Python Kills A Toddler

Agreed. Last I heard the toddler was in critical condition.. so sad that they had passed away.
 
It's just common sense. Hell I would lock them up for fear that my dog may get eaten.
 
Not hard to have sympathy for the child, but I find it difficult to have sympathy for idiot parents. This was preventable. They didn't deserve the child, they didnt deserve the snake either.

This kind of thing is totally incomprehensible to any responsible parent, reptile keepers or otherwise. An eyelid graft from a circumcision couldnt give those parents 'foresight'!
Atleast their genes wont be passed on. Court ordered sterilisation anyone?

RIP little child.
 
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Probably not a good idea to keep infants and large constrictors in the same house to begin with no matter how careful you are. Pure your so right this will impact us just watch even know chams and boids are apples and garlic cloves this will probably provoke new federal laws and we all know how these new socialists love to make more laws for us!
 
Absolutely, stories like this are remembered and they dont reflect well on the hobby in general. There have been a number of similar stories in the press in the last year or so.
One was of a very large python of some description, probly a burm or retic that got loose, sparking 'neighbourhood fears', a big search and lots of negative publicity, another of a similar sized snake that 'attacked' (Its BS, I hate the expression) a young child, the parents were charged, child removed etc etc.

Every story seems to include something saying 'These pythons sell cheaply as hatchlings in pet stores but grow to huge sizes, then the owners dump them etc etc"
You begin to wonder if it wouldnt be prudent to require some kind of specialist license, aquirable only after certification, eg Owner must comply with housing standards, lockable escape proof enclosure etc, passes test of competency to own such an animal?
No sales to anyone under 18 maybe, perhaps no petstore sales of said large species?

I would think it in the best intrest of American reptile keepers to seek a draft of some kind of controlling legislation, to limit the above kind of events (some) yet still allow responsible keepers the ability to legally keep them.

Of course I realise you cant legislate against sheer stupidity, and the above ideas have more holes than swiss cheese, but is it better to wait till the weight of such events like the one above, force overwhelming votes in favor of banning and blanket legislation?
 
Joe, Apparently there is a law in Florida that requires owners to get a 100 dollar license and part of that includes the requirement for a lockable enclosure.

However I can tell you first hand this law is not enforced. I could go to any number of shops tomorrow and purchase one. No questions asked. It's only been in effect for a couple of yrs. I never heard of it before this incident. And I'm a native.

Like I said in the other thread on Gen, they are trying to bring the guy up on child endangerment and negligence charges.
 
Yeah this is the big spanner in the works, actually enforcing these things. Sadly charges etc AFTER the fact are useless. Its a tough one, when you think about local councils who can send out a ranger to inspect your yard (if your dog is registered at all), maybe there could be unannounced inspections of licensee's enclosures on a regular basis?
Give some schmuck a job anyway :)
 
There are inspections of venomous keeper's setups. They do at least take that one seriously but to the best of my knowledge no they do not for constrictors.
 
Its an idea anyway, they might consider it after a few more stories like this one.
If they can drum up the manpower to inspect ven keepers, it shouldnt be hard.
I assume they keep a database of registered keepers, but herin lies the problem, if you can go buy a burm or retic or yellow anaconda from a petstore, no questions asked, then your hardly likely to register it or pay a $100 fee.
If petstores were also required to be licensed to sell (those species) and also registered for a database and inspected, maybe....But then you have private breeders, an unknown quantity...
which kind of brings us back to heavy penalties AFTER the fact, but that wont save lives.
 
I'm hoping for prison time....

I heard the 911 tape on this today. Hard to listen to. The guy stabbed the snake several times to try to get it off of the child too. The really sick thing is that it had gotten out of the unlocked aquarium once before the same night the child was killed. So he put it right back in the same way with no lock. How is that for brain capacity????!!!! He is probably going to be charged with negligent homicide as he should be. He kills the child and gives responsible reptile owners with harmless reptiles a major future pain in the you know what to deal with.
 
They reported tonight that the "lock" or "lid" if you will, was a quilt draped over the tank with a rope tied around it. :(
 
Geez....

Geez......they had other children living in that house too. That snake could have moved on to get another one of the kids. What a horrid way to go :(
 
That snake could have moved on to get another one of the kids.
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....and possibly the neighbours kids too! :rolleyes:

Remotely possible but very unlikely. Its intent wasnt 'to get', but 'to eat'. Having discovered its 'prey' was unconsumable it would have wandered off, in search of something considerably smaller , an ungarded pet perhaps, bird, cat, small dog, If at all. Most will realign their jaws and simply sit and wait for a better opportunity. Pythons are not active hunters but ambush predators. Its very likely It came across the child by accident, detected warmth and mistook the kid for food.

The child may or may not have had the scent of a mammal pet or bird on her aswell.
Hopefully it was quick. A python of that size is very strong, akin to one large muscle.
 
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Keeping any large or venomous reptiles around babies and younger children should never ever happen. This was the parents call, but being a father myself could not imagine keeping a very large strong predatory snake in the same house as my daughter, even with the very best locks for anything that could use one. I could not live with myself if anything happened to my little one that I had part in.

Shahe
 
We have enough laws and enough permit fee's and enough of the government in our life ! People need to be responsible and if not held accountable for their negligence! This person should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
 
ciafardo 4 said:
We have enough laws and enough permit fee's and enough of the government in our life ! People need to be responsible and if not held accountable for their negligence! This person should be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
Click to expand...

which kind of brings us back to heavy penalties AFTER the fact, but that wont save lives.
Click to expand...

At best the authorities should consider ensuring these people are capable of caring for their remaining kids, banning them from keeping any kind of dangerous animal (perhaps anything larger than a cat) for ten years or so to prevent more 'accidents'.
Its difficult to imagine further punishing a mother who has just lost her child (regardless the stupidity) by removing the remaining children from her care, or jailing her. That would be sheer cruelty I think. jailing the father (if hes the father) for stupidity, simply punishes the kids both directly and indirectly (no provider).
No doubt both parents need a hard kick up the ass! maybe a long term of 'parole' of sorts, with child welfare agents regularly checking on the kids, and greif counselling for all of them.
But charging them with homocide and the resulting sentence would make a tradgic situation worse.

Imagine a similar incident if your dog suddenly savaged your baby on the back lawn, resulting in the kids death before you could stop it. Would you want the same punishment your expecting for these people? Negligent homocide, years in jail, remaining children going to strangers oer ward of state? all because of a horrible unexpected accident?

Whats the point of penaltys if they dont deter and dont save lives? Isnt saving lives like this poor kid more the point than selfrighteous punishment (pardalisgirl/ciafardo)? Its easy to be smug and selfrighteous when its someone else!

The 'furthest extent of the law' never saved a single life! (in most cases/most crimes) Just cost the taxpayer money and clogged up an already congested court system.

you cant legislate against stupidity and penalties however harsh wont deter it, nor make stupid people smarter. People have always done exactly what they want to, and always will, its human nature. No law ever detered a criminal!~ Or an Idiot
Whats more no penalty short of death of life in prison ever put paid to a determined crim re-offending either.
 
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This is tragic... and I agree a negligent manslaughter charge would be just.

I like to remind people that one of main qualities ANY keeper of ANY pet should have.. responsibility.

Stories like this add to the fear of snakes... and fuel the fight against the hobby... I hate to see this happen especially when you look at the fact that in the last 30 years, there have only been 12 fatalities from pet pythons, While we average 12 every year from dog attacks.

But this is bound to fuel some more Liberal Gung Ho's to continue to try to outlaw the ownership of any exotic pet.

This is sad on many levels.
 
jojackson said:
At best the authorities should consider ensuring these people are capable of caring for their remaining kids, banning them from keeping any kind of dangerous animal (perhaps anything larger than a cat) for ten years or so to prevent more 'accidents'.
Its difficult to imagine further punishing a mother who has just lost her child (regardless the stupidity) by removing the remaining children from her care, or jailing her. That would be sheer cruelty I think. jailing the father (if hes the father) for stupidity, simply punishes the kids both directly and indirectly (no provider).
No doubt both parents need a hard kick up the ass! maybe a long term of 'parole' of sorts, with child welfare agents regularly checking on the kids, and greif counselling for all of them.
But charging them with homocide and the resulting sentence would make a tradgic situation worse.

Imagine a similar incident if your dog suddenly savaged your baby on the back lawn, resulting in the kids death before you could stop it. Would you want the same punishment your expecting for these people? Negligent homocide, years in jail, remaining children going to strangers oer ward of state? all because of a horrible unexpected accident?

Whats the point of penaltys if they dont deter and dont save lives? Isnt saving lives like this poor kid more the point than selfrighteous punishment (pardalisgirl/ciafardo)? Its easy to be smug and selfrighteous when its someone else!

The 'furthest extent of the law' never saved a single life! (in most cases/most crimes) Just cost the taxpayer money and clogged up an already congested court system.

you cant legislate against stupidity and penalties however harsh wont deter it, nor make stupid people smarter. People have always done exactly what they want to, and always will, its human nature. No law ever detered a criminal!~ Or an Idiot
Whats more no penalty short of death of life in prison ever put paid to a determined crim re-offending either.
Click to expand...
No laws won't work but permits and inspections will! i'll bet your for health care reform too!
 
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