.

Before it was illegal (or the current laws were enforced) to buy baybee "pet" alligators at every corner tourist trap store down on The Gulf Coast, COUNTLESS preteens and teens were allowed to buy these lizard size critters and bring them home. This was RAMPANT during the Izod shirt phase/fad of the late 1970's and 80's at the elementary and high schools in my area as we were only about 150 miles inland. OBVIOUSLY the little alligators got bigger and moomie would freak out. I knew MANY duddys who simply took the little buggers down to The Alabama River and set them free as if they had REALLY been animal-eco friendly. It didn't occur to the stupid bastards that the alligators would get married and have baybees "of their own", which of course they did. Now, alligators are a safety issue all along The Alabama River at popular fising areas, golf resorts, public "famblee" picnic areas, and they have even been sighted in the man made lake that the river feeds which is a heavily populated residential area with year arounders as well as vacation spots, a public beach, ski competition and swim areas etc.......Thanks to these assholes, the alligators that are able to survive the cold winters have to be hunted down and slaughtered or they are captured and sold to a local alligator farm where they are raised in captivity and exported for their skin and meat.

Thanks for the information, Konkurrent! I just learned something new (always a great pleasure); I have never understood WHY people would have something like a big reiticulated python or any other large snake in their home. Now after reading your post, I have to think there is something seriously WRONG with someone who wants a creature that large and potentially dangerous in their home, especially with a young kyd around.

What really pisses me off (beyond the sheer stupidity of people like this Moo) is that the animals in these situation are the ones who end up being sacrificed for the vanity of some idiot who wants either a "trendy" pet or something really badassed (as one owner of a ten foot snake once told me). And how is having a snake like that in her home doing the TMIJITW?:flaming