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Python Kills Two Sleeping Boys

Fisher

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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.
 
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.

Really disturbing, but I think this is actually quite rare, a LOT more rare than say dog attacks. This snake must not have been being fed very well.
 
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.

Father of the year material, right there. :roll:

Anyone who would keep something as deadly as a 16 foot constrictor in the their home with small children around is in desperate need of a swift and forceful kick in the pants.
 
Father of the year material, right there. :roll:

Anyone who would keep something as deadly as a 16 foot constrictor in the their home with small children around is in need of a swift and forceful kick in the pants.

Well, I guess you must think the same when people have dogs around small children.
 
This is a very suspicious story and I have a feeling a lot more will come out once it's been fully investigated.
 
This is a very suspicious story and I have a feeling a lot more will come out once it's been fully investigated.

I think the snake was probably starving. I've known several people who have had pythons and they were very docile. If they aren't well fed, that's another story. And 16 feet, 100 pounds sounds a little bit on the light side to me.
 
Well, I guess you must think the same when people have dogs around small children.

It depends on the breed. I wouldn't keep a Great Dane or an attack dog like a Pitbull, Rottweiler, or Doberman around small children under any circumstances.

Keeping a giant killer snake that happens to specifically feed upon mammalian prey of roughly the same size as small human children in a household with a 4 and 6 year old is sheer stupidity.
 
I just googled, and there have only been 17 deaths in the U.S. from python or boa constrictor snakes since 1978. There were 38 deaths due to dog attacks in 2012 alone.
 
I think the snake was probably starving. I've known several people who have had pythons and they were very docile. If they aren't well fed, that's another story. And 16 feet, 100 pounds sounds a little bit on the light side to me.

There have been snake experts here who have been quoted as saying that a python this size generally eats things the size of a rabbit, something they can swallow whole, and never attacks to kill but only to eat and these kids are not rabbit size. And a snake doesn't kill a child without his brother beside him noticing and screaming bloody murder and running for help. This is some magic snake to do all this on the sly without anyone being alerted, including their friend who actually lives in the apartment where it happened - the two kids didn't live there.
 
It depends on the breed. I wouldn't keep a Great Dane or an attack dog like a Pitbull, Rottweiler, or Doberman around small children under any circumstances.

Keeping a giant killer snake that specifically feeds upon mammalian prey that happen to be roughly the same size as small human children in a household with a 4 and 6 year old is sheer stupidity.

Not if you have a secure set up and they are well fed. They are pretty much harmless in such circumstances. This person was obviously a neglectful pet owner.
 
There have been snake experts here who have been quoted as saying that a python this size generally eats things the size of a rabbit, something they can swallow whole, and never attacks to kill but only to eat and these kids are not rabbit size. And a snake doesn't kill a child without his brother beside him noticing and screaming bloody murder and running for help. This is some magic snake to do all this on the sly without anyone being alerted, including their friend who actually lives in the apartment where it happened - the two kids didn't live there.

You have a point there, but if both boys were asleep when it happened it's not impossible.
 
Really disturbing, but I think this is actually quite rare, a LOT more rare than say dog attacks. This snake must not have been being fed very well.

Rare that they kill someone, not rare that they escape. At least once a year someone reports seeing one in my neck of the woods slithering around. They cannot survive the winter here so officials just say "Someone's pet snake has apparently escaped. It looks like X (usually it is the lemon ones that look like no native snake). Be vigilant of your kids, pets, and property until it drops to freezing for a week."
 
I just googled, and there have only been 17 deaths in the U.S. from python or boa constrictor snakes since 1978. There were 38 deaths due to dog attacks in 2012 alone.

A lot more people in this country own dogs than own giant constrictor snakes. It's also pretty easy for a full grown adult to outrun a snake.

Not if you have a secure set up and they are well fed. They are pretty much harmless in such circumstances. This person was obviously a neglectful pet owner.

Why take the risk at all? Things obviously can go wrong even with a secure set up.
 
Rare that they kill someone, not rare that they escape. At least once a year someone reports seeing one in my neck of the woods slithering around. They cannot survive the winter here so officials just say "Someone's pet snake has apparently escaped. It looks like X (usually it is the lemon ones that look like no native snake). Be vigilant of your kids, pets, and property until it drops to freezing for a week."

Yes, I meant rare that they kill someone. I agree that these types of snakes should probably not be pets, but I feel that way about most wild animals. I don't agree that they are any more dangerous than a dog though.
 
A lot more people in this country own dogs than own giant constrictor snakes. It's also pretty easy for a full grown adult to outrun a snake.



Why take the risk at all? Things obviously can go wrong even with a secure set up.

Because the person wants a pet snake I guess. Again, you could say the same thing about just about any pet with teeth and claws too. Dogs are much more likely to attack a person than a snake.
 
You have a point there, but if both boys were asleep when it happened it's not impossible.

I'm just thinking back to when I was that age and sleeping over at a friend's house, there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on and you're pretty restless in a strange place and if a 100lb snake came crashing though the ceiling tiles and landed on us or near us, I'm pretty sure there'd be a whole lotta screaming going on.

I'm guessing, purely speculation, that we'll find that the boy who lived there, whose dad owned the snake, was somehow involved in the snake getting out to scare the other kids or show them or something like that and something went wrong - that seems far more logical to me - but you're right, strange things happen.
 
I'm just thinking back to when I was that age and sleeping over at a friend's house, there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on and you're pretty restless in a strange place and if a 100lb snake came crashing though the ceiling tiles and landed on us or near us, I'm pretty sure there'd be a whole lotta screaming going on.

I'm guessing, purely speculation, that we'll find that the boy who lived there, whose dad owned the snake, was somehow involved in the snake getting out to scare the other kids or show them or something like that and something went wrong - that seems far more logical to me - but you're right, strange things happen.

I was thinking it more or less slithered out of it's cage quietly. Snakes are quiet.

These were two brothers too, not two friends. They were probably both asleep when the attacks happened. Once the snake coils itself around a person, especially a smaller person, they wouldn't be able to make any sounds because snakes are incredibly strong and really just crush you to death.
 
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......

____________________________________________________________________________
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.


WTF! A python ate a TEN YEAR OLD?

I though they topped out at toddlers.
 
There have been snake experts here who have been quoted as saying that a python this size generally eats things the size of a rabbit, something they can swallow whole, and never attacks to kill but only to eat and these kids are not rabbit size. And a snake doesn't kill a child without his brother beside him noticing and screaming bloody murder and running for help. This is some magic snake to do all this on the sly without anyone being alerted, including their friend who actually lives in the apartment where it happened - the two kids didn't live there.

While I don't dispute the snake experts, I have a 3 and a 6 year old and when they finally go to sleep, which takes a lot of effort in and of itself most days, it takes a lot of effort to get them awake and alert if they haven't had their full sleep.
 
Because the person wants a pet snake I guess. Again, you could say the same thing about just about any pet with teeth and claws too. Dogs are much more likely to attack a person than a snake.

That's fine and all. I simply think that such people are foolish and irresponsible.

The simple fact of the matter is that small children and large potentially lethal predatory animals aren't really a good mix.

I'm just thinking back to when I was that age and sleeping over at a friend's house, there wasn't a lot of sleeping going on and you're pretty restless in a strange place and if a 100lb snake came crashing though the ceiling tiles and landed on us or near us, I'm pretty sure there'd be a whole lotta screaming going on.

I'm guessing, purely speculation, that we'll find that the boy who lived there, whose dad owned the snake, was somehow involved in the snake getting out to scare the other kids or show them or something like that and something went wrong - that seems far more logical to me - but you're right, strange things happen.

Honestly, a 16 foot snake could probably reach from floor to ceiling more or less silently without having to "drop" anywhere.

I also kind of doubt that anyone would be foolish enough to try and "show off' something that large and potentially unmanageable around strangers. The thing weighed 100 lbs according to the article.
 
I was thinking it more or less slithered out of it's cage quietly. Snakes are quiet.

These were two brothers too, not two friends. They were probably both asleep when the attacks happened. Once the snake coils itself around a person, especially a smaller person, they wouldn't be able to make any sounds because snakes are incredibly strong and really just crush you to death.

Frankly, at 16 feet long, the snake might've very well been large enough that it didn't even need to coil around the children in question in order to inflict lethal wounds. It might've only needed to bite them.

I don't doubt that a constrictor that size would have a head large enough, and jaws strong enough, to pull something like that off.
 
That's fine and all. I simply think that such people are foolish and irresponsible.

The simple fact of the matter is that small children and large potentially lethal predatory animals aren't really a good mix.

LOL! Again, then you should be against people with small children owning dogs. Dogs are MUCH more aggressive and much more likely to attack than a snake. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs. Just pointing out the double standard.
 
Frankly, at 16 feet long, the snake might've very well been large enough that it didn't even need to coil around the children in question in order to inflict lethal wounds. It might've only needed to bite them.

I don't doubt that a constrictor that size would have a head large enough, and jaws strong enough, to pull something like that off.

Constrictors don't kill by biting. They kill by squeezing their prey to death. Hence the name "constrictor."

This also makes it easier for the snake to swallow it's prey, because the bones are broken and crushed.
 
LOL! Again, then you should be against people with small children owning dogs. Dogs are MUCH more aggressive and much more likely to attack than a snake. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs. Just pointing out the double standard.

I am against it, at least where the breed in question has the potential to be dangerous.

There are kid friendly pets, and there are non-kid friendly pets. An almost 20 foot long man eating snake pretty squarely fits into the latter category. :lol:
 
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