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Python Kills Two Sleeping Boys

americanwoman said:
If they didn't shower, and the snake hadn't eaten properly, it may have been attracted by the scents of the other animals. They don't have the best eyesight so this could maybe be an explanation.
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Like Canada John said, if it had only attempted to eat one of the boys I would totally agree with your assessment, but it killed two boys and that just doesn't seem consistent with normal snake behavior, but then again the snake is not in it's normal environment either.
 
sangha said:
I do.

I cringe when I see people let their very young children play with large dogs unsupervised.
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I do too, I've heard a lot of stories that were even accidents, such as the child getting the leash wrapped around his/her neck and being strangled accidentally.
 
CanadaJohn said:
One expert indicated that even if the boys had eaten chicken for dinner, that scent may have been an attraction to the snake. It's just odd because snakes don't eat multiple prey before starting to eat the first one.
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Yes I used to have two corn snakes and they were very tame since I handled them daily, but still would have to watch out and be careful when and after feeding them. They were tiny but still, always made sure they were secure and fed.
 
ChrisL said:
Like Canada John said, if it had only attempted to eat one of the boys I would totally agree with your assessment, but it killed two boys and that just doesn't seem consistent with normal snake behavior, but then again the snake is not in it's normal environment either.
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Yeah I was just throwing out there, I agree it just doesn't seem consistent. I've owned snakes and large lizards and something seems off about it being 2 kids.
 
ChrisL said:
In normal circumstances though a dog would be more aggressive than a snake towards humans, and that is mostly BECAUSE of the fact that they are domesticated. They don't fear us. Snakes do.
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Yes....

Up until they reach swallowing size. Then we're food.

I agree with your general point about snakes. But its more a matter of function in reptiles than "morals". Everything small enough to swallow is potentially food.
 
americanwoman said:
Yes I used to have two corn snakes and they were very tame since I handled them daily, but still would have to watch out and be careful when and after feeding them. They were tiny but still, always made sure they were secure and fed.
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Very true - even the experts I've seen quoted on this story have indicated that even if you're very familiar with snakes and your snakes you should never feed one this size on your own, always with another person present, because you never know when they might latch onto you and squeeze you into unconsciousness, etc.
 
What if...? said:
Yes....

Up until they reach swallowing size. Then we're food.

I agree with your general point about snakes. But its more a matter of function in reptiles than "morals". Everything small enough to swallow is potentially food.
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True, a snake that's hungry will go for anything it thinks it can swallow, but this type of behavior is not typical for a well-cared for snake. A well fed snake just normally won't go searching for something to kill and risk injury.
 
Fisher said:
Police: Python escaped cage inside apartment, not store

The African rock python that killed two young New Brunswick brothers escaped from its floor-to-ceiling glass cage in the apartment where the boys were sleeping, not from the exotic pet store below, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Tuesday.

The snake, which was about 16 feet long and weighed 100 pounds, apparently entered a ceiling vent sometime late Sunday or early Monday and slithered through the ducts before crashing into the store owner's living room, where 4-year-old Noah Barthe and 6-year-old Connor Barthe were sleeping, police said at a news briefing. The son of store owner Jean-Claude Savoie was asleep in another room and not harmed......

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This story totally creeps me out. WTF would anybody keep a snake like that in a home with two little kids. My kids are close in age and I don't even like having guns in the house, and a gun cannot freaking go crawling across the floor and kill anyone. There have been enough stories of these things freaking escaping that any parent should know to get the freaking thing out of their home if they have kids.
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Something doesn't sit right with me with this story. Reason I say that is that pythons kill to eat. Once one boy had been killed, why would he kill the other? And why would the second boy just stay there when the first boy was being constricted. Something isn't right.
 
ChrisL said:
True, a snake that's hungry will go for anything it thinks it can swallow, but this type of behavior is not typical for a well-cared for snake. A well fed snake just normally won't go searching for something to kill and risk injury.
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Actually, not just by your video I knew rock pythons were aggressive. Attack if threatened.

I wonder if it freaked out when it fell out of the ceiling and grabbed both boys by blind luck.
 
What if...? said:
Actually, not just by your video I knew rock pythons were aggressive. Attack if threatened.

I wonder if it freaked out when it fell out of the ceiling and grabbed both boys by blind luck.
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I guess it's not impossible, if both boys were relatively small. It could probably crush them at the same time. Sixteen feet is pretty big.
 
MaggieD said:
Something doesn't sit right with me with this story. Reason I say that is that pythons kill to eat. Once one boy had been killed, why would he kill the other? And why would the second boy just stay there when the first boy was being constricted. Something isn't right.
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Parents face 35 years in jail after starving pet python kills two-year-old daughter | Mail Online

Maybe it felt threatened since it had been in the same cage 10 years. Very few animals won't defend themselves. IDK.
 
What if...? said:
Actually, not just by your video I knew rock pythons were aggressive. Attack if threatened.

I wonder if it freaked out when it fell out of the ceiling and grabbed both boys by blind luck.
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That's what I was just thinking. After reading it again when Maggie posted it, it stated the boys were in the living room so guessing maybe they were both on a couch or next to each other on the floor.
 
ChrisL said:
Well, this guy apparently owned an exotic pet shop. Didn't you read the article? :)
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And kept nearly 20 foot snakes in his house in cages that could easily be escaped.

I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, that is simply "no bueno." :lol:
 
Gathomas88 said:
And kept nearly 20 foot snakes in his house in cages that could easily be escaped.

I'm sorry, but as far as I'm concerned, that is simply "no bueno." :lol:
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Well that's the problem. If you're going to have an animal like that for a pet, you need to make sure it's cage is secure and that you feed it.
 
ChrisL said:
Well that's the problem. If you're going to have an animal like that for a pet, you need to make sure it's cage is secure and that you feed it.
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I would argue that it's ultimately safer simply to not have such animals around in the first place if a person has small children running around, but I see your point. I think we both can agree that the man in question was more or less fundamentally incompetent when it came to the care and caging of this particular snake.
 
Gathomas88 said:
I would argue that it's ultimately safer simply to not have such animals around in the first place if a person has small children running around, but I see your point. I think we both can agree that the man in question was more or less fundamentally incompetent when it came to the care and caging of this particular snake.
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Okay, but I really don't see a dog as being any less dangerous. Perhaps it's because my little cousin was attacked by her own pit bull, Snowball, when she was 17 years old. It literally ripped her nose off her face. She had to undergo 6 major plastic surgery operations to fix her poor face. So, any animal you own that is of any significant size that keep in your home is potentially dangerous.
 
ChrisL said:
Okay, but I really don't see a dog as being any less dangerous. Perhaps it's because my little cousin was attacked by her own pit bull, Snowball, when she was 17 years old. It literally ripped her nose off her face. She had to undergo 6 major plastic surgery operations to fix her poor face. So, any animal you own that is of any significant size that keep in your home is potentially dangerous.
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I've never owned anything larger than a hamster or an aquarium fish. You're preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned.

My uncle actually breeds Great Danes and Huskies out in the rural Florida and he used to like to let them run wild on his property. I was absolutely terrified to visit his house as a child.

Just walking between the car and the front door felt like trekking through Jurassic Park while being stalked by Velociraptors. :lol:
 
Gathomas88 said:
I've never owned anything larger than a hamster or an aquarium fish. You're preaching to the choir as far as I'm concerned.

My uncle actually breeds Great Danes and Huskies out in the rural Florida and he used to like to let them run wild on his property. I was absolutely terrified to visit his house as a child.

Just walking between the car and the front door felt like trekking through Jurassic Park while being stalked by Velociraptors. :lol:
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:rofl I saw a male friend of my get sexually "attacked" so to speak by a Great Dane once. I mentioned in a thread recently, he was just lucky that he had pants on! :shock:
 
ChrisL said:
:rofl I saw a male friend of my get sexually "attacked" so to speak by a Great Dane once. I mentioned in a thread recently, he was just lucky that he had pants on! :shock:
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I'll bet that's a story he doesn't like to bring up often. :lamo
 
Gathomas88 said:
I'll bet that's a story he doesn't like to bring up often. :lamo
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I haven't seen him since I was a teenager, but I imagine not. :2razz:
 
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